A golden anniversary

BY ANN GENADER
HEWITT — The 50th birthday of Upper Greenwood Lake School was celebrated on June 9 at an outdoor ceremony at the school. Student competitive games followed the formal program that included cutting of a 50th anniversary celebratory ribbon by Mayor Bettina Bieri.
Oh how it has grownWhen the Upper Greenwood Lake School was built in 1967, it had just 10 student homerooms. In the late 1960s, population throughout the Township of West Milford expanded so rapidly that students were going to school on part-time sessions with teachers and their students using classrooms for morning sessions and other teachers with a different group of students using those same classrooms in the afternoons.
The back wing of classrooms was being added to the school in hopes of it being open for students by Sept. 1973, but that did not happen.
Carolyn Ott, who was scheduled to teach at the school that year, remembered that the new addition was not completed in time for the opening day of the 1973-74 school year so classes were doubled up. She and fellow teacher Lillian Titmas shared a room with 52 second graders. By the arrival of the new year, the construction was done and they moved into their own classrooms.
MemoriesOtt and other retired staff members were seated in a special area at the ceremony and Dr. Gregory Matlosz, principal, shared memories Ott and others had given to him.
The school had two kindergartens and four sections of each grade level when the school addition opened. Two sections of the second grade occupied the music and art rooms with the divider open. A type of team-teaching took place.
Among the earlier teachers present was Connie Cornwell who taught first grade at the Upper Greenwood School before the addition was built. She was moved to Marshall Hill School. Millie Bieri was also remembered as the school secretary for many years when Robert Florian was principal.
Amazing experiences at UGLMusic teacher Rich Hegner worked at Upper Greenwood Lake School four different times starting in 1980.
“Disco was king at the time,” recalled Hegner. “Leaky roofs were also king. I remember giving up my classroom so a sixth grade could use the room because of leaks in their room.”
Hegner recalled “music on a cart” and bringing a record player or pushing a piano from room to room. He said band lessons were given on the stage behind the curtain during gym and lunch period.
“Despite it all – students and faculty always pulled together to make the best of any situation,” Hegner said. “That is what Upper Greenwood Lake School is all about. I always had amazing experiences with my students and the faculty of the time.”
A grandfather's legacyJoanna Reilly, who had her elementary school education at Marshall Hill School, recalled that her grandfather’s name is on the plaque at the school. He was a West Milford Board of Education member when the school was built.
“He died shortly after,” shared Reilly. “I’ll bet he never thought his great-grandkids (Jack and Julia) would be attending the school he built.”
West Milford Library Board of Directors President Joan Oberer was a first grade teacher at Upper Greenwood Lake School. She was the first Passaic County Teacher of the Year in 1984, bringing county-wide recognition to the township and UGL school. Her students won the elementary school trophy in the 1984 history fair celebrating the 150th anniversary of the official charter date for the incorporation of West Milford.
Michele Hammell recalled that the late principal Albert Pecci would occasionally cook lunch – sometimes a venison stew or a beefsteak.
“UGL school was always ahead of the district in technology,” said Hammell. “A more recent story would be when my class and Sue Morris’s class did a virtual field trip to the rain forest and we were able to FaceTime the scientists there. We were all set up in the library. A former West Milford student was over there at that time and our students were so excited to speak with a West Milfordite in the rain forest!.”