New Jersey
N.J. bill could extend bereavement leave to families who have lost a child
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Shortly after Gloucester County, New Jersey resident Jackie Mancinelli was hired as a high school English teacher in Camden County in 2014, she suffered a miscarriage late in her first trimester.
After the miscarriage was confirmed by an ultrasound test, she returned to work the next day as if nothing had happened, because she said she felt nervous to take time off.
“I really struggled to get through the school day, I broke down crying in front of my students and it was really difficult, and no one in my building had any idea what was happening,” Mancinelli said.
Two years later, the Voorhees teacher had an emergency cesarean section after carrying her baby for 33 weeks, but the child only lived for one hour after being born.
Mancinelli was distraught, but under New Jersey law, if a baby dies, the parent is no longer eligible to take family leave time off, because the law stipulates you can only care for another, not yourself.
She used sick time and unpaid leave to take a break from her job and was forced to take a custodial job cleaning classrooms over the summer to make ends meet.
In 2021, she founded Start Healing Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for workplace rights for grieving families experiencing pregnancy loss, infertility and adoption loss.
“Their worlds are falling apart, the idea of having to return to work just to earn a paycheck to pay bills. It’s really inhumane,” she said.
Mancinelli then worked with Assemblywoman Shanique Speight on legislation to provide bereavement leave for those dealing with this kind of loss.
“If you want that employee to come back strong, you definitely want to give them time to properly grieve,” Speight said.
The Wildwoods is known for its wide beaches, lively boardwalk and being a haven for “Doo Wop” fans.
Once on the island, it is hard to miss this funky, colorful architecture synonymous with the Wildwoods.
“We like to think it’s still in its heyday,” John Donio, the President of the Doo Wop Preservation League, said. “Our collection is one of the finest on the entire East Coast, right here in Wildwood.”
Marked by a neon sign garden, the Doo Wop Experience Museum sits across from the Wildwoods Convention Center in Fox Park. Inside, the museum houses dozens of items. The building used to be the iconic Surfside Diner.
“We’ve been lucky to get different people to donate neon signs, furniture, bicycles, period pieces,” Donio said.
Karen Samuels serves as the tour guide for the Guided Trolley Tour.
“I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and that’s what the tour is all about,” Samuels said. “It’s a midcentury architecture and music scene of the Doo Wop history.”
The museum is free, and starting next month, it will be open Thursday through Sunday until Labor Day weekend.
“This tells the story of the Wildwoods. It’s the fabric of our community,” Donio said.
It’s the community that’s kept doo wop alive and well.
Football schedules for the 2025 season are starting to be announced all across the Garden State and High School On SI New Jersey will share these as we see them.
Plainfield High School, under the direction of first-year head coach Donald Jones, a Plainfield alumnus and former defensive back with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots, has announced its 2025 schedule.
The big news surrounding Plainfield’s upcoming schedule is that the annual Thanksgiving Day game vs. Westfield, a rivalry that was the state’s third-longest Turkey Day matchup, dating back to 1899 during the William McKinley Administration, will be played as the season opener in 2025 for both teams on August 28 in Plainfield.
The reason for switching the traditional Thanksgiving Day game vs. Plainfield to the season opener has to do with the ever-expanding NJSIAA state playoffs. The New Jersey high school football playoffs in 2025 will begin on November 7 or 8, for the first round, with the state finals potentially being played at MetLife Stadium or Rutgers University between November 28 and December 3, according to the NJSIAA. This year, Thanksgiving Day will fall on November 27.
“They’ve extended the state playoffs so long that it became a safety concern,” said Westfield High School Director of Athletics James DeSarno. “This was a mutual decision between Plainfield High School and ourselves and one that was made in the interest of safety.”
Westfield leads the all-time series 66-46-7 but the Cardinals snapped the Blue Devils’ 13-game winning streak in the series last season, claiming its first win since 2011 with a hard-fought 14-9 defensive battle on a rain-soaked field in Westfield.
This year’s season-opening tilt vs. Westfield is the first of three straight home games at the historic Hub Stein Sports Complex Stadium, as the Cardinals will then host New Brunswick on September 5 and Woodbridge on September 12. Plainfield’s first road test comes on September 19 at Perth Amboy, followed by another road game the following week at the Haverford School in Pennsylvania on September 27.
After that it’s home tests vs. Franklin (October 3) and Colonia (October 10), before closing out the regular season with road games vs. Somerville (October 17) and Linden (October 25).
Jones played collegiately at Lackawanna, then Youngstown State before being signed as an undrafted free agent by Buffalo in 2010. For the last three years, he’s been the wide receivers coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in nearby Edison, which hasn’t lost a Big Central Conference football game since November of 2020, a 31-game streak.
The first-year Plainfield mentor takes over a program that went 6-4 a year ago which included a second straight appearance in the NJSIAA Playoffs where the Cards dropped an 18-12 decision to Passaic Tech in a North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 quarterfinal round game.
8/28 vs. Westfield 6pm
9/5 vs. New Brunswick 6pm
9/12 vs Woodbridge 6pm
9/19 at Perth Amboy 6:00pm
9/27 at The Haverford School 1:00pm
10/3 vs. Franklin 6:00pm
10/10 vs. Colonia 6:00pm
10/17 at Somerville 6:00pm
10/25 at Linden 1:00pm
Follow High School On SI throughout the 2025 high school football season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!
Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school football news.
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