JACKSON – Superintendent Nicole Pormilli shared some very positive news involving money heading to the school district during a recent Board of Education meeting.
This proved a stark contrast to prior Board meetings where staff reductions were announced along with several hits to programs due to state aid cuts to the district over the last five years.
“We have something positive that we learned about and now that it is official, I want to take a moment to publicly recognize a very generous donation that the district will be receiving. We aren’t sure when we will receive it. It may be a long time to when we see this donation,” the superintendent said.
She relayed the source of the donation and the interesting history behind it. She said it was an example of “how we have such giving and caring people in our communities that really care about our kids and their education.”
Pormilli noted the Switlik School and that most people “may not know the history behind it. The school opened in 1948 on a plot of land donated by a man named Stanley Switlik. The 160-acre plot was so large that eventually the district was able to open a junior senior high school (Jackson Memorial High School) plus the Switlik School.”
“Mr. Switlik was a Polish and Ukrainian immigrant who bought a small leather and canvas business in Trenton in the 1920s and he turned that business into the Switlik parachute company which became the largest supplier of parachutes in the nation,” she added.
The superintendent further explained, “his company outfitted early aviation pioneers such as Amelia Earhart and in 1934 Mr. Switlik and Mr. George Putnam, who was Ameilia Earhart’s husband, formed a joint venture to build a 115 foot tall tower at Switlik’s Prospertown Farm in Ocean County. It was designed to train airmen in parachute jumping similar to the towers we eventually built in our military bases throughout the country and trained thousands of World War II airborne soldiers.”
“The company reached peak production of 2,500 parachutes a week during World War II in fact one of the parachutes saved the life of former president Navy Lt. George Bush when his plane was shot down over the Pacific in 1944,” she added.
Pormilli said during the Korean War the Switliks donated “valuable parachute patents to the U.S. government. His company was the first to develop crash helmets for motorcycles and also worked with NASA on G-force survival suits for both humans and monkeys.”
“Today the Switlik company still makes survival suits for the U.S. Air Force and air forces around the world as well as well as emergency inflatables,” she added.
Students and staff of the Switlik School take part in an activity. (Photo courtesy Jackson Schools)
“Mr. Switlik died in 1981 and for many years after that his children and relatives would continue to come and talk with the students of Switlik which is one of the two schools that bear his name. The other one is in Florida,” Pormilli said.
“A few months ago we were notified that Mr. Switlik’s legacy of generosity to Jackson lives on and through the estate of his daughter Michelle Alter we would receive trust funds in the amount of $1.2 million. As you know during these fiscal budget times and crisis we are in, it has been an incredible difficult time for the district and it means so much to us here,” Pormilli added.
“I am so happy that the grant went through and that my great grandfather’s legacy lives on. Supporting education and funding the future via the children was always a big deal to Stanley,” Switlik Survival Products Chief Operating Officer Sarah Switlik told The Jackson Times.
She added that her great grandfather, “passed those sentiments onto all his children and it has always flowed down to us. The company continues to support schools, particularly elementary schools in his honor. Clearly my great aunt and her daughter also valued this and it is shown with how they sorted their estates.”
Pormilli said, “I think it is wonderful that the dreams and inventions of Stanley Switlik continue to play important roles in the caring and saving of human life and that his commitment to the students of Jackson continues to live on.”
“We are so grateful to the Switlik family for their generosity and we are proud to continue his story and the impact that he and his family have made for our students,” Pormilli added.
“Such a nice story. It is an incredible donation. We are blessed to have that and hopefully we will receive that soon,” Pormilli said.
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