Winter Wonderland Village in Toms River
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December 5, 2021
The auditorium at High School North will be named after North graduate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, while a downtown building owned by Toms River Regional Schools will be named after former superintendent Albert J. Dietrich.
At a recent meeting, the Board of Education overwhelmingly approved naming the facilities. Dietrich will be honored by the naming of the building at 54 Washington St., which houses the district's central registration office as well as an employee health facility.
The municipality owns the structure, which it leases to the school system for $1 per year. In March, the township council voted to name the structure after Dietrich. The school district had received a petition with more than 200 signatures demanding that the building be named after Dietrich, according to former Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella.
When Dietrich became superintendent of the Toms River Regional School District in 1979, he was only 44 years old. He died in February at the age of 85. Dietrich served as the district's superintendent for 11 years before being forced to step down in December 1991 due to a heart issue.
Dietrich began teaching language arts in Toms River schools in 1963 and worked for the district for 28 years. He became president of the Toms River Education Association, the district's teachers union, after writing the district's first teachers contract.
He built Toms River Regional's Alternative Learning Center for at-risk pupils and developed the district's first alcohol and substance misuse program. Because of his unwavering support for scholastic sports, he was honored into the Toms River Regional Hall of Fame in 2003 and the district's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.
Ressa graduated from Toms River High School North in 1982, after her family relocated from the Philippines when she was ten years old.
Ressa, a 58-year-old journalist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Dmitry Muratov, another writer. In early October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee honored them "for their efforts to defend freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and sustainable peace."
Ressa worked as an investigative reporter for CNN for for two decades, covering Southeast Asia, including terrorist networks. She founded The Rappler, an online news website in the Philippines, in 2012, which is noted for its critical coverage of the government.
She was arrested and convicted of "cyberlibel" in 2020, which was heavily criticised by human-rights organizations. She could be sentenced to up to six years in prison.
Ressa was the class president for three years at High School North, where she also played in the orchestra, acted in theatrical shows, and participated in basketball and softball. Under the instruction of Donald Spaulding, a music instructor at High School North, she finally learned to play eight instruments.
