Wednesday, 12 January 2022
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIV, No. 36
ON THE INSIDE Man arrested after allegedly hanging out and drinking in Queen of Peace’s Manger. SEE PAGE 8
LEARNINGTOFLY BELLEVILLE n BLOOMFIELD n EAST NEWARK n HARRISON n KEARNY n LYNDHURST n NORTH ARLINGTON n NUTLEY
Innovative program at Belleville HS leads students to possible pilot’s license By Ron Leir For The Observer
A
select group of Belleville High School students are setting their sights very high these days – as high as the sky, and perhaps beyond. As fledgling “cadets” in the Aerospace Club, they are learning how to fly. This school year, the Belleville Board of Education took a daring leap by engaging the Eagle Fight Squadron, an East Orange-based nonprofit flight school that was founded in 1975 to encourage youths to develop educational and manual skills related to aviation. BHS Principal Caleb Rhodes said the district is offering the course twice
a week as a not-for-credit, after-school elective. It’s designed, he said, as a threeyear program leading to a pilot’s license for those who successfully complete it. EFS supplies instructors and equipment and arranges for actual flights, initially with ground-directed drones, and later, in planes from Essex County Airport in Caldwell. Currently, Belleville has fewer than 10 students enrolled, but Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko said the program is one of several strategies the district has adopted to help kids, not otherwise attuned to traditional educational approachSee FLYING, Page 18
Melham’s running for re-election, not U.S. Congress By Kevin A. Canessa Jr. kc@theobserver.com
TCatch
hough he says he is humbled to have been considered a possible nominee to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, D-8, in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, Belleville Mayor Michael Melham
says his focus will certainly be on his township and securing re-election in May for himself and his running mates — and this would have been the case even if Congressional districts weren’t about to change. Two Jersey-based political websites, before Christmas, tossed
around the concept of Melham running for Sires’s vacated seat. One of the websites even had him polling at second place, for some time, to become the nominee. But ultimately, Melham says, it’s Belleville he cares most about — and that will be his focus moving forward.
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He won’t be challenging U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who may soon represent Belleville in D.C. “Having accomplished so much here in Belleville, it was an honor to have my name associated with a See MELHAM, Page 19
