Northern Hills Academy

11/04/2025

JOB POSTING: Custodian
The Sussex County Educational Services Commission (SCESC) is a public school district based out of Sparta, NJ. The SCESC operates schools and programs in Sussex County. In addition, we provide staffing to partner school districts in Sussex County, as well as surrounding counties.
This position is located at our Northern Hills Academy, a school for students with special education.
School experience preferred but not required. Shifts/hours dependent on positions available.
Send Letter of Interest Anthony DeFelice: [email protected]
Business Administrator
SCESC-NHA,
18 Gail Ct. Sparta NJ 07871

Contact Information: Business Administrator 973-579-6980

AA/EOE

11/04/2025

And more from Speech Therapists - Ashley, Anna and Rebecca

Core Word: LOOK

WAYS WE CAN USE THE WORD
DESCRIBE (e.g. You look happy, looks hard, look good, etc.)
GAIN ATTENTION (e.g. Look at me!)
ASK A QUESTION (e.g. Are you looking? Can you look? How do I look?)

DURING ROUTINES/SCHEDULES
Morning Meeting: Students can look out the window to see the weather and report to the
Class.
Bathroom: Adults can prompt students to look in the mirror to see if they have food on their face, need to brush their hair, etc. Adults can also ask, “How do you look?” or comment “You look…”

READING/MUSIC/VIDEOS
The Looking Book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqvx-HD5Cm0
Look What You Made Me Do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySCXZgML7cU&list=RDySCXZgML7cU&start_radio=1
Look Core Vocabulary Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NbuKBF_1mk

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Go on a Scavenger Hunt and look for fall themed items outside: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Scavenger-Hunt-215747

This is a checklist for students to use outside on a fall scavenger hunt. Kids can walk around outside and try to find various fall objects such as acorns, squirrels and different color leaves. When they find the items, they can check them off on their list. It is tons of fun!

11/04/2025

From our Speech Therapists:

AAC STRATEGY OF THE MONTH: WAIT TIME

As you know, individuals with Complex Communication Needs who express themselves using AAC require more time to think of, formulate and express themselves. Providing adequate ‘wait time’ is an important consideration for communication partners while interacting and engaging with persons who use AAC systems.

Sometimes the need to ‘wait’ may seem uncomfortable at first but over time, practice and when given focused attention, the amount of wait time needed for each individual will become more natural. As communication partners we can wait expectantly for AAC users to respond and engage.

A study by Hilary Johanna Mathis, https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/3878 revealed that the use of a wait time of up to 45 seconds supported users in expressing more words and engaging in more conversational turns. (Assistiveware)

Minimal research exists regarding the effectiveness of pause time as an independent strategy for communication partners to support the communication of young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). To date, pause time has been investigated as component of a group of interact...

10/31/2025

Well it is the 2nd favorite day of the school year.....at NHA. It is our Halloween festivities!! We have so many ghosts, goblins, superheroes and fuzzy friends in the building today!!

We have already had a speech led scavenger hunt, pumpkin painting and are gearing up for our Trunk or Treat this afternoon. As a reminder - any parents/volunteers Trunk or Treat set up starts at 12:30pm.

See you there!

10/21/2025

Parents- please check your email and send me information on the Veterans in your families so we can create our Voices for Veterans Display!!!

Remember to email me pictures and provide information about that person! Email to [email protected]

10/20/2025

I want to make sure our students have the materials and experiences they need to succeed, so we just created a request on DonorsChoose:

The Dizzy Disc Design. https://www.donorschoose.org/betterstudentoutcomes
If you chip in to help my students, you'll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.
Thanks so much,
Andrea
P.S. If you know anyone who may want to help, please pass this along!

Ms. Romano is a teacher at Northern Hills Academy. Help Ms. Romano get the tools they need by supporting their classroom.

10/17/2025

Check out this Rapper- Tbonez and how he uses his AAC device as not only his voice but also a tool to support his hip hop business.

10/17/2025

10/16/25 was Boss's Day and the lovely staff at SCESC and NHA shared flowers and candy with Ms. Andrea and Mr. Anthony. Both were very appreciative of the thoughtfulness and kindness of staff to remember them on this day!! Ms. Andrea's flowers still look awesome and the candy was happily shared with staff.

It is so nice to be appreciated!

10/17/2025

Today is the day! Join us for a Dine to Donate Night at Panera Bread in Newton, located at 123 Water Street, tonight from 4:00pm to 8:00pm.
25% of sales will be donated back to the Northern Hills Academy to support programs, initiatives, and opportunities for our students.

📅 Date: Friday, October 17th 2025
🕕 Time: 4:00pm - 8:00pm
It’s simple to participate:

Visit Panera in Newton between 4pm and 8pm on 10/17/25.

Show the event flyer (digital or printed) at checkout OR enter the following code when ordering online - FUND4U

Enjoy a great meal while helping us give back to our students!

Your dinner makes a difference - thank you for supporting our students and community!

10/16/2025

I want to make sure ​our students have the materials and experiences they need to succeed, so ​we just created a request on DonorsChoose:

The Dizzy Disc Design. https://www.donorschoose.org/betterstudentoutcomes

If you chip in to help my students, you'll get awesome photos and our heartfelt thanks.

Thanks so much,
Andrea

P.S. If you know anyone who may want to help, please pass this along!

Ms. Romano is a teacher at Northern Hills Academy. Help Ms. Romano get the tools they need by supporting their classroom.

10/16/2025

Pictures from Fall Fest- Huge thank you to Ms. Chloe and Ms. Tessa for planning. Thank you to Ms. Valerie Macchio for the pumpkin donation from a farm in Blairstown.

Huge thank you to Triple T's Farm of Misfits for bringing the coolest animals to our school and allowing us to love up on them.!!

10/16/2025

This is a friendly reminder that NHA will be celebrating Halloween with a Trunk or Treat event on October 31st!

📅 Date: Friday, October 31st, 2025
🕕 Time: 1:00pm

If you would like to participate, please use the below link to RSVP.

We hope to see you all there!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDpoeVgtK-kFGW3a8u6O1BZalAm7ojEedfZJovku5Jhip64w/viewform