One of the highlights of the annual Back To School Night on Thursday, Oct. 8, at Watchung Hills Regional High School were the displays sponsored by extra-curricular activity groups, class and student-wide government representatives, and sports teams.
Representatives, including students and parent booster groups, from as many as 14 such student groups greeted parents, faculty and administrators with smiles and welcoming remarks, as well as fundraising Watchung Hills paraphernalia and apparel, displays and information.
Among the groups included were representatives from all four years, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, the Script & Cue student theater group, the Choir and the Environmental Club, and the Softball, Field Hockey, Girls Lacrosse, Frisbee and Robotics teams. Representatives from the All School Council (ASC) staffed the School Store, which is open at various times throughout the school week in the South Cafeteria.
In addition, the Watchung Hills Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) had an informational display in the center atrium, adjacent to the main office. Student volunteers at that display also offered starter kits with four LED long lasting light bulbs as a fundraiser to support PTO programs.
PTO parent volunteers distributed maps. Members of the Student Peer Leaders group staffed key major corridor intersections in the sprawling Watchung Hills building complex throughout the night. The Peer Leaders answered direction questions posed by the hundreds of parents attending Back To School Night.
One of the key activities for parents that night is for parents to use their child’s actual class schedule to meet their various teachers, and to get a taste of what it is like to be a student at Watchung Hills. Just like their children, the parents for some 2,000 students navigated corridors filled with their fellow parents, walking swiftly, from one classroom to the next, sometimes right next door, but sometimes also in an entirely different corner of the sprawling, in places two-story school building.
(above l-r): senior Rachel Tigol of Green Brook Township, senior Jessie Sun of Warren Township, and senior Manav Anand of Warren Township, all members of the Watchung Hills Warrior Frisbee Team, greets visitors on behalf of their team at Back To School Night. The team offered Watchung Hills Frisbees.
(above, l-r) Parents Patrick Jones of Millington and Jennifer Reedman of Green Brook Township, freshman Lili Jones of Millington and parent Bruce Meringolo of Stirling.
(above, l-r) Robotics Team members, junior David Schlingloff of Warren Township, senior Matt Battipaglia of Green Brook Township, senior Claire Barrameda of Watchung, and senior Nathan Schwartz of Watchung.
