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Woodbridge, NJ – January 2004 - John B. Ingemi, principal of Menlo Park Terrace Elementary (School #19), has been named the Director of the Schools Attuned program of All Kinds of Minds for the tri-state region, covering New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Ingemi just retired from a distinguished 32-year career in public education to join the All Kinds of Minds Regional Operating Center in New York City.

Mr. Ingemi will expand the Schools Attuned program to educators in Connecticut and New Jersey and target the independent schools in the New York City area. He will support the continued delivery of the program to Jewish Day Schools in the tri-state region and serve as a key team member with the New York City Department of Education initiative to prepare 20,000 public school educators in the Schools Attuned program over the next five years.

Schools Attuned is a yearlong professional development program that provides K-12 educators with a framework and tools to understand and manage differences in learning in the regular classroom. Schools Attuned helps lower referrals to special education services as teachers discover different ways to work with struggling students, and studies have shown Schools Attuned improves teacher quality and retention.

Ingemi has been principal of Menlo Park Terrace Elementary in Metuchen, NJ since 1989. He was one of the first educators to implement the Schools Attuned program when it was initiated in New Jersey in 1998 with training grants from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Over several years he trained all of the school's staff in Schools Attuned and he also became a Schools Attuned training facilitator in 1998. The school's use of the program and its results have been featured in Newsweek, The Newark Star-Ledger, The Home News Tribune, and NJEA Review.

"I will never forget the first time I heard Dr. Mel Levine speak to clinicians and educators about ways to identify and address learning differences. I felt his approach was something special that needed to be implemented in schools. It's a powerful approach that teachers need to learn about and it empowers them to help all kids in the classroom," said Ingemi.

Ingemi firmly believes Schools Attuned has helped improve student test scores at Menlo Park Terrace. On the New Jersey ESPA for grade four, student scores over a two-year period reflect a substantial increase in "Proficient" and "Advanced Proficient" assessments. From 2001 to 2002, students had an 11.0% increase in Proficient and a 9.1% increase for Advanced Proficient in Language Arts/Literacy. There was also a 19.1% increase in Proficient and a 16.7% increase for Advanced Proficient in Math.

Beginning in 1987, renowned pediatrician Dr. Mel Levine and his colleagues worked with over 5,000 educators across the country to develop a program for schools. Schools Attuned was launched as a year-round professional development program in 2000. As of June 30, 2003, over 8,200 educators in the U.S. and around the world have participated in the program, resulting in over 13,000 educators being prepared to meet the diverse learning needs of students in their classroom.