Dedication of Joseph N. Coviello Field

On Friday, Sept. 12, the West New York Board of Education along with the Honorable Mayor Silverio A. Vega and the West New York Board of Commissioners hosted the dedication ceremony of Memorial High School’s Joseph N. Coviello Field. The ceremony took place at Joseph N. Coviello Field, located Broadway between 57th and 55th streets, at 6:30 p.m.

Speaking on behalf of her late father, Mary Lou Coviello thanked the West New York municipal and educational leaders for the impressive honor given to her father, who served as an educator, coach and mentor in the West New York School District for many years.

“My father was a man – a coach, a teacher, a leader – who valued his good name, but I doubt that he would have ever anticipated that his name would be emblemized on a stadium and athletic complex that will host the triumphs of future generations of student athletes,” said Coviello. “This edifice stands as a tribute to his commitments, his contributions, and this community’s shared accomplishments.” 

Following the ceremony was the first football game of the season between the Memorial High School Tigers and the St. Joseph High School Blue Jays. Tigers won the game 58 – 18.

Welcome back students to the 2008-2009 School Year

The school bell has rung and West New York is happy to welcome back its students for the new 2008-2009 school year.

It’s going to be an exciting year of changes as the district incorporates new programs into the curriculum mix, such as the highly anticipated Project Triple Threat, the new theater arts program, which will be a model for our future small learning communities.

In addition, Memorial High School students have also followed the example of our elementary schools and Middle School by wearing uniforms this year. This year,  students will be walking down the hallways wearing their Tiger Pride on their shirts.

School No. 5 will be incorporating its new healthy fruits and vegetables program thanks to a state grant, which will fund nutritious meals and promote healthy eating habits for the students of No. 5 School. 

Congratulations Public School # 4

Public School # 4 has been recognized as one of America’s Healthiest Schools: State by State as published by Healthy Living magazine at Health.com.  All schools’ scores were measured against tough criteria and a panel of experts.  To view the complete list, follow this link.

Former President Bill Clinton honors WNY Schools at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Healthy Schools Forum

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"I saw a lot of the forgotten, vulnerable populations - the senior citizens who are in a throwaway society, the single moms who fell between the cracks of our bureaucratic institutions, the immigrants," says Colacurcio, who used Saint Francis as her guide as she helped build the mission.  "Those are the people we felt humbled to help the best we could."

Colacurcio, with help from a group of nuns, was the backbone of the operation as the community center went up.  Now, she serves as volunteer executive director.  But she shuns the spotlight, instead crediting the volunteers and corporations who came together to build the mission.  "It's really not me at all," she says.  "It's the people who came here and had faith and believed in what we were doing."

Gina Plotino, president of GMP Consulting, a development, fundraising, and training firm that helped the community center with the start-up logistics, says that humbleness is in Colacurcio's nature.  "With a quiet strength, Sue has taken a significant community issue and, without attention, has engineered a solution to a problem that has defied reasonable response for some time.  She is changing lives."

As published in the September 2008 issue of New Jersey Monthly magazine.