EAST NEWARK -- The word of the day was "preparation."
But a young boy in an East Newark School hallway fumbled spelling it - mucking up somewhere around the "a-r-a."
Superintendent Patrick Martin, stood, looking at him expectantly.
The boy couldn't spell it, but other students could - and to the victors, go the spoils.
An "everlasting gobstopper," to be exact.
Martin doles out this colorful candy from his blue fanny pack to the kids who find him in the hallway, accurately spell the day's word - which Martin announces in the morning over the loudspeaker, and then answer a math problem by heart.
According to Martin, about 30 to 40 kids approach him every day for this game.
There's a reason for each word ("We're 'preparing' for the Valentine's Day dance," the superintendent explained), and there's also a reason for this memorization exercise.
It's a small part of a larger undertaking that Martin initiated since starting in the district this year: monthly spelling, vocabulary and math bees - adjusted to each grade in his preK-8 one-school school district, which has 265 students.
According to district teachers, memorization, and "traditional" learning like this, is a good move in their atypical district.
The bees are a diversion from the "higher-order, critical thinking" being emphasized on the state's new PARCC tests this spring.
But the end result, the school community says, has been a fun, newly motivated, and even tighter-knit school.
Though the newly implemented bees are untested so far, East Newark Public School educators cite anecdotal learning improvements.
"Dr. Martin's made a huge impact on the school and the staff and the students. The students love the competition of the bees. They love the bragging rights, like 'I've made it, I've won,'" said 15-year East Newark teacher Jeanine Cruz, a basic skills math instructor. "They've definitely been studying more. It's a definite improvement I've seen."
"It's a small environment, it's a close-knit environment, and we try to use the advantages as much as possible," said District Supervisor Tenelle Edmundson.
"Students and staff are responding very positively [to the bees], and at the very least, it's allowing the students to practice their basic skills," she said. "It's a nice way for them to have a sense of community, and feel a sense of togetherness and have some healthy competition."
Teachers have spoken about seeing academic improvement among some ordinarily struggling students since the bees started, but some students are still trying to master basic concepts, Edmundson noted.
According to the 2013-2014 state performance report, 65 percent of students speak Spanish at home, and nearly 90 percent of students are on free and reduced lunch.
Meanwhile, the school's $38,000 starting teacher salary may be "the lowest in the state of New Jersey," making it hard to keep teachers for long, Martin said.
East Newark itself is a 2,406-person municipality little known outside the immediate area - minus its resident "most famous restaurant in New Jersey," Top's Diner.
Though the district has shown good "student growth" on the NJASK compared to its peers, many students struggle in language arts especially (only 34 percent are proficient or above), according to the state..
Martin acknowledged that bees are "very old-fashioned" and can be derided as "drill and kill," but he's a self-proclaimed "big believer in basics and fundamentals."
"We welcome [PARCC] because it's kind of like 'bring it on,' you know?" he added. "But we're not teaching to it. We don't spend day after day after day doing PARCC practice tests. The object is not to get high scores on the PARCC. The object is to teach the kids."
Others in the community agree that memorization makes sense in East Newark.
"We've been trying for years and years to get them to memorize their facts, but it was something that didn't always work. This year, we've seen a big improvement in that," Cruz said. "There's that controversy 'drill and kill' but it's not something that we're doing in the classroom. It's just that little extra motivation."
East Newark mother Samantha Vieira excitedly watched her son in a third grade spelling bee on a recent Thursday morning.
Her daughter attended kindergarten through eighth grade at East Newark School, and Vieira believes "this year is probably one of the greatest years at East Newark School."
"I think memorization is a good thing," she added. "That's how I learned as a child."
Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.