Most Innovative Elementary School Programs in Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange

The public schools in Millburn really have to compete to maintain enrollment in a way that other places never dreamed of. Millburn encompasses Short Hills, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the entire country, and its well-heeled citizens can afford to send their kids to private school. Fortunately, Millburn public schools can compete with any of the best schools in the country, public or private. (They also sent out three major movie stars into the world, the brother-sister team of Andrew and Elizabeth Shue, plus Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway, but I digress.)

One of the ways Millburn stays ahead of the curve is with innovative programs like Deerfield Elementary's computer lab. Any public school worth its salt has a computer lab, but Deerfield's has gone the extra mile with its purchase of a Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard that works with a touch screen similar to the interface of an iPhone. According to Deerfield Elementary computer teacher Joan Gundy, "students are having so much fun they hardly know how much they are learning."

It takes a lot to impress today's kids, who start off on technology virtually as soon as they're weaned from the bottle. Kids in a district like Millburn may well have their own cell phone, mp3 player and even laptop by the time they get out of kindergarten, but it's still important to teach them the educational and career applications of computers, as well as to make sure they learn responsible use of technology.

The investment in technology appears to be paying off, as one of Grundy's students, Hanna Goldstein, a fourth-grader at Deerfield, was a finalist in a nationwide competition sponsored by Google. Hanna and 16,000 other elementary school students submitted doodles designed to grace Google's home page, and she was among 40 finalists who flew to Google headquarters in California on May 21 to learn who the final winner was.

Hanna's contest entry is a testament to her personal artistic talent, but also to the great programs at Deerfield. Everyone in the school worked together on this project, from library staff who researched the history of Google so that Deerfield's entries would have meaning behind them, to the art teacher, who worked on the project in class.

Deerfield's students ultimately chose their top six entries and submitted them to Google. While Grace Moon of California was the ultimate winner, Millburn and Deerfield are justifiably proud of Hanna's showing in the contest. As Deerfield instructional supervisor Scott Wolfe told the Newark Star-Ledger, "It was a great opportunity to show off our kids."

It also was a great opportunity to show off the innovative programs at Deerfield. By investing in technology and acknowledging art as an important part of education when so many public schools have made cutbacks in this area in favor of drilling for standardized tests, Deerfield Elementary School is the perfect example of why the Millburn School District is on a par with the top-rated schools in the country, public or private.

Sources: Joan Gundy, http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/millburn_fourth_grader_finalis.html