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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hey, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

This is part of our series called Urban Education that Works.

We're honored to be joined by Danielle West-Augustin, who is CEO of Queen City Academy Charter School.

Danielle, good to see you.

- Good to see you as well, Steve.

- You got it.

Tell us, everyone, tell everyone what the website, excuse me, the charter school is, while the website is up.

- Our school is Queen City Academy Charter School, and we're located in Plainfield, New Jersey.

We serve grades K through 12, and our website is QueenCity.edu.

- Love it.

You know what?

We'll talk about a whole bunch of educational things, but we just did a program on social media.

You have a no cell phone policy - Correct, we do.

- How does that work?

How does that work?

- We've had it before the governor instituted the legislation around it.

It really has been working well for us.

Initially there was some pushback from a handful of parents, but not many.

And I think more and more people now understand the value of having no cell phones so that kids are able to focus, especially at our high school level classes.

- So it's interesting.

We're talking about urban education that works.

It really comes down to what initiatives, policies, practices work.

What is the Saturday Academy at your charter school and why does it matter?

- Saturday Academy has been part of our program for over seven years at this juncture.

It matters because it's extra seat time, but it's not just extra seat time as what happens during a normal day.

It's extra seat time with enrichment from everything from chess to robotics.

And it allows our students the opportunity to engage with their teachers in a environment that is just content-focused while also leveraging robotics and chess and many other non-traditional opportunities for students to engage that are not part of the regular academic program.

- How serious is the literacy slash reading gap, and what are you doing specifically at the school to close it?

- So ELA for us has always been paramount.

- What's ELA?

A lot of acronyms.

- English language arts.

- Go ahead.

- So, ELA for us has always been paramount because we really believe that ELA is the foundational skill that allows a student to be successful in every other content area.

We are really firm believers in the science of reading.

So our students in grades K through two, they have explicit instruction in phonemic awareness.

And in grades three through 12, our students are engaged with just reading for the love of reading.

So we have a novel-based approach reading program for our students in grades three through 12, which allows students to really not just read a text, but also to interrogate that text and make it come to life and make it relevant and culturally responsive for who they are as an individual so that they draw parallels to their own lives as well as the stories that they read.

You know, the best reading happens when you get lost in a book and you feel that you truly... - That's right.

- are a part of that book that you're reading.

And so that's what we look to do in our curriculum is to make sure that students get engaged with reading in a manner that they get lost in the book and they can draw those parallels and make connections for themselves.

- Danielle, what drew you to education?

- I'm a first-generation college student.

I had really hardworking parents, but they had not attended college.

And I know what college did for me and the opportunities that it gave me and changed the trajectory of my life.

And so for that, I've always been a giver, I think, by nature and had a heart for people.

And I wanted to make sure that young people had an opportunity to change not just the trajectory of their lives, but for generations to come behind them.

And so the love of people and the love of making sure that people and the students that are educated, that they're able to be successful is really what drew me towards education.

And it's a great combination of community as well as the academic component of education, but education really also centers very deeply in community.

And I'm a strong believer that community is powerful.

It's powerful in every sense of the way that we could think of.

And so for that, I have just loved being in a school building, being a part of a school community, and that's what education is for me.

- Last question.

You told our team that the greatest lesson you've learned as an educator is the importance of truly seeing people.

Translate that.

- You know, a young educator... As a younger educator, I walked into a room to observe a teacher, and I was looking at the lesson.

I think wisdom and time teaches us many different things.

And so now when I walk into a space, I'm not just seeing the lesson, but I'm seeing the whole person and the teacher.

And more importantly, when I'm looking and I'm dealing with our scholars and I'm dealing with a family, I have to see not just what's on paper in front of me, but I have to see the person that's sitting there with me, and I have to understand what motivates, what drives, what difficulties they may be having.

And that requires me to center my thoughts differently so that I can truly see the person that is sitting with me.

- Powerful.

Danielle West-Augustin, who is the CEO of Queen City Academy Charter School, located where?

- In Plainfield, New Jersey.

And we are a K to 12 school.

So if you are looking for a small school community that really values in the students individually, then we are the school for you.

- Danielle, thank you.

Wish you, your staff, the teachers, and mostly the students at the school all the best.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

Nice meeting you.

- Same here.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- He's back.

President Joe is back.

Dr.

Joe Bertolino, president at Stockton University, one of our higher ed partners.

Good to see you, President Joe.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Thanks so much for having me on.

Appreciate it.

- Let's share something we were saying off air.

The okay stuff, people think, "College president.

Wow, what a impress."

Yeah.

It's an impressive role.

Glamorous, huh?

- Yeah.

Not at all.

Not at all.

Thank goodness for the students and for community members because shaking 2000 hands last Friday at Boardwalk Call.

That's why we do what we do.

- Graduation.

- Graduation.

- What was that like for you, Joe?

What was that like?

- It's the culmination of not just an entire year, but a student's entire career.

I think when I first arrived, actually, students were walking across the stage, but they really didn't get to shake the hand of the president.

And I thought, "You know what?

That's something that's important."

That few seconds for the president to personally recognize each and every student who walks across that stage.

Especially when half of our students are first generation college students.

We're not just doing this for them, but it's also for their families.

And that makes a difference, it's important.

- And check out our previous interviews, our website, SteveAdubato.org is up.

We've done several interviews with where Dr.

Bertolino, and he's talked about his connection with students, which is very real.

But here's the other part of the job that's not fun.

Atlantic City Press a couple weeks ago, we're taping on the 19th of May.

You got a significant budget gap.

- Yeah.

We do.

We do.

- We're in public television.

I think we understand.

So that being said, there are a couple of collaborations, a couple of initiatives, innovative, groundbreaking, that are significant, that deal with trying to be more efficient and effective and impactful.

Talk about them, Joe.

- Yeah.

Look, we're in the same position that a lot of other higher education institutions are, particularly public, regional, and in the northeast.

It has been a particular challenge given the demographic cliff and given the population that we serve.

So the work that we have engaged in to try to turn the tide, if you will, has first increased the amount of dollars in our financial aid treasure box, if you will, to the tune of nearly $30 million of Stockton specific money.

Because half of our students are Pell eligible.

And as I said, half of them are first generation.

We've also developed two new partnerships that I am really excited about.

One in particular, I think with Atlantic Care.

We signed that agreement just the other week- - To our folks, what Atlantic Care is, Joe?

- Yeah.

Atlantic Care is our local health system, here in Atlantic County, and it is the primary hospital and healthcare system in the region.

It serves this entire region.

And their main hospital, their main campus is actually on the Stockton campus.

So we've had a longstanding partnership with them.

They are looking to work with another institution to bring in a medical school.

Now, Stockton won't be the medical school, but what it will do is, it'll provide Stockton with an opportunity in partnership with Atlantic Care to grow nursing programs, to grow social work programs, occupational therapy programs, physician assistant programs, et cetera.

And that is now going to fall under the brand new Stockton Atlantic Care College of Community Health, which will be big in Atlantic City.

And so I think this is the single most important thing that this university has done since becoming a university a little over a decade ago.

It is a game changer, especially for Eds and meds as an anchor institution.

We're really proud of it.

- Before you move to the second one, president Bertolino, I'm curious about this.

As a student of leadership, one of the themes in the seminars I lead is that the status quo is never, ever a good option.

Do you agree?

- Well, you know, my mentor used to say, "Change is inevitable.

Growth is optional."

And so in order to grow you have to be willing to change.

In order for us to be competitive, and in order for us to meet students where they are at, we need to adjust, to be flexible, to pivot- - And partner.

- And we did during COVID.

And we need to partner, that is critical.

And right now, yesterday in fact, we signed a new agreement with four community colleges to create the South Jersey Higher Education Alliance.

And this is brand new, Stockton, and the four community colleges are leading the way here.

Those community colleges are Atlantic Cape Community College, Ocean County College, Camden County College, and Brookdale.

And so even though Brookdale's a little north, technically we're taking the company.

- What's the alliance all about?

- So the Alliance essentially is, providing clearer pathways for students to transition from an associate's degree to a bachelor's degree in a myriad of ways, regardless of what community college you're going to.

Each institution maintains their own identity and has a series of MOUs with Stockton- - Memorandums of understanding, MOUs.

- Understanding, yes.

But we're also working across institutions and across disciplines so that where students may find it difficult to complete certain courses, they can go to other places to complete those courses, do those courses online, hybrid at other institutions within the alliance.

It also ensures that students can secure their, ultimately, their associate's degree and their Stockton degree at a more affordable rate and in a faster period of time.

- I'm curious about this, devil's advocate question.

Well, Stockton, like many other public universities, particularly in this part of the country, challenged financially, someone might say, "Well, why would you," in the freshman and sophomore year, the associate's degree, they a two year degree, right?

- Sure, sure.

- Yeah.

"Why wouldn't you want them all four years?"

You're saying, "Hey, listen," I think you're saying, "If we don't adapt, if we don't pivot, if we don't evolve, if we're not more flexible on how we do it, you forget about four years.

You don't get them at all."

- You don't get them.

- Is that what the, I'm sorry.

- That's correct.

That's true.

Yes, that's absolutely true.

That students may find their way into the community college and they may not see a path to a four year school or even see that as a possibility.

So our partnerships with the community college allow students to be part of multiple communities simultaneously and therefore get multiple resources and support.

Because let's face it, the students that we serve, a number of them are coming from challenging backgrounds and need additional resources.

And this alliance helps to solidify those resources.

- When I read this Dr.

Bertolino, I thought, "This can't be right."

How are you folks connected to the Haitian National Soccer Team and the FIFA World Cup Tournament?

I'm thinking, "What does Stockton have to?"

Help us understand that?

- So obviously, you know that FIFA is coming.

- Yep.

- And Stockton is one of the only institutions that has an all grass, FIFA regulation soccer field.

And so teams from all over the world need a place to practice before the actual tournament.

So more than a decade ago, we threw our hat in the ring for this, and the last time FIFA was in the United States, Stockton actually hosted a team.

Last year we hosted a team from Brazil for the Club World Championships.

And this year we will be hosting another team, the Haitian team, right on our campus for the month of June.

So we're really excited.

It's a great opportunity for the university and it brings some international flare to Galloway and South Jersey.

- Before I let you go.

President Bertolino, we talked about the challenges, the economic challenges, the enrollment cliff, if you will.

The most rewarding aspect of your job as president of Stockton University is?

30 seconds or less.

- Students walking across the stage, handing them a degree and setting them up for not just a job and not just a career, but the ability to reinvent themselves time and time again so that they can grow in their life and become great citizens.

- Pretty awesome.

Dr.

Joe Bertolino is the president of Stockton University, one of our longtime higher ed partners President Joe, thank you my friend.

Wish you and the team down there all the best.

- Appreciate it, thanks so much, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Hi, I am Jacqui Tricarico, Senior Correspondent for "One-on-One."

And joining us now to talk about what's happening here in New Jersey to celebrate America's 250th anniversary is Mark Texel.

He is the historic sites administrator at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections.

So great to have you with us, Mark.

- Great to be here.

Thanks for having me, Jacqui.

- Thank you.

I wanna talk about New Jersey being known as the crossroads of the American Revolution because we're uniquely situated between New York and Philadelphia and the historical sites here in the state really go across the whole state.

Why has it been so important for the state of New Jersey to invest in these historical sites, particularly this year as we celebrate the country's semi-quincentennial?

- Excellent question, Jacqui.

The crossroads of the American Revolution is what New Jersey is known for.

We want that message to be broadcast loud and clear across our state and across the world this year.

Why is it the crossroads?

Because more Revolutionary War engagements happen within New Jersey.

It was involved in all eight years of the conflict, from 1775 to 1783.

And we think this is the perfect opportunity to position New Jersey in a way that wasn't positioned 50 years ago in the bicentennial to let the world know just how important this state was to winning independence for the New Republic.

- Let's talk about some of those locations.

I live in Lawrenceville, so I'm pretty centrally located by some of those historical sites like the Princeton Battlegrounds, which I've brought my kids to and Trenton, but there's so many people here in New Jersey and around the area that don't even know about these sites.

Why has it been important for you and the folks in your department to boost tourism right now around those sites, and how are you doing that?

- Yeah, especially given the fact that we have events happening in New Jersey.

We're already doing living history events, things that took place 250 years ago.

We're bringing those stories to life in South Jersey and throughout the summertime.

And as we get closer to when the British Army invaded New Jersey, we started having things happen in Bergen County in November, and the retreat across New Jersey leading to the evacuation of Trenton, and, of course, the epic crossing of Washington's army on December 25th and 26th, 1776.

And the turn of the entire war that happened with winning the battles of Trenton, one and two and the battles of Princeton on January 3rd, 1777, which was part of what we call the day of the 10 crucial days, really took what was a failing revolt, you might say, against British monarchy, and gave this colonist hope that we could probably win our independence.

And within six months of those events, the British Army retreated almost entirely from New Jersey back into New York state.

So we wanna tell people why the state of New Jersey has a lot to be proud of in winning independence and in coming together in ways that we didn't know about and really didn't celebrate 50 years ago.

We have stories that tell a much more inclusive, diverse narrative of the people living in the state.

Not just the military leaders, but the civilians, the women, people of color, Indigenous peoples.

It was a very complicated and rich story that we're gonna bring to life this year and next year.

And our state historic sites really tell a broad spectrum of these stories.

And we're so excited because we've had the chance to use funding from the federal government, from state taxpayers, from our nonprofit partners to make the stories come to life and to make our sites more accessible than they've really ever been.

So for us, it's a once in a generation opportunity for New Jersey State historic sites, as well as all of New Jersey's state historic sites at the county level, city level, nonprofits, and there's hundreds of these sites to join together in a great commemoration and celebration of our founding as a country.

- Let's talk about ways that people can get that information, absorb that information.

It's definitely located centrally at a lot of these sites that you're talking about, but we know everybody's grabbing their phones to get information.

And if they stumble upon one of these really historical sites or they're going to visit it, I know there's something called Celebrate 250 Challenge and that's paired up with the Liberty Trail New Jersey app.

Talk about those two things, how they're coming together and how it's a really unique and important way people can get the information they're looking for.

- Yeah.

Celebrate 250, the Challenge app on our website, you can sign up to take that challenge.

And it's partly to give awareness to health and fitness and connecting to the history and the 250th.

You can take a challenge for 25 miles a week, 25 miles a month, 150 miles a year.

Great way to learn about our state parks and our state historic sites.

And that's one of several things that we're doing this year to bring not just the history to life, but also our parks role.

And we have a wonderful coloring book with all of our state historic sites in them that will be free and available to people visiting our parks.

We also have later this summer a passport, really cool passport that'll be available at all of our state parks and historic sites that the public can get as well.

And those are just a couple examples of things that we are doing in addition to these history-based events.

And we also are strong partners of Revolution New Jersey, which is the public private-partnership as well, so.

- Yeah, a lot of ways for people to get involved, get that information at their fingertips and like you said, a little exercise along the way while you're learning really important things about the state and these historical sites.

Finally, Mark, tell us a little bit about the Washington Crossing Museum and Visitor Center.

It's brand new and Washington Crossing, for people who don't know, it's partially in New Jersey, partially in Pennsylvania.

What can people expect to do and see when they go to that new museum and Visitor Center?

- This is an incredibly new experience center that we have been designing for almost 10 years.

And it replaces the Visitor Center that was built for the bicentennial in 1976, and this new museum and experience of Visitor Center is a one of a kind attraction for, it's really the gift to New Jersey, and to the world, looking to open it, possibly a sneak peek around the July 4th period when there'll be fireworks and programming happening at our park, Washington Crossing State Park, as well as Pennsylvania's State Park.

As you mentioned, Jacqui, this is a national historic landmark that spans one river in two states, making it very unique.

But this building is beautiful.

It blends into the landscape.

It has things like the first green roof of any of our Visitor Centers in New Jersey, a multipurpose theater that can accommodate over 100 people, immersive exhibits and kind of a four dimensional experience where you go into a room and it's a simulated crossing on a ferry boat as if you're taking back the evening of December 25th.

And one of the things in this new Visitor Center Museum is a recently rediscovered and restored 10-by-15 foot oil painting of Washington Crossing that was painted by a famous New Jersey artist in 1921 named George Harding, which once hung in the Taylor Opera House in Trenton.

And when that building was demolished, painting was saved and put away, and then we rediscovered it.

And it's an incredible work that will be hanging right in the changing gallery space when you come into the new building.

We can't wait.

- It sounds incredible.

Yeah.

I can't wait to visit it with my kids and check it out soon.

Thank you so much, Mark, for coming on and letting us know a little bit more about what we can expect in the next coming months while we celebrate America's 250.

Thank you so much.

- You're very welcome, Jacqui.

Can't wait to see you all out, have a visit.

- Appreciate it, for Steve Adubato and myself, thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

PSEG Foundation.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

South Jersey Industries.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn More at RWJBH.org.

NJM Insurance Group.

And by Garden State Initiative Promotional support provided by The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

And by Insider NJ.

- The Garden State Initiative examines the economic and policy issues shaping New Jersey’s future that determine our economy’s growth, and opportunities for families and communities across our state.

GSI also seeks to provide the public with greater transparency about how tax dollars are spent through our website, NJBudget.com, which shows everyone where state funds go and explains why it matters.

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