Four eighth-graders at Glenfield Middle School are producing, hosting and writing original theme music for a brand-new student podcast. Before they recorded a single episode, they studied the Montclair Pod.
The Glenfield Pod launched this spring with backing from an IdeaLab grant from the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, known as MFEE, a nonprofit that has funded teachers’ big ideas in Montclair Public Schools for 35 years. This year’s grants centered on the theme “civics in our schools,” and Howard Weinrib, a yearbook teacher at Glenfield for 18 years, wrote a proposal that won one.
How a Teacher’s Car Commute Became a Civics Classroom
Weinrib got the idea the way a lot of good ideas happen: he was in the car.
According to MFEE’s press release announcing the project, Weinrib said the idea came during long hours spent driving. “I’m in the car a lot,” he said. “I thought, why don’t we have our own show?”
In his grant proposal, Weinrib described a studio where students would do more than record. His goal was to “cultivate informed, empowered, and articulate young citizens who actively contribute to their school, local community, and beyond,” blending technology with hands-on civic education. MFEE awarded the grant, the studio was built, and four students, Ruby, Nesa, Lila and Asher, took the mic.
The First Episode: Glenfield Students Tackle Montclair’s Budget Crisis
When it came time to book their first guest, the students knew exactly who to call.
Masiel Rodriquez-Vars, executive director of MFEE, had helped make the whole project possible. On a recent school day, she visited Glenfield and sat down with the student hosts for a conversation that moved from the serious to the surprisingly light.
Rodriquez-Vars talked about what drives her work: a belief that every student in Montclair deserves a genuinely equitable education, not just in principle but in practice. That means programming on race and identity, support for multilingual students navigating a system where English is not their first language, and initiatives designed to reach students individually, not just as a group. She spoke about MFEE’s role in funding exactly that kind of work when the district budget cannot, a topic she has also discussed on the Montclair Pod.
Rodriquez-Vars also reflected on the broader challenges facing Montclair Public Schools, including financial pressures and staff morale, while emphasizing the importance of continuing to invest in creative, community-building projects for students.
“I genuinely believe deep in my soul that if any community can really wrestle with these complicated questions around the health and thriving of public schools, it’s this community,” she said.
The conversation also covered the $19.6 million deficit reshaping Montclair’s public schools, the challenges of nonprofit fundraising and diversity in the district more broadly. Then it found its way to reality TV when Rodriquez-Vars mentioned MFEE’s upcoming spring fundraiser, Minute to Win It.
In comments shared through MFEE’s release announcing the project, Rodriquez-Vars said she was “so honored to be interviewed by these incredible students. They were well-prepared, asked thoughtful questions, showed curiosity, professionalism, and poise. All things we hoped this project would help to cultivate.”
For the full picture on the budget crisis the students discussed, read our reporting: Montclair’s Budget Reality Check: Inside the District’s Latest Town Hall.
What Students Are Actually Building
Running a podcast means handling every dimension of the show. Ruby, Nesa, Lila and Asher conduct research, serve as hosts, manage technical production and compose original theme music.
Weinrib designed the project to build skills that extend well past audio. Students are developing media literacy, the ability to read, evaluate and produce content across formats, alongside public speaking, civic knowledge and the discipline of engaging seriously with ideas they may not agree with.
The experience has already landed.
One student host, Lila, said in the release that the experience “makes us feel like a part of something. Feeling like a leader is important.”
Each year MFEE distributes $60,000 in grants to educators across Montclair Public Schools, funding projects that would not otherwise survive a district budget. The Glenfield Pod studio is one direct result.
Listen to the first episode of the Glenfield Pod here.
