Tiger Talk

By Connor Brehm

Central hosted the annual Consortium General Knowledge Competition on January 29th. Six schools participated including, Delbarton, Frelinghuysen, Morris Plains, Oratory and Ridgedale. The Varsity team consisted of Vir Patel, Seth Liebskind. and Connor Brehm. The JV team consisted of Joey Hansen, Rishan Patel, Declan Paviolitis, and Dhruv Raghu. The competition was three rounds in the library and room 33. The Varsity team competed with Delbarton in the finals and prevailed, winning 2nd place! The JV team also qualified for the finals and won first place! Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed it! Thank you to Mr. Gillespie for organizing this event. See photo below.

By Kiran D"Sa

The Robotics club uses the Vex IQ robotics system, which is a great introduction to engineering. This system utilizes small plastic snap-together pieces, prebuilt motors, and computer brains, as well as metal axle components and pneumatic parts. Because it is a snap-together system, it allows for the easy construction of functional robots without the need for the heavy machinery used in high school. This Lego-like design is perfect for those just getting started because it eliminates the stress of individual component assembly, allowing beginners to focus more on the actual design and functionality of their machine.

Every school year, Vex IQ releases a new cooperative robotics game. Our main goal is to build a remotely controlled robot that can score the most possible points in a one-minute match at a competition in Skills Challenges. However, driving isn't the only objective; we also have to program our robots to complete auton rounds, where the robot must act autonomously for one minute to reach the same objective. After these individual challenges, two teams from different schools must work together in teamwork rounds to score points as a pair.

There are multiple competitions throughout the latter part of the school year at different schools around the state. If a team performs well enough, they can be admitted to the state or even national competitions. To get ready, the club meets every Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. During these two hours, we are constantly busy building, coding, and practicing our driving to be completely ready for the competitions.

Looking back at my three years in the club, robotics has been a fantastic way to learn trial and error, iteration, critical thinking, design, and teamwork. Robotics is also a great way to build persistence, good time management, and general confidence. These are all skills that are extremely important to build and often come in handy. In my personal experience, the robotics program has often been stressful and hard, but has paid off in great ways and has always been a lot of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in joining.

See photos below.

By Luke Diamond

If you would like to learn useful skills to have in middle school, or need help with dealing with peers, Central Middle School offers a program called Peer Mentoring.

In Peer Mentoring, one to two 6th graders are placed in a group with one to two 8th graders. The older students teach the younger ones about skills such as teamwork, organization, and problem solving. These groups typically meet once a month during lunch and Guide, and are overseen by our school guidance counselor, Ms. Romaniuk. She informs the 6th graders what the topic of that meeting is, discusses what activities they will do with the 8th graders (organizing binders, discussing ways to solve a conflict, etc.), and helps the groups if needed.

Students volunteer to sign up as mentors. They meet face-to-face with mentees. This is teaching students communication skills, how to socially interact properly with peers, and conflict resolution. These are valuable, transferrable, life skills.

By Owen Ruano

On January 28, 2026 at 7:30 pm, the Sending District Honors Band had their annual concert. The Sending District Honors Band is made up of students from the four middle schools, Greenbrook, Longhill, Warren, and Watchung Middle School. These schools will be joined together in the Watchung Hills Highschool.

In Longhill Township, there were a total of eighteen students in the Honors Band, twelve in Eighth Grade and six in Seventh Grade.

The Eighth Grade members include Elif Akgungor, Arsh Bharadwaj, Carter Blaszka, Amos Chang, Kiran D’Sa, Tobias Landgren, Seth Libeskind, Michael Nicolette, Rina Song, Logan Suarez, Angel Vivar, and Angela Yang.

The Seventh Grade members include Eavan Billiams, Gregory Devonshire, Rishan Patel, Nicole Pinto, and Lia Quon and Owen Ruano.

On the concert night, the Honors Band played a total of four songs. The songs include, The Planets conducted by Mr. Valentine (Warren Middle School), Egyptique conducted by Mrs. Morrison (Watchung Middle School), Winter Whispers conducted by Mrs. Shipon (Central Middle School), and Black Forest Overture conducted by Mr. Sorensen (Green Brook Middle School).

This evening was a proud moment for all of the students to perform in front of their friends and family and definitely a night they will remember. The musicians' hard work and dedication is what ultimately led to a wonderful performance.

Below is a link to the recorded performance of the Sending District Honors Band, and after, the Highschool Wind Ensemble.

https://www.youtube.com/live/kwN4En8i4aU

By Mason Birckhead

This year, Central Middle School was invited to participate in the Consortium Volleyball Tournament at Ridgedale Middle School. Mrs. Felix, a physical education teacher and the coach for the team, selected eight students from her classes to see who would be the best fit for the team. She based her decision after observing her students play volleyball every day as part of Central Middle School’s volleyball unit. The Central players were Elif Akgungor, Joselyn Umana-Garcia, Ben Herko, Hunter Kelly, Jeremey Michelson, Addison Perruna, Noah Puchalski, and Addison Wanamaker. The tournament took place on Wednesday, February 11th. Noah's team finished in first place, while Jeremy and Addison Perunna finished in second place! Congratulations to everyone selected to the Central Middle School volleyball team. See photo below.

By Connor Brehm

If you like writing about things that happen in our school, consider joining our school newspaper, Tiger Talk. Meetings are only once per month. Stop on by Room 16 when a meeting is announced. All are welcome. Right now, we are looking for more members. Write about current events, new movies and even about the things you love to do! Even if you don't like to write, you could be a photographer for the newspaper. You can also let us interview you for the club that you are in. See Mr. Gillespie for more detail.