South Side High School - Optimist Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

Page 6 text:

PteAentincj, MR MKglR ML From a high school student who always liked the atmosphere of a school, to a teacher who specialized in social studies—that's the background of our new principal. Michael Conovitz. Going back to the days before he attended Harvard University, from where he was graduated. Mr. Conovitz can recall the eventful trips to and from his high school. A native Brooklynite, he attended Eastern District High School which was three miles from his home. This meant traversing many city blocks, each of which was ruled by a gang of boys. It became the job of the students to get by each street as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Though he often arrived at school bedraggled, he was never late. Editor of his school newspaper, president of his school's student government. and president of his senior class, the will to teach seemed to be inborn in Mr. Conovitz. Even in his high school days he tutored non-students. Although a debater, he participated in such sports as basketball, tennis, rowing, and handball. He has always disliked quitters, whether on the athletic lield or in the classroom, but has admired students who could and would buckle-down to their studies, despite their opinions of teaching conditions or teachers. His graduate work, done at Columbia University, the University of Vermont, and New York University, was followed by numerous teaching appointments in Brookline, Massachusetts. Brooklyn, New York, and Manhattan, and in 1948 he was appointed to be principal at Central Evening High School. Then he came to South Side! The school was marked immediately by a growing feeling of school pride and spirit, all injected by Mr. Conovitz's efforts to make South Side a better school. After a few months here, he thinks that S. S. is on the way up in all ways . Confident that with our wonderful faculty” and our nice student body , we're sure to become an outstanding school, he takes pride in all our activities. We are sure that if there is anything that can be done for South Side by its principal. Mr. Conovitz is the man to do that job—and well!

Page 8 text:

©I? SEU IEU' Q ¥ We can, without exaggeration, say that Miss Black has truly been the queen of all our hearts. Always ready with a suggestion, she proved more than once to be our trump card. Without her optimistic encouragement, many of our successful projects might never have been ventured. Because of her ceaseless efforts to help our class as a whole, coupled with an avid interest in us individually, she has done an excellent job as our grade advisor. A D 4