Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School

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Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School

School type	Public
Principal	Robert Williams
Faculty	110
Students	1,366 (2006-07)
Grades	7 and 8
Location	155 Millhurst Road Manalapan, NJ 07726
Information	(732) 446-8108
Website	http://www.mers.k12.nj.us/mems/

Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School (MEMS) is an American seventh and eighth grade public middle school in Manalapan Township, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District^[1].

1 Overview
2 How MEMS Operates
3 Awards
4 News
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

The area of MEMS is over 275,000 ft². Since there are about 1,400 students, MEMS sorts its many students into ten "communities" that are named after Greek letters. This school also runs through an A-F schedule. See How MEMS Operates below.

MEMS currently has two stories and recently had a new wing built, which includes several new rooms, air-conditioning throughout the school, a redesigned courtyard, and a new gym. Facilities include locker rooms, more than one soccer field, a track, several computer labs, and a cafeteria. MEMS is noted for its electronic equipment, including smart boards, three to five computers in every room, 20-30 computers in each computer lab, and an electronic account for every lunch-purchasing student.

Clubs, teams, and committees include a student council, a newspaper called the Paw Print Press, a soccer team, a basketball team, a yearbook committee, a cheerleading squad, a football team, a tennis team, a track team, a softball team, a baseball team, a wrestling team, a field hockey team, a math club, a Battle of the Books team, etc. There are also programs such as Teen Talk, in which students meet in groups with a guidance counselor to discuss their problems, and a stamp club, in which students meet with the elderly, who share their collection of stamps and sometimes photographs with them.

This school is noted for its Academically Talented and With Distinction programs for each subject, which are special projects for those students who wish to challenge themselves. To participate in a WD project, the student's grades in that subject must be B+ or higher, and in AT projects, the student's grades in that subject must be A- or higher. AT/WD projects are usually submitted in competitions such as the New Jersey Social Studies Fair. MEMS is also noted for its above average scores in the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) in the math department.

[edit] How MEMS Operates

The communities in MEMS are named after Greek letters. There are "community days" once in a while, in which students in each community enjoy a group activity during which they bond and get to know one another. The 7th grade communities are Delta, Gamma, Beta, Alpha, and Zeta. The 8th grade communities are Sigma, Omega, Theta, Kappa, and Lambda. Each community has a sister community with the same schedule; for example, Zeta and Omega are sister communities and have identical time schedules. The exception to this are the sisters Delta and Sigma; Delta has extended periods on B, D, and E days, while Sigma has double periods on these das.

Schedules usually include sixty to seventy minute classes (homeroom is not a separate period) and seven periods, with a different double period for a different core subject each day. The only communities that do not have to follow this rule are Delta and Sigma (sister communities), which have extended periods for all the core subjects instead of one double period for one core subject. MEMS uses an A-F day system; on days ACE, the eighth grade communities have a double period while seventh graders have physical education or health class, and it is vice versa on BDF days. Students are sorted into three levels of classes (Levels 1, 2, and 3, 1 being the highest).

2006 Test scores show that 93% of 7th graders at MEMS are at or above the level for Language Arts Literacy, as compared to 80%, which is the New Jersey state average. 84% of 7th graders are at or above the level for Math in 2006, as compared to the 64% state average. MEMS is noted for two of its Cycle classes (Cycle classes are similar to electives), which specialize in preparing students for the GEPA standardized testing in 8th grade.

8th grade 2006 scores include 89% in science (state average 79%), 91% in language (state average 74%), and 83% in math (state average 65%).

[edit] Awards

The MEMS yearbook has been the top 10 list of USA yearbooks for the past eight years.

Two to six students have placed in the New Jersey Science Fair for the past ten years.

[edit] News

On March 1, 2007, all students and faculty were excavated from the building at approximately 12:30PM. The principal, Mr. Robert Williams, stated over the school loudspeaker that it was a drill and did not allow students to contact their parents. Students and teachers were sent out in pairs of sister communities and boarded buses; the buses drove them to the nearby Wemrock Brook Elementary School. However, it wasn't a drill. A note stating that the school would be bombed at 1:00 PM on March 1 was found in a stairwell. Canine units were sent in to sniff for explosives; firemen and policemen investigated MEMS. It turned out to be a false alarm; the fourteen-year-old student who wrote the note was caught and arrested at 8:00 PM on March 2nd and sent to Monmouth County Youth Detention Center.^[2] On March 2, Mr. Williams and the vice principal encouraged students to give up any information they had about the bomb threat.