Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 19

PAGE A20 ASBURY PARK PRESS SUNDAY, DEC. 28, 1997 Planning begins now that Plumsted High School has OK 'We really couldn't have gone on the way we are. I am really sorry to see (the Plumsted students) go, but I am also happy for them. Thomas Vona ALLENTOWN HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL kind of school they, parents and students want built. "The staff, parents and the children are very excited about planning the new high school," said Chris Carlson, middle school principal.

"With a high school here, it will give us more of a hometown feeling here in Plumsted." For more than 50 years, high school students here have attended Allentown High School as part of a sending-receiving relationship with the Upper Freehold Regional School District. The state Department of Education must first approve the Plumsted school district's plan to withdraw 400 students from Allen-town. The new school is planned to be operating by September 1999. By WARREN WOODBERRY JR. STAFF WRITER PLUMSTED TOWNSHIP Seventh-grader Tyler Sorchik of New Egypt Elementary School may not be thinking much about high school right now, but when he becomes one of the first students to attend the township's proposed new high school, he plans to go out for the school's soccer team.

"Maybe baseball and track, too," the 12-year-old said. With the township's approval Dec. 16 of a $16.5 million bond referendum to convert the New Egypt Middle School on Evergreen Road into a high school, district officials are now developing plans for the "It was kind of hard for me to vote," Smith said. "It's great for us to have a new school, but there's more involved here like curriculum, athletic teams and scholarships." Woehr said the new high school will offer the same or similar courses to those offered at Allentown. He also said, the district anticipates students will qualify for equal to, or greater scholarship amounts.

Woehr said the district must also decide on various plans, including what types of technologies to implement in the new school, a school motto and school colors. The referendum also authorizes the district to build a new middle school on the property and renovate the New Egypt Elementary School on North Main Street. lentown students," Shanko said, as she waited outside New Egypt Elementary School for her sons, William, 5, and Michael, 6. "I think it's a good idea and I'm looking forward to it," Shanko said. Plumsted Superintendent of Schools Gerald H.

Woehr said all students at Allentown High School receive equal amounts of attention. He said students who attend the new high school will receive the same quality education that is now being offered to their students in kindergarten through grade 8. Judy Smith, Evergreen Road, said she is "worried that some of the kids will be affected by the programs" offered at the new school. Smith, who has one child in high school and three in the district, said some of her kids want the new school and some were looking forward to attending Allentown. and Upper Freehold townships the regional school district must expand its facilities in order to accommodate growth.

Thomas Vona, Al-lentown's principal, said Plumsted students are the majority in the district, but the district still would have to expand even if the Plumsted students leave Allentown High School. "We really couldn't have gone on the way we are," Vona said. "I am really sorry to see them go, but I am also happy for them." Kathy Shanko, Lepky Avenue, said she believes Plumsted students will receive more attention in their own high school than they do in Allentown. "My husband graduated from Allentown High School and he told me that Plumsted students didn't receive as much recognition as the Al "I think that's going to be good," seventh-grader Kevin Donoughe, 12, said of the new school. "It's closer and easier to get to." With Plumsted and two other towns that send their students to Allentown High School Millstone A SERVICE OF THE ASBURY PARK PRESS AND HOME NEWS TRIBUNE Born into a Communist state, young Cubans flock to church where everything goes.

g2SK ftJjft teaffcjfcl "fW jjf Cw 7 m) PAPER '') ON LINE a straight classified ad in our paper and your automatically appear On Line. Straight classified listings updated dally browse all classifications Electronically create send your own straight Mario Espinoza (right), 6, throws coins into a small basket for good luck as he and his friend, Alejandro Orbis, view a nativity display in Havana's cathedral on Christmas Day. 9 ASBURY PARK -i UU Li WW I i I'a 1L We're a part of your life emall: Phayneslnjefsey.com Home News TUibune prelate said. "In your search for sense in your life, look for a centering place: the Catholic Church." Ortega also spoke of young Cubans' mounting interest in the church, saying 1,500 letters reach the Vatican each week from Cuba, most of them from young people. The young men and women, most of them wearing T-shirts announcing the upcoming papal visit, listened attentively and responded enthusiastically.

"Long live the pope!" they shouted. "Long live the church! Long live Cuba!" The Cuban church has no estimates of the number of young people attending services, but a visit to any Roman Catholic parish in Havana will find a majority of worshipers under 30, singing loudly and swaying to the music, holding hands with their friends. At the Medalla Milagrosa church in the Santa Suarez neighborhood, an especially active parish, nearly 500 young people attend catechism classes every Saturday. Born after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power and the ensuing early years of tension between his communist state and the church, Cuba's young Catholics say they rarely have experi THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA They grew up without God in what was once an officially atheist country, the sons and daughters of militant communists who never considered enrolling them in catechism class. Others were baptized as children of nominal Roman Catholics, and never returned to church.

But Cuba's young people are flocking to the Roman Catholic Church and other faiths, searching for lost traditions and a spirituality they say is lacking in their lives. Their presence in the pews has become even more pronounced with the approach of Pope John Paul H's visit to Cuba next month. "I needed a change in my life. My life was so turbulent with too many parties, too much drinking," Alfredo Placensia, 30, said yesterday outside the Jesus de Miramar Catholic Church, where Cuba's leading prelate led a gathering of 1,200 young people. "Now if I don't go to Mass every day, I feel bad.

The church is now the center of my life," he said. Placensia was baptized as an infant, but did not return to church until a year and a half ago. He is studying for his first communion. "These young people are the hope of the church in the 21st century," said the Rev. Felipe Tejerino, the parish priest at Jesus de Miramar.

Tejerino, who is from Spain, said he has seen interest in the church blossom since he arrived in Cuba six years ago. "The young people are looking for a way out from their problems and find that the church satisfies them," the priest said. Yesterday's crowd, including those from their early teens to early 30s, crammed into the pews at Jesus de Miramar Havana's largest church to sing Christmas songs and listen to a special message from Cardinal Jaime Ortega. Ortega warned them to beware of "escapes" from life that could cause physical and spiritual harm drugs, sexual promiscuity, alcohol. "A home with a family, an affectionate life: a husband, a wife, children that is naturally right," the iY NCW5 3Emi SSL, a News W0MW.65, GIVES BOTH v7 A 7 ASSOCIATED PRESS enced the problems some churchgoers did in the 1960s and 1970s.

"I have never been marked for being a Christian," said Joel Este-vez, 16. "Not at school, not anywhere." Castro's communist government officially embraced atheism in 1962,3 and in the years that followed many churchgoers stopped attending religious services for fear of not being seen as sufficiently "revolutionary." But state-church relations have warmed in recent years, especially since the government officially declared itself secular rather than atheist in 1992 and the Communist Party dropped a ban on religious believers in 1991. Even young people from mili-tantly communist, atheist families say they have encountered little resistance from their parents when they announce they are going to church. "My father is a military man, and he didn't really say anything," said Daniel Bruzon, 23. Bruzon began attending church services a year ago, at the invitation of a friend, and plans to be baptized shortly after the pew year.

"I like coming to church," he said. "I find a peace here I can't find anywhere else." ASBURY PARK PRESS We're a part of your life 800-622-97791 www.app.com ON Place ad will EVERYTHING IS ON SALE NOW! Discounts Apply OnlyAtThesa locations AndWIH Hot Be Honored At Any Other H0BO1H BEATS WEWB Locations! CO0D33 HOLMDEL Holmdel Towne Center Route 35 Search classified ads For Additional Info: Call Patty Haynes 908-922-6000x6523 SAVG OM Stem fcdtysfexsl Stereo Rstthrcrs! Sfeektrs! Tshvisiszsl Stress! Cass Ttsettrs! Vd's! tediol Pfcjenf CcZJzr Ftsaesl Fhzsssi toswtrkj Ezzk 173 Tzpsii r.zzt Pedsl fipyChkst Cerarsf Cerpsfcnf Prtttrs! fsx H'zdLlxzs! Stzzzzrt! Ccrfznl llzHrc-t Csmsss! NOTHING HELD DACK! MANUFACTURERS' WARRANTIES APPLY. ALL SALES RNAL, NO REFUNDS or EXCHANGES. QuanttK are Med to stock on hand. All items subject to phot sale.

Sony, checks, traveler checks, special orders, rajnchecks, mal orders, phone orders, or exchanges, cannot do accepted. No adjustments on prior sales. Gift certificates wi be honored. exan SCSO 3 mmMm OLD BRIDGE Route 9 Ernston Road Don't miss a collection of the year's best editorial cartoons by Steve Breen on the Op-Ed page. Friday, Dec.

26 State-inspired cartoons. Friday, Jan. 2 Rationally-inspired cartoons..