Advance Robbinsville
OCTOBER 2022 FREE
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Seven seek election to three BOE seats BY BILL SANSERVINO
Jordyn Pepper scored 16 of the Robbinsville High School field hockey team’s 23 goals through its 6-0 start.
Pepper sparks RHS field hockey BY RICH FISHER
It was the summer of 2020 and Jennamarie Colicchia was jogging around the Robbinsville High School track. During her run, the Ravens field hockey coach couldn’t help notice a girl on the field all by herself, with a bag of balls and a stick firing shots on a net. “She was shooting, dribbling and shooting over and over,” Colicchia
recalled. “I was like ‘I wonder who that is?’ I didn’t say anything, I don’t want to overwhelm kids in the summer, but I had my eye on her when she came in because she was doing all that stuff. I was like ‘Hey, you were that girl out on the turf.’” “That girl” turned out to be Jordyn Pepper, who amassed 16 of the Ravens 23 goals through their 6-0 start this year. “I didn’t realize that was her,” said
Pepper, who was a rising freshman the day Colicchia saw her. “When she mentioned it, I just remember I was happy she was able to remember who I was from that, because I think that made a good impression by me.” It did indeed. One of the first things Colicchia noticed during her jog was Pepper’s reverse shot, which is akin to a backhand shot in ice hockey. When she saw Pepper See PEPPER, Page 13
Teacher recruitment and retention, salary negotiation, educational programming and school taxes are a few of the hot-button issues being discussed by candidates running for election to the Robbinsville Board of Education this year. There are seven candidates running for three open three-year seats on the board. Candidates include incumbents Christopher Emigholz, Kerri Fox and Lauren Paluzzi. The four other candidates running are Raghu Nandan, Peter Oehlberg, Jeffrey Pierro and Allison Prabhakar. The Advance asked each of the candidates to provide biographical information and a statement regarding the reasons they are running for the board. Their answers are presented in alphabetical order below. *** Christopher Emigholz, 45, has lived in Robbinsville with his wife, Bonnie, for over 11 years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University with a double-major in political science and history, and Master of Public Policy degree concentrating in education policy from Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He currently works as the chief government affairs officer for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. Previously, he held many positions within public policy
and education including: budget/ fiscal policy director in the State Senate; director of the Office of Legislative Affairs in the New Jersey Department of Education; director of education and workforce development policy for NJBIA, high school history teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, through Teach For America; community liaison/volunteer coordinator with Baltimore City Public Schools. Emigholz and his wife have three children who all attend Robbinsville Public Schools—one in our high school and two in Pond Road Middle School. All three went to Sharon from kindergarten through 4th grade. A member of the Robbinsville School Board since 2019, Emigholz is running under the slogan, “Students, Community, Balance.” He has been involved with Robbinsville youth sports for over a decade and coached his three children in softball, baseball, basketball, football and soccer. He served for several years on the Robbinsville Economic Development Advisory Committee before serving on the school board. Emigholz’s statement: Thank you to the Robbinsville Advance for providing this service to the residents of Robbinsville, and thank you to Robbinsville Advance readers for taking the time to better inform yourselves about our school board candidates. Voters and everyone in See PRESTON, Page 4
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