These six educators have something more in common than their profession. They all also happen to be DJs.
There's Ron Strauss, a vice principal at Highland Regional High School. Jonathan Strout is a guidance counselor at Cherry Hill East. Joe Smith teaches special education at Toms River South after spending 12 years at Delsea Regional High School. George Passante teaches special education at Kingsway Regional High School, where he also is the boys' basketball coach and junior varsity baseball coach. His brother, Anthony, is a teacher with Gloucester County Special Services. And John DiNardo, who teaches physical education to first and second graders in Harrison Township.
They even have a couple more in training. Rowan University students Frank Galeota and Christian Thomas work as DJs, and are preparing to begin student teaching in physical education.
They all spin discs - well, play CDs - for DiNardo Bros. Entertainment, which was started five years ago by DiNardo and his brother, Michael, who is not a teacher. The company, based in Washington Township, supplies DJs for social events such as weddings, anniversary parties and bar mitzvahs, as well as area bars and nightclubs.
John DiNardo is the one responsible for gathering this collection of music-minded teachers, bringing in colleagues he knew either through teaching or DJ-ing.
"I'm the common denominator," said DiNardo, who has been teaching for 13 years and DJ-ing for 22.
Except for Strauss and DiNardo, they all were teachers before getting into DJ-ing. Strauss started as a high school student and simply continued when he started teaching. DiNardo actually got into teaching through DJ-ing.
"I was performing at school dances, and the administration told me I should seek employment as a physical education teacher because the things I was doing at the dances were similar to what a phys-ed teacher would do," he said. "It is my philosophy that teachers are natural-born entertainers."
At first blush, that would seem not to be so. What could the two possibly have in common?
"When you're a teacher, you're basically entertaining kids all day," said Strauss, a regular DJ at Adelphia in Deptford. "Teachers aren't afraid to get up in front of a group of people."
Anthony Passante said he liked to "entertain. Get out in front of a couple hundred people on Friday and Saturday night and entertain them."
Getting out in front of people led directly to Anthony Passante's getting into DJ-ing, his brother recalled.
"My parents were holding a benefit beef-and-beer," George Passante said. "John was DJ-ing it. He was doing a dance and went into what you might call a jump split. My brother and I saw this. Anthony knew he could do a flip, so he went out there and did it. John laughed and told him he was hired. The next day, John brought Anthony a tuxedo, and he worked that night."
DJ-ing not only can be physically demanding, it makes demands on your time.
"Our Fridays start at 6 a.m. and might not end until midnight, 2 a.m.," DiNardo said.
They do it not only because, as DiNardo said, "it's a nice supplement to your teaching income."
They do it because they love it.
"It's our passion," he said.
