Del Dal Pra at Count Basie Park, where the stadium football field was prepped for installation of a new surface last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Early on in his new job as Red Bank parks and recreation director, Louis ‘Del’ Dal Pra suspected he’d have to make changes that would tick some people off.
Two encounters this spring convinced him he had no choice.
Louis ‘Del’ DalPra at Red Bank Regional in 2009. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Former Red Bank Regional High athletic director and coach Louis ‘Del’ DalPra was named director of the borough’s parks and recreation department Wednesday night.
Amid rising COVID-19 counts, Red Bank Regional High will remain on remote instruction for at least two more days, school officials announced Monday.
“We learned today that a number of individuals at RBR have tested positive for COVID-19,” Superintendent Lou Moore wrote on the district website in late afternoon.
COVID-19 kept Red Bank Regional High closed for at least another day Monday.
The Little Silver school, which had been scheduled to reopen for in-person activity after a nearly two-week interval, instead remained in all-remote mode, per an announcement by the school Sunday night.
Superintendent Lou Moore in March, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High will be off-limits to students and staff through next week over concerns about COVID-19, Superintendent Lou Moore announced Wednesday afternoon.
While there continues to be “no evidence of community transmission” of the virus on the Little Silver school’s campus, a defacto closure now in effect is being extended one week “to minimize the risk of possible spread,” Moore wrote on the school’s website.
Practices and conditioning for all sports were halted by a recent “exposure” to COVID-19. (2018 photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
[Post updated 11:15 a.m.]
By JOHN T. WARD
A week after scrapping its in-person graduation, Red Bank Regional High has cancelled sports activities due to an “exposure” to COVID-19, redbankgreen has learned.
Louis ‘Del’ DalPra on the sidelines in 2010. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional’s man of many caps, Louis ‘Del’ Dal Pra, is retiring.
This time, unlike his last attempt to leave a decade ago, it’s for real, he said.
After a shutdown over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, tennis play is returning to one tennis court on Rumson Road in Little Silver, and another in town. But there are rules…
Contractors installing a new roof at RBR last week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High has rescheduled a planned live, in-person budget hearing previously slated for Wednesday night.
In a note posted on the district website late Wednesday morning, Superintendent Lou Moore said the meeting would be rescheduled for May 6, and will be held electronically “to respect everyone’s right to participate.”
Members of the public arriving for an RBR budget hearing in March, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High, the first school in New Jersey to shut down over concerns about COVID-19, plans to hold a live, in-person board of ed meeting Wednesday night.
The session at the Little Silver school appears to conflict with Governor Phil Murphy’s “stay-home” order issued last month.
Fair Haven Board of Ed members sat well-spaced at a meeting carried live on YouTube last week. (YouTube screen grab. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven’s board of ed held its first-ever virtual meeting last Wednesday.
With five members seated well apart from one another in the Knollwood School gym to minimize the possible transmission of the COVID-19 virus, the board had a quorum. Four other members participated via the Zoom conferencing app. And the public, barred from appearing in person, chimed in via the chat function on YouTube, where the meeting was live-streamed.
Among the most frequent comments: “we can’t hear you.”
Red Bank schools plan to roll out a “home learning” program in lieu of classroom time. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Ending short-lived holdouts, Red Bank’s district and charter schools will be closed Monday as they join the widespread shift to online instruction prompted by the global COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Red Bank’s schools provide multiple services to their families and “cannot be compared to neighboring towns,” said Superintendent Jared Rumage. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
While Little Silver and Shrewsbury schools quickly abandoned a joint local plan to remain open in the face of the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Red Bank’s will be open Friday, said Superintendent Jared Rumage.
But the pre-kindergarten-thru-8th-grade district intends to send students home early while administrators await “an official directive” on attendance from Trenton, he said.
By JOHN T. WARD
Reportedly prompted by “parent response,” Little Silver closed its two schools Thursday, just a day after announcing it would remain open along with those in the other sending districts for Red Bank Regional High.
Red Bank and other RBR sending districts have opted to remain open, even as the high school is in shutdown. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank Regional High student has a presumed positive case of the COVID-19 coronavirus, becoming the second person on the Greater Red Bank Green directly impacted by the global pandemic.
Still, the pre-kindergarten-to-8th-grade sending districts of Little Silver, Shrewsbury and Red Bank will remain open, even as the high school is on indefinite shutdown, district officials said in a joint statement Wednesday evening.
No reopening date has been set for the RBR campus in Little Silver, where some windows are boarded up for a construction project. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High’s shutdown in the face of concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus will continue “until further notice,” Superintendent Lou Moore announced Wednesday.
“The more you do the better,” Superintendent Lou Moore said. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)
[This post has been updated with additional information from the superintendent.]
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional High will remain closed for a second day Wednesday as it continues an “deep cleaning” to address concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus, Superintendent Lou Moore said Tuesday.
Hot chocolate made with an assist from the sun? The concession stand at Count Basie Fields in Red Bank is set to get a juice boost, thanks to the borough Environmental Commission.
Workers removed the track at Count Basie Fields last week to prepare for the installation of a new surface. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Catholic High School will increase its contribution for upgrades at Count Basie Fields under a new cost-sharing arrangement approved by the Red Bank council last month.
Payments by the school, which uses the facility as its home football stadium, will help fund replacement of the cushiony running track, a project that got underway last week.
Heavy turnout forced the relocation of the RBR board meeting to the media center, above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Regional students and parents packed a board of ed meeting Wednesday night in a bid to save the ice hockey and golf programs from a budgetary axe.
With a preliminary spending plan calling for a 6.5-percent tax increase, board members defended the cuts as necessary before parents appeared to coalesce around a plan to save the sports through outside fundraisers.
Superintendent Lou Moore at Wednesday’s RBR board meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The union representing teachers at Red Bank Regional accused Superintendent Lou Moore Wednesday night of running the three-town high school district with an “authoritarian” approach and a “general lack of integrity.”
The bombshell accusations were made at a board of ed meeting hours after the Red Bank Regional Education Association’s members “overwhelmingly” cast a no-confidence vote against Moore, said math teacher Sunny Lenhard.
Red Bank Regional cheerleaders, led by Coach Kristy Finck, at left, drop for pushups after the Bucs’ second touchdown Friday night. (Video by John T. Ward.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After a one-week interruption, Red Bank Regional’s cheerleaders were back to doing pushups in support of the football team Friday night.
Red Bank Regional cheerleaders in an undate photo on the school website. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In the wake of a complaint, Red Bank Regional High has temporarily halted cheerleader pushups after every score by the football team, redbankgreen has learned.
Taniaya Morris scoring this season for the Lady Rockets. (Photo by Mark Costa. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Coming off what Superintendent Jared Rumage called “the most successful year ever in the history of Red Bank Middle School sports,” district officials have also harvested some gold about the relationship of athletics and academics, they said recently.
The inaugural class was honored at halftime on the RBR football field during the Buccaneer vs. Casey game on October 27. Below, Lonnie Allgood, with Del Dal Pra and Eric McCoo, signs a helmet.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High
For years, the Red Bank Regional School district through its educational, and then BUC Backers Foundation has inducted alumni into its Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. This year, however, a separate and distinct Hall of Fame was established exclusive to its Athletes.