Week In Review: Charged Teacher, New Assistant Principal, Improved Property Market

This past week marked the start of a new school year in Montclair—and, in general, another busy week in town. In case you missed them, here are the top five stories from the past seven days in Montclair. If you have any stories you'd like to see covered, please email Shelley@patch.com.

The Montclair School Board has chosen Major Jennings—the former head coach of the Montclair High School basketball team—to replace Samantha Morra as assistant principal of Mount Hebron Middle School. Jennings will serve in the position on an interim basis while the district seeks to first find a permanent principal to replace Guy Whitlock—who was transferred to the district's central office a few months ago—and then to find a permanent assistant principal to replace Morra. The school board also decided to suspend Morra—with pay—pending an investigation into "recent activities." 

The West Orange High School female teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student is scheduled to be arraigned next week in Newark, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Erica Depalo, 33, of Montclair, was , whom she taught in her honors English class at the high school. The relationship began about July 15 and ended on Aug. 28, according to the prosecutor’s office. 

Montclair's housing market continues to pick up, fueled by growing interest from New York City buyers, according to local real estate agents. "We saw a resurgence of Manhattan and Brooklyn buyers this past spring and that should continue in the fall though we likely worked through some of the pent-up demand among buyers awaiting the bottoming out of the market," said Richard Stanton, owner of 

Parts of the Montclair State University campus were closed this week as authorities continued to investigate an unidentifiable object, possibly an explosive device, found on Wednesday. During construction, workers discovered an unidentifiable object Wednesday afternoon on the MSU campus.

Purrs and Paws, a new pet shop working with area animal rescue agencies, will open at 547 Valley Road on Sept. 15. The location formerly housed Well Feathered Nest, a home and gift boutique for people and pets that closed in May after being open only six months. Purrs and Pets is almost directly across fromIggy's Place, a pet store struggling to stay open at 540 Valley Road. But the two establishments will be very different.