Red Bank Honors its Teachers of the Year

At its council meeting Wednesday night, Red Bank honored four teachers from four schools who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to educate the borough’s children.

Red Bank Primary School’s Maria Zuffanti, Red Bank Middle School’s Chris Ippolito, Red Bank Charter School’s Colleen Shandry and Red Bank Regional High School’s Roxanne Judice were each honored as Teacher of the Year for their respective schools.

Mayor Pat Menna presented Ippolito, Shandry, and Judice with framed certificates and kind words for their accomplishments. Zuffanti was unable to attend the night’s ceremony.

Ippolito, who teaches a Project Lead the Way course at the middle school, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the school and its students with a number of high-profile videos that have won awards and received widespread recognition throughout the state.

It’s an honor to be recognized by his colleagues and to be considered one of the district’s top teachers, but the children – the reason why he does this work – are what really matter.

“I enjoy the challenge,” he said. “I love the students. I love the diversity. It allows us to see and approach problems from a lot of different perspectives and gives us a chance to celebrate our differences.”

Judice had the difficult task of taking over one of her school’s more difficult advanced placement subjects, human geography. It’s been a challenge, she said, especially delivering a difficult subject matter to sophomores, but the award she received Wednesday is acknowledgment of her successful efforts.

Shandry, a fifth-year teacher, has been teaching at the charter school since she graduated from Seton Hall. The school’s goal of educating the whole child, which includes developing extracurricular activities and promoting social responsibility, is something that she’s tried to build on with every first grade class that comes through the school’s halls.

By bringing Pennies for Peace to the charter school, Shandry has helped raise awareness in her students for children desperately seeking an education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But, though she’s the one holding the certificate of honor, Shandry isn’t taking credit for the charter school’s social conscience. That she’s more than willing to share with the entire school.

“I feel like I share this with all my colleagues,” she said. “I feel like I’m excepting this on their behalf.”