Although he does not like to be credited, Brian Gatens presented the idea of bringing in a national-level speaker to various school districts throughout the Pascack Valley area.

Since the districts tend to be small in size, Gatens believed that joining forces with all eight districts could bring in known speakers for a reasonable cost.

This program, known as the Distinguished Speaker Series, allows all districts to have access to speakers that they could never have without the aid of other districts.

“We’re in this together after all,” Gatens, Superintendent of Schools and superintendent for the Emerson Public School district, said.

This year, William Deresiewicz, an author, essayist, and critic, will be doing a keynote address and a book signing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday Feb. 6 in the Pascack Valley auditorium.

Deresiewicz wrote “Excellent Sheep,” a book that gives his outlook on the high-pressure admissions process and what the elite colleges should be providing, but are not. With him being on Yale admissions, he saw what students were going through firsthand.

“I think it’s an important book for students caught up in the stress of college admissions as well as for their parents,” said Matthew Morone, a PV English teacher. “The books shines a light on the risks of compromising individuality and health for the name on the diploma.”

This year is the third annual Distinguished Speaker Series for the eight districts: Emerson, Hillsdale, Montvale, Park Ridge, Pascack Valley, River Vale, Westwood, and Woodcliff Lake. They are a part of Region 2, a group of communities that work closely together on a variety of different initiatives in the area of special education.

“With the Speaker Series that we have had in the past and the one coming up, we always tend to have authors that are thought provoking and encourage people to look at how they are educating students and how they are raising children in a slightly different way that might be efficient to students in the future,” Erik Gundersen, the Pascack Valley District Superintendent, said.

The past speakers included Simone Marean and Jessica Lahey.

Gundersen stated that since PV has the largest auditorium and is centrally located in the region, they usually host the speaker.

The speaker for the Distinguished Speaker Series is chosen by all the superintendents of the districts. They all agree on one for the year. Gatens coordinates the effort of who will be selected as the speaker, according to Gundersen.

The goal of the speaker series is make the community more knowledge thus bettering the schools.

“The speaker series are typically geared towards parent education,” Gatens said. “This is the case this time but students are more than welcome to come and listen to the author speak. It’s all about how we can do a better job of educating and leading students into a direction that they’re passionate or interested about in the future and not just conforming to what is expected of them in society.”