Special Services Educator Named Watchung Hills Teacher of Year

Everyone who knows Bonnie Quigley, a member of Watchung Hills Regional High School’s Special Services staff, thinks of her as “special” in many ways.

Now that opinion has been officially confirmed: Bonnie Quigley has been named Watchung Hills' Teacher of the Year by the members of Hills’ staff, students and parents who participated in the annual recognition of a teacher who has made significant contributions—to her profession, to students, to the school.   (Although the Teacher of the Year is no longer a project/program sponsored by the State of New Jersey, individual schools may carry on the tradition on their own “turf” and in their own way.)

The honor was recently bestowed upon Quigley in a surprise afternoon visit to her classroom, along with a bouquet and the congratulations of Principal George Alexis, her department supervisor Sarah Bilotti, and Beth Scheiderman, her former “boss” in the Special Services Department.

Quigley’s connections with Watchung Hills’ Special  Services Department reach back to 1994, when she started working as a secretary for the department. She had been discouraged at that time from continuing her own higher education by an advisor who had said, she’d “never get a job in the teaching field; it’s too crowded.”

However, encouraged by the then Special Services supervisor, Dr. Gloria Zucker, and by her own interest in what was happening in the fairly new field of special education, she pursued her studies—while still working as a secretary, and  later, as a paraprofessional in the department. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Kean University, and, eventually, the Master of Arts in Teaching from Kaplan University.  

Over the years, Quigley has witnessed first hand, and taken part in, the many changes in the field of special education, both in its philosophy and in its practical, real-time applications. Chief among these changes has been the integration of special education students into “regular” classes in every subject area. Whereas, in its earliest stages, special education students were separated, kept apart from, the school’s general population, they now participate in  regular, all-inclusive classes in every department, taught by a team of two teachers. Quigley is most proud, as well as enthusiastic, about this forward move.

Quigley herself and Laura Goodson, a member of the English Department, teach together in a regular, all-inclusive classroom. In this setting, students are not aware of “who’s who.” Goodson, who, coincidentally, was 2012 Teacher of the Year, pronounces the all-inclusive, team-taught class “highly successful.”

Early on, Goodson and Quigley attended various workshops which enabled them to introduce co-teaching methods to a broader spectrum of teachers.

In addition to her classroom work with Learning & Language Disabled students (LLD), Quigley has been active in Hills’ extra-curricular life. She was involved in initiating the Peer Outreach program which puts special ed students on the same plane, socially, as their peers. The peer outreach members, for example, get the special ed students involved in extra-curricular events, such as the “Spring Fling” (prom).

 “Watchung Hills is a great facility for special needs kids,” says Quigley. “Their peers are so good, so big-hearted and generous with their time and understanding.”

Quigley also served as class co-advisor for eight years, working with students in the graduation classes of 2005 and 2009 on class projects (such as  proms)  and outreach  efforts  (i.e., raising funds, participating in special events) over each of the four-year advisory stints.

She has served on the Intervention and Referral Team and on the Curriculum Committee.

She was also deeply involved in the Sandy Blumberg fund-raising efforts. Sandy, Class of 2006, was a very special young woman who had been afflicted by neurofibromatosis. Quigley spearheaded the “Penny Wars” in her honor, one of the biggest fund-raisers ever at Watchung Hills. That school-wide/community effort generated over $30,000 for the Children’s Tumor Fund.

Quigley’s busy day is book-ended by a commute to Forks, Pa., where her four grandchildren, ages 7,5,3 and eight months coincidentally also live. (Their two mothers, one-time residents of Watchung, are graduates of Watchung Hills.) Reading and knitting for a hospital charity are Quigley’s after-hours pastimes.