Local News - Green Bank, Mullica students and teachers settle in

The new school year is about a month old, and Logan De Angelis, 12, Maryanne DiPasquale, 11, and Austin Stanwood, 12, are still adjusting to the new surroundings at Mullica Township Middle School.

Logan noticed that the science lab is bigger than the one at his former school, Green Bank Elementary School, where the......Continue Reading

 lab was combined with the art room. The seventh-grader said he looks forward to dissecting a frog.

Maryanne and Austin said they enjoy all the new after-school sports and cooking programs.

"I like everything, and the fact that you get to do things you couldn't do at home, play dodgeball and make homemade stuff like spaghetti, and pizza, and yogurt, too," said Maryanne, a sixth-grader. Austin, a seventh-grader, said he likes cross country running, cooking and art.

The students - all of whom live in Washington Township, Burlington County - are the newest arrivals at Mullica Middle School under a new shared services agreement passed in August. A total of 33 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students from Washington Township are being bused from 10 miles away for schooling in Mullica Township, bringing the population up to 315 students, Principal Matt Mazzoni said last week. No money was exchanged in the agreement.

Mazzoni said the transition has gone smoothly for students, along with the two Green Bank Elementary School teachers who have teamed up with the Mullica Middle School staff to teach social studies and science. A Washington Township school nurse and secretary also are working several hours in Mullica.

Mazzoni said the shared-services agreement has been helpful for the Washington Township students because they can attend a bigger school and get used to meeting students from other communities. Mullica Middle School also provides the Washington Township students the chance to enjoy the ACE after-school program and play intramural sports, such as boys and girls cross country, basketball and track, Mazzoni noted. All the middle schoolers ultimately will go to Cedar Creek High School in Egg Harbor City.

Austin said he liked making new friends and noted that classes at Green Bank Elementary School were much smaller - from seven students in his third-grade class to 13 students in his sixth-grade class.

Maryanne said she misses some of her friends in the lower grades, but she noted that she will see them next year. She also said being in a bigger school with more students is working well. "It's not hard at all," she said of making new friends. "It's really easy."

Beverly Cowperthwaite, a social studies teacher from Green Bank Elementary School, said she loves teaching in the new atmosphere because the building is "full of life."

"The kids are wonderful - there's more interaction of knowledge, and the children are able to bounce ideas off each other," she said. "Conversation is always a good thing for students to learn from each other."

Contact Michelle Lee:  609-272-7256  MLee@pressofac.com

Maryanne DiPasquale, 11, from Green Bank, likes the After School Program best, when asked what he liked best about the transition during a recent interview about the transition into the Mullica Middle School this year. Photo/Dave Griffin

Logan DeAngelis, 12, from Green Bank, likes the science labs when asked what he liked best about the transition during a recent interview about the transition into the Mullica Middle School this year. Photo/Dave Griffin

Former Green Bank teacher Beverly Cowperthwaite, from New Gretna, said the students and staff are wonderful at Mullica Middle School making the transition easier. Photo/Dave Griffin