The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A dream about five years in the making finally came to fruition on December 3, with the “ribbon-cutting” of the new Elizabeth Avenue School’s marquee.
Under the watchful eyes of students, staff and parents who helped with the fundraising, principal Greg Romero cut the bright red ribbon in front of the electric sign that front’s the school’s Elizabeth Avenue campus.
Romero said he has been advocating for the new sign for the last four or five years, since he was the school’s vice-principal.
The old sign, he said, was falling apart. Letters had to be taped to it to stay up.
“So little by little, each year I’ll go to our meetings at the (School) Board office for capital improvements and I’ll come up there and say, ‘hey I have a great idea, can we get a marquee?’ And each year they say, ‘okay, we’ll think about it, but it’s a lot of money, Mr. Romero’,” he said. “You know, I don’t know where this money is going to come from.”
That changed in 2023, he said, when he had a conversation with Board of Education member Bill Grippo.
“And Mr. Grippo goes, ‘hey, what are you doing with the sign over here? Aren’t you embarrassed by the sign?'” he said. “I’m like, ‘yes, I am embarrassed by the sign. But I would love to collaborate and come up with some ideas on how we can make this happen.’ So Mr. Grippo gave us a great idea: start fundraising.”
Here’s a video of the ribbon-cutting:
A committee was formed, students got involved and soon a number of fundraising activities were planned and carried out, Romero said.
“And from that day, thank you to Mr. Grippo, we’re able to fundraise over $10,000 to support us with the cost of the sign,” Romero said. “The rest of the magic happened with (schools Superintendent John) Ravally and the rest of the cabinet to support us with the other half. And that’s how this came about.”
“So this project was a great one because now we’re able to communicate effectively,” he said. “We’re able to showcase the beauty of our school, not just within the building, but also outside the building. And we’re super excited to be able to showcase that to our school community, to the township, and we’re just thankful for everyone’s part in this.”
“It takes a village, and it definitely took a village to be able to get our new marquee,” Romero said.
Grippo praised Romero for his role in the effort.
“Mr. Romero, he’s been a great advocate for this,” Grippo said. “He was there every step of the way, and he worked well with the Board of Ed administration, and it was really great.”
“So I asked a friend, have you seen the marquee at Elizabeth Avenue?,” Grippo said. “And the guy said, well, where is it? I said, just look for the school that looks like Las Vegas.”
Zeenah Sadeh, one of the Committee members, said she was happy the marquee became a reality.
“And it again goes to all the stakeholders involved, raising the funds, and of course, with the help of our Board of Ed, we have what we have,” she said. “So I just want to say thank you to everyone also. I’m glad this actually became a thing.”
Aside from Sadeh and Romero, other members of the Committee are: Jennifer Schellenberg, Heather Warrelman, Ashley Grosso, Malai Phuong, Jessica Horner, Amelia Stapperfenne, and Edgar Vazquez.
Here are some scenes from the event:
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