State Wrap: U.S. Education Secretary Speaks at Princeton, Monmouth Hires New Basketball Coach

The U.S. public education system has miles to go, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Wednesday.

“Much of what we have to do is work together in ways we haven’t historically done and move outside our comfort zone,” Duncan said.

One million students, 25 percent, drop out of school each year, a number that rises to near 50 percent for African Americans and Hispanic students, Duncan noted.

“We as educators need to look in the mirror and say, ‘we need to do much better,’” he said.

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Standing alongside Tea Party activists and state and local officials, U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon County) during a tax day press conference Monday morning.

Lance, speaking in front of the Westfield Post Office, used the filing day for federal and state income taxes to outline plans to reduce a reliance on foreign debt, along with calling for tax decreases. The second term Republican said President Obama’s budget proposal does not go far enough in cutting taxes and changing the nation’s fiscal culture.

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On Wednesday, Jennifer Palmateer was named the , replacing Stephanie Gaitley, who requested to be released early from her contract on April 1.

"I believe that championships are right around the corner," Palmateer told a crowd of coaches, players and members of the community during a press conference on Thursday.

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Ocean County’s freeholders for 2011 Wednesday afternoon, by nine-tenths of a penny to support it.

The budget is up $4.7 million from a year ago, although Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said $1 million of the hike is spending for which the county government will be reimbursed.

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Undocumented students to attend the County College of Morris, following a vote Wednesday by the Board of Trustees.

The college board's 7-to-2 vote reverses one taken in February that would have allowed undocumented students to attend the two-year college while paying the in-county tuition rate, college President Edward J. Yaw said Thursday. Yaw said the February vote also allowed for the first time undocumented students to attend the county college. The change means that undocumented students who seek to attend CCM will pay the out-of-state tuition rate, the school’s highest rate.

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In its third year, the Preserve Greystone group—whose goal is to find a way to make the best use of existing Greystone buildings and grounds which are in the hands of both the state and Morris County— at the Morris Plains Community Center on Thursday night. Mary Reilly, a guest speaker from the Morristown EcoCenter, presented concepts and ideas to save and reuse the enormous Kirkbride building. Adapting the use of the building is a step Preserve Greystone members admit is many years down the road.

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With concerns that the book is teaching children about unhealthy sexual relationships, several residents recently ,” a novel by Jean Craighead George that is used as part of the sixth grade language arts curriculum.

Resident Jodi Hopfinger read a passage from the book at a Board of Education meeting that entails the main character being attacked in what could be interpreted as an attempted rape.

“The district should not be deciding when a child should be reading about this,” she said. “Why should we introduce violent unhealthy sex to young children?”

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A fourth-grader in Belleville’s School No. 7 , officials announced this week.

Armando Alvarado of Belleville shared the top prize—four tickets each to a future Yankee game—in the “Fun Things To Do Instead of Drugs” contest with a student from Jackson. The contest required the students to come up with original slogans and corresponding artwork and creating substance abuse prevention messages.
More than 7,000 fourth-grade students statewide participated.

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Three Montville police officers recently .

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Olympian and former U.S. Skating gold medalist Nicole Bobek recently at the in Morris Township. She performed at a major live skating event for the first time in six years, after a downward spiral that included drug addiction and a conviction on conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.