Township council hears ‘The Sneetches'

Byram — Students from Byram Lakes Elementary School celebrated “Read Across America,” in conjunction with the New Jersey Education Association, at Monday’s Town Council meeting. The NJEA has been celebrating “Read Across America” for nine years on March 2, Dr. Theodore “Seuss” Geisel’s birthday. The meeting began as usual with a salute to the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance, but before the agenda began, the council, members of the community and families of students in the performance were treated to a retelling of Dr. Seuss’ “The Sneetches.” The students involved are in pre-K through second grade, in Special Education classes. “We did this last year as well, and it went well, so we wanted to do it again,” explained Lori Harrington, teacher of the pre-K class. Students who participated in the show were representatives from three different classes. From Joan Corey’s class: Sam Beck, Jesse Brailey, Chris Figiel, Kyle Gallotto, Sean Kelly, Brandon Mejorado, CJ Marone, Conner Reeves, William Szymanski, Kevin Utter and Nicky Zaccaria. From Lori Harrington’s class: Cory Balogh, Luke Boden, Ethan Lesser, John Lutz, Evan McGeough, and Michael Salaveria. And from Jennifer O’Connor’s class: Kris Kippcash and Chris Tyminski. The teachers were all wearing, “I teaches Sneeches,” or “Sneeches I teaches,” on the back of their T-shirts and the children had T-shirts on them that had Velcro patches - stars were put on and off the children’s shirt as they went through Sylvester McMonkey’s (played by Conner Reeves) McBean Machine. The story is a lesson in diversity, and the council even got into the spirit by wearing stars, and keeping them on through the regular meeting as well.