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District to Host Drug Awareness Workshop for Families in January

picture of assorted edibles and vapes
picture of edibles
picture of teachers crowded around a table

“This,” said Exeter Township Detective Sergeant Rocco DeCamillo as he pointed to a table filled with confiscated THC-laced gummies, brownies, cookies and treats, “was not manufactured to appeal to adults. It was manufactured to look like candy to appeal to kids.” 

As part of the district’s professional development sessions with educators and staff last month, Detective Sergeant DeCamillo spent his day walking teachers, administrators and staff through the ever-complex and constantly-changing landscape of what drugs police are seeing being sold and being used in Exeter Township by adults and minors alike. “Things have drastically changed in the last 20 years. When the majority of us were in high school, marijuana was natural and looked like pot. Now, there’s so much synthetic stuff out there that’s chemically-produced with no regulation or oversight–and much of it’s been disguised to look like candy.”

Superintendent Dr. Christy Haller and Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Dawn Harris organized the session with Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and the district’s Student Services Coordinator, Mrs. Alycia Lenart, to bring a greater awareness to teachers of what’s out there, what it looks like, and how to engage students and their families with help for substance abuse. The sessions proved to be so popular with educators that Detective Sergeant DeCamillo and Mrs. Lenart decided to offer a similar session to parents and families so that they, too, could learn what police are seeing in the local community, and how to receive support through the district when families are faced with substance abuse. The parent and family session will be held on Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 7PM in Exeter Township Senior High School’s Large Group Instruction (LGI) room. 

During his presentation to teachers, Detective Sergeant DeCamillo said navigating the “new normal” of drug use and drug accessibility is not easy. Oftentimes, he said as he pointed to all of the items on the table, local retailers don’t even know what’s legal to sell and what isn’t since laws vary from state to state. “Most of this stuff is perfectly legal in New Jersey,” he said. Mrs. Lenart added, “I think there’s also a perception that since it’s legal in certain states, it must be perfectly safe, and it’s really not,” she said, as she ticked off statistics that indicate that 90% of ER admittance for marijuana or THC overdoses are from edibles. “It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours for kids to feel the effect from an edible. Since most teens don’t have great patience, they think it’s not working, so they eat more, and more and more and then wind up in the hospital. That’s why it’s so important to bring awareness to this very scary issue.”

Twenty students receive recognition for being at the top of their class in math and science

student receive awards in library

This morning, 10 juniors and 10 sophomores were recognized by Principal Tom Campbell and Exeter Community Education Foundation (ECEF)'s President Angela Cooke for their outstanding math or science achievements. The awards are given thanks to Dr. Harlan & Mrs. Carole Kutscher, longtime Exeter residents and supporters who created a $25,000 endowment for students through the ECEF, which recognizes students with a certificate and monetary award to celebrate the achievements of those who earned the highest weighted final grade in their 9th and 10th grade science and math classes.

Our sincerest thanks to the Kutscher family for establishing this incredible endowment to recognize the academic achievements of our students, the ECEF for their hard work in coordinating the second year of these awards, and our warmest congratulations to the following students who were recognized today for their outstanding academic work in math and science. They are:

Sophomores:

  • Perla Alvarado-Rueda, Science
  • Griffin Beidler, Math and Science
  • Carson Frederick, Science
  • Ridleigh Moyer, Science
  • Alexis Nonnemacher, Math
  • Sabrina Panford, Math
  • Stafan Patriak, Math
  • Kayla Schafer, Math
  • Logan Wegman, Math and Science
  • Luke Zawilla, Math and Science

Juniors:

  • Sofia Beggs, Math
  • Thomas Curry, Math
  • Charlotte Dolena, Science
  • Sophia Jones, Science
  • Abby Kravetz, Math
  • Hansika Kunduru, Science
  • Kai Loose, Math
  • Abigail Smith, Math
  • Ava Strauss, Science
  • Rachel Tschudy, Science

Intern Spotlight: Taylor Hill and Anni B Monogramming

Internship Spotlight: Taylor Hill, a junior, plans to attend a four-year college for business following graduation and hoped to intern at a business where she could learn all the different aspects of running a small business, including marketing and finances. She was lucky to find a perfect match with Anni B Monogramming, a small business owned and operated by Antje Barrett Scantzos in Wyomissing.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about what you do at your internship?

A: I help with preparing the product for customers by adding finishing touches. I iron, fold, and package, as well as add price tags to products that she uses for shows. I also spend time creating spreadsheets and sign-ups for shows. I also have helped with taking pictures, creating captions, and posting on the Facebook and Instagram business platforms. In addition, I enter information into QuickBooks and help with making deposits. 

Q: Why did you select this business as your internship?

A:I selected my internship because the creative business had a good atmosphere and my mentor told me I would be doing different things every day. 

Q: Has this internship helped you decide your college/career goals?

A: My internship has shown me a lot about the communication it takes to work in a small business. I have learned about the importance of building relationships with each client in a business of personalization (embroidering). While I don't plan to have my own small business, the skills will make me a stronger future employee. 

Q: What have you liked most about your internship? What have you liked least?

A: I have liked entering the information into QuickBooks and using problem-solving to detect the issue if totals don't add up. I can't think of a task I haven't enjoyed in some way. 

Q: Has anything surprised you about your internship? 

A: I have been surprised about the variety of different customers she receives. My mentor receives orders from anything from sports teams, to doctors’ offices, to prison guards, to grandmothers and moms looking for cute gifts. 

Q: Anything else you'd like to share?

A: The skills I have been taught and learned through observation have helped me learn so much more about the time that gets put into a business.

We’re so grateful to Antje for agreeing to mentoring Exeter students and Taylor for sharing her great experience this semester! To learn more about hosting an Exeter intern or signing up for an internship in the 2023-24 school year, please reach out to Mr. Mark Ricketts at maricketts@nullexetersd.org. 

 

Reggie Dabbs Tells Junior High Students to Never Give Up

reggie dabbs performs at junior high
@etsdeagles The ETJH assembly today was part stand up, part concert and had many in tears by the end. https://tinyurl.com/2p8acpda #exetertownshipjuniorhigh ♬ original sound - Exeter Twnshp School District

In an assembly that started as part stand-up and part music concert and ended with many in the audience wiping their tears away, motivational speaker Reggie Dabbs today told students at Exeter Township Junior High School that they should never, ever give up. “At 13 years old, I couldn’t see who I am today,” he said. “I cried myself to sleep every night. I thought that nobody cared about me. I felt so unloved because even my own momma gave me up. She kept my brother and she kept my two sisters, but she said I was a mistake and gave me away.” 

Through an emotional retelling of his childhood, Reggie recounted how he found out that he was living with people who were not his biological parents at just 6 years old. “I went into kindergarten and all of the kids had their names on their desk with their first and last name. Mine just said ‘Reggie.’” It was then that he found out he was living with foster parents and that his biological mother had given him to the Dabbs. “I didn’t have a real last name until I was 13 years old when they adopted me.” 

But despite the outcome of his adoption and his healthy home environment, Reggie’s past continued to haunt him through his early adolescence. “I wasn’t ok,” he said. “I wanted to scream ‘why me?’...My story may be different than yours, but I guarantee you we are all going through something that makes it hard to sleep at night.” He said he finally realized he couldn’t change his past, but he could change his future. “I made a choice: I now choose to be hope. I choose to be kind. I choose to be love,” he said, asking those in attendance, “What will you choose?” before he asked everyone to point to their neighbor and say, “Don’t you give up!” and then point to him/herself and say, “I won’t give up!” and then point to their other neighbor and say “Let me love you” before he launched into a rendition of DJ Snake and Justin Beiber’s “Let Me Love You” on his soprano saxophone. 

Click our video to see a few highlights from today–including a special tribute and appreciation to teachers, who he says, are responsible for allowing him to become who he is. “My foster mom was a school teacher and my foster father was a school janitor, and they are my heroes," he said earlier in his presentation. "Boys like me become men like me because of people like (teachers)... I am the product of the public school system... Boys like me make it because of people like you.”

 

Jacksonwald Students Win Turkeys in Traditional Raffle

Thanksgiving traditions in Exeter include pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes… and elementary students winning and then hoisting frozen turkeys over their heads at Jacksonwald Elementary during the school’s annual turkey raffle.

Although the school tradition was largely unknown for the majority of this year's students and families due to the raffle being paused during the pandemic, excitement was palpable throughout the school on Friday afternoon as the raffle returned to everyone’s delight. Students chanted “Turkey! Turkey! Turkey!” as they wore handmade turkey hats and filed into Jacksonwald’s cafeteria to find out who among them would be a lucky winner of one of 20 donated frozen turkeys. Soon after they were all seated, Jacksonwald’s principal, Mr. Matt Hathaway, emerged from behind the stage’s curtain wearing a pair of turkey glasses and hat, eager to carry on a tradition and reward for good behavior that retired Lausch and Jacksonwald principal, Dr. Joe Schlaffer, started more than 15 years ago.  

“The time we saw the most misbehavior was right before the holidays,” said Dr. Schlaffer, who reminisced about the origins of the raffle last week, which he started originally at Lausch and brought over to Jacksonwald when the building closed. “The whole idea was that kids could go home with a turkey, and when they get home, their parents were going to say, ‘Where did you get a turkey?’” And they’d be able to tell their parents they got the turkey at school for good behavior. I thought it was a win-win-win situation for students, their parents and goodwill in the community,” he said.

In keeping with tradition, Mr. Hathaway approached local grocery stores, farms and butchers to secure the frozen turkeys as a donation–a feat he said was not easy this year thanks to a turkey shortage. Weis Markets in Oley found humor and heart in the weird-yet-wonderful tradition, however, and agreed to donate 20 turkeys to give away to one student in each classroom. In also keeping with Dr. Schlaffer’s tradition, Mr. Hathaway insisted that each winning student turn and face their school mates packed into Jacksonwald’s cafeteria and lift (with assistance) the frozen turkey over his or her head to the delight and cheers of their peers. 

Proud to carry on tradition, Mr. Hathaway said the raffle was such a part of the fabric at Jacksonwald that he said that some teachers became emotional when they heard the tradition was returning this year. “Some of our teachers cried,” he said. “It’s that much a part of who we are at Jacksonwald.”