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ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — As schools across the nation regain their cadence with the return to in-person learning and the reduction in mandates, the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation celebrates its 2022 list of Best Communities for Music Education. Now in its 23rd year, the 2022 program has recognized 738 school districts across 44 states for the outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders, and their support for music education as part of a well-rounded education for all children.

The following school districts were named 2022 Best Communities for Music Education: Bloomfield, Livingston, Newark, South Orange–Maplewood and North Caldwell. 

“Music educators, administrators and communities truly rallied to support and sustain music education through a period of intense change and adaptation. These districts and schools persevered in serving their students and communities, and assured that music education was part of curriculum offerings,” NAMM Executive Director Mary Luehrsen said. “We applaud the commitment and efforts of all music educators, school administrators and community members in providing students the opportunity to explore their creativity through music.”

This year’s awards program was designed to celebrate schools and districts adapting, innovating and persevering in the face of change. Researchers at the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas, in conjunction with the NAMM Foundation, created a new way for districts and schools to address the inroads and setbacks impacted by the pandemic, as well as goals for equity and access to music education for all students and national standards for music education in a short, qualitative survey.

“The 2022 Best Communities for Music Education is an opportunity to celebrate music programs and honors the resilience and dedication to keeping music as part of a well-rounded education as we all adapt to a new educational landscape,” said Christopher Johnson of the Music Research Institute. “If there was one common theme to be taken from all submissions, it’s that schools and districts found ways to sustain music education and student engagement in even the most challenging of circumstances.”

  Bloomfield School District, Newark Public Schools, SOMSD

Police in Little Egg Harbor Township want to have a word with a man who was seen streaking through a neighborhood in the Cross Creek Development earlier this week.

The details involving this case are minimal with many questions swirling over why this man was round around naked across town.

Nevertheless, Little Egg Harbor Police are trying to identify the man and have asked for your help in accomplishing this task.

Police are asking for those who live in Cross Creek specifically near Forsgate Drive to check your surveillance feeds between 10:00 pm on Wednesday night and 1:00 am on Thursday morning.

If you do indeed have video footage, or just have any kind of information that can help police identify the man, you’re being asked to contact Little Egg Harbor Township Police Detective Matt Cook, 609-296-3666 extension 602, or email him at MCook@lehpolice.org.

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An Egg Harbor Township man is lucky to be alive and come away from an accident unscathed distracted driving led to him crashing into a utility pole.

This type of accident is far from a new problem on roads across New Jersey.

In fact, according to the most recent statistics available from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, there were nearly 800,000 crashes in the state involving a distracted driver between 2012 and 2016 involving a number of variables.

Among the distractions that law enforcement is concerned with the most is texting and driving, using a hand held cell phone and driving, changing the music in your vehicle, brushing your hair/grooming, eating and drinking while driving, and others.

Those were not surprisingly among the findings of a study done by Rowan University students under the direction of a professor there and together they put together a study after driving all over the state to see what distracted people while driving.

The idea is to decrease distracted driving and make roads safer for everyone.

In Egg Harbor on Wednesday, police said that they responded to a crash around 5:!2 pm on Fire Road near Delilah Road in the Farmington section of the township.

Through their investigation, police learned that 40-year old Donald Defeo was driving southbound on Fire Road when he suddenly lost control of the wheel, veered off road, and struck a utility pole which knocked out power to the nearby traffic signal.

Defeo was not hurt in the crash but Egg Harbor Police served him with a number of summonses for careless driving, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane and using his cell phone while operating a motor vehicle.

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A proposal is moving forward to spend millions of tax dollars translating government information into the 15 most common non-English languages spoken in the Garden State.

The legislation, S2459, sponsored by state Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, would require New Jersey to provide vital documents and translation services in the following languages:

• Arabic
• Gujarati
• Polish
• Urdu
• Cajun French
• Russian
• Haitian
• Tagalog
• Vietnamese
• Portuguese
• Italian
• Hindi
• Mandarin
• Cantonese
• Spanish

Helping immigrants

Amy Torres, the executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said many people who rely on state programs may struggle with English, and mandating this kind of language access would mean “there’s a uniform experience and a uniform expectation that when I speak with the state, I’m heard. I’m able to access those programs with confidence.”

Laura Bustamante, the policy and campaign manager for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, noted the diversity of the state.

“The number of immigrants in our communities continues to grow, and with that comes this beautiful diversity, and we should fight to be more fair and welcoming,” she said.

Should we spend millions on this?

State Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cumberland, said he believes the legislation is well-intentioned but he’s concerned this kind of effort will be expensive, and the federal dollars that would be used for this will not continue to be allocated.

He also wondered whether this would be the best use of American Rescue Plan funding that has been allocated to New Jersey.

He said more than two years after the pandemic started, “our state has a lot of things that are broken and are in severe need of fixing, the Motor Vehicle Commission, the unemployment insurance fund, infrastructure for unemployment, all of these things need massive upgrades.”

What about helping small businesses?

Testa also said we lost a third of our small businesses during the pandemic, “and my understanding is one-third of the businesses that are left are struggling to keep their doors open.

Testa pointed out many schools have suffered massive budget cuts, and he said we should be assisting those especially smaller school districts.

He said another area of great concern is to make sure all parts of the state have enough internet access so that if the COVID pandemic spikes again and schools have to go remote, that all students will have access to virtual learning platforms.

Speaking the language of everyday people

Torres said there are some language requirements in place covering some programs and documents in certain agencies, but there is no uniformity.

She said many official state documents may be difficult for people born and raised in New Jersey to completely understand, and for those born in other countries “it takes years of rigorous study to gain the proficiency that’s needed to navigate those documents in confidence and be able to ask questions about them.”

She added having this kind of broad translation would help to keep immigrant communities better informed, especially in times of emergency.

“This makes sure that the state is speaking the language of everyday people, and that as soon a program is signed into law that it has immediate effect in the communities that it was designed for.”

Torres noted U.S. Treasury Department guidance on how funding should be used specifically says the money from the American Rescue Plan should be used to fight the disparities that made the pandemic so acute for some communities over others, so it’s absolutely appropriate to use this funding for language accessibility.

Testa pointed out the measure calls for state government information in New Jersey to be translated into more languages than any other state in the nation.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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The Garden State Philharmonic (GSP) is set to continue their 2021-22 live concert series this May with their Peter and the Wolf and Music from Around the World concert. This performance is part of the Garden State Philharmonic’s Symphonic Encounters series for the organization’s 65th season.