Last Chance, Freehold Regional Seniors, to Get Parking Real Estate

Freehold Regional High School District requires that both parents and students attend a Teen Driver Safety workshop in order to receive a parking space for the year.  If you did not make it to the regularly scheduled program, you're in luck:  a make-up session will be held 7 p.m. Sept. 8, at Colts Neck High School, regardless which of the six schools a student attends.

Students and parents must attend the program together, and parents must bring identification.

The program's certificate of completion must be attached to your parking application in order for it to be processed.

Back-to-School Book Bag Barrage

If they aren't lurking in shopping aisles yet, book bag shoppers will soon be on the prowl.

Human book bag? (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, file)

What kind of book bag will you be seeking for your children of yourself this year?  What do you look for in a bag:  Designer or practical?  Large carrying ability or sleek look?  Dora the Explorer or Transformers?  Where will you shop?

Let us know by comments and/or email me at jriley@app.com.

It’s 3 a.m. in China, and We Know Where 4 Manalapan Kids Are

Every so often, there's a story that's fascinating and exciting, through which I would like to vicariously live:

Shaolin Monk photo courtesy Flickr user thor_matt83

So far, this one takes the cake.

A group of four Manalapan High School students have been selected to join 10 teachers and 36 other students from across the country for an all expense paid, educational adventure tour of China, which began Sunday (our time), as they entered Beijing Monday (Beijing time).

At the time I'm writing this, assuming my time zone and itinerary calculations are correct, the students are camping out in a village near the base of the Great Wall in preparation for a 10-K hike along the wall tomorrow.

In a few days, they'll be hanging out with monks from the famed Shaolin Temple, learning Kung Fu.

Luckily for my desire to live vicariously through their journey, I can follow the student's blogs and Twitter tweets on the blog page of the company responsible for their trip's - Discovery Student Adventures - Web site.

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Hunting the Hunters: Geocaching sequal

BY JOSHUA RILEY

STAFF WRITER

Like early Cro-Magnon man, who planned hunts with knowledge of their prey's habits, I've been searching for high-tech, GPS hide and seek hobbyists using geocaching.com, and then seeking these hidden boxes (hoping to find easy and often visited ones) in which to drop my calling card with a note of explanation:

Not that I haven't used more traditional methods, i.e. sending emails, but that's not generating responses.  Besides, I'm getting first-hand experience.

And, on my second search, I struck out. 

It's not easy, largely due to the fact that geocachers don't want their stashes found and damaged or moved by someone serendipitously stubling upon it. 

I learned a valuable lesson that day: if the cache entry online has the work "nano" in it, the cache is hidden in a film canister sized, or smaller, holder. 

Something that size was hidden underneath the Gateway to the Shore town walking bridge:

I turned over a lot of rocks be for I turned away.

These people must not give up unless they've literally left no stone unturned.

The hunt for the hunters continues...

Quest for the moldy (not exactly) grail.

In between researching education bills in the State Legislature and making phone calls to school district administrators, I decided to follow a feature story lead and was taken into a patch of three-foot high grass and weeds before I found what I had been looking for: a dead-end on ramp, an interesting perspective, and a hidden box, which was said to contain a pencil and notepad.

Much like this road, the mission began and ended here:

Ex-Exit from Route 9 to Route 33, Freehold

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Congrats Grads!

Congratulations to the Freehold Regional High School District Graduates!

What will you be diving into this fall? ( AP Photo/The Post-Standard, Nicholas Lisi )

IF you are a 2009 graduate or if you have a son or daughter who just turned their tassels, tell us about your (or your young grad's) future plans.

Manalapan-Englishtown board member Anthony Manisero resigned from his position.

Manisero, 57, had served on the board since 2001, and during that time had

Anthony Manisero. Photo courtesy of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional district Web site.

seen the construction of the district's John I. Dawes Early Learning Center, the Wemrock Brook School, and the extension of the Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School.

Manisero said he did not have the time necessary to dedicate to the board.

Manisero's term, which expires in 2010, is now vacant, and the school board is accepting applications for the position.

Those interested should submit a letter of interest and personal resume to Board Secretary Veronica Wolf, Manalapan-Englishtown Regional Board of Education, 54 Main St., Englishtown, by 4 p.m. July 17.

For more information, visit the district Web site or call the business office at (732) 786-2514.

Greetings

Greetings from the Asbury Park Press!

My name is Josh Riley, and, as a reporter for the Press,  I have for over a year covered the Freehold Regional High School District, and other school districts in the Freehold Area.

When I'm not behind my desk or out covering a meeting or event, I can be found pursuing (or being thrown into) a variety of interests.

Plummeting toward the Earth:

Birthday Sky Dive - Sky's the Limit, East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

Under the Earth:

Mine shaft deep inside the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine Tour, Ashland, Pennsylvania. (That is not sunlight at the end of the tunnel.)

Or Somewhere Across the Earth:

Le Louvre, Paris, France

I'm also a literature buff (and author Fyodor Dostoyevsky tops that list).

But, I don't think most of my posts will be so much about me as they will be about education and the school districts in this area of the state.

Hope to post again soon.

-Josh