Making the Grade: Plainview-Old Bethpage, Babylon and Amityville students win New York State Art Teachers Association flag design contest

Students from the Plainview-Old Bethpage, Babylon and Amityville school districts have been named winners of a statewide flag design contest that received more than 1,700 entries.

Marlo Connor, a fifth-grader at Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School, was the overall winner in the annual contest, coordinated by the New York State Art Teachers Association. This year’s contest asked students to design flags under the theme “Dream in Art.”

Marlo’s winning submission was a mixed-media piece of a student sleeping in a bed, which is riding waves in front of a skyline made up of newspaper print. Her design will be displayed as a 3-by-5-foot flag in April at the National Art Education Association’s 2024 National Convention in Minneapolis.

“I thought about it for the whole day,” Marlo said of her design. “In class, we were working with a lot of different mediums like colored pencils, crayons, markers and collage, so I knew I wanted to include at least a couple of them.”

Other local winners were Amityville Memorial High School sophomore Guadalupe Hernandez Granados, who was named winner on the high school level, and Babylon Junior/Senior High School eighth-grader Olivia Lee, who was named winner on the middle school level.

The competition was held in celebration of the Council for Art Education’s Youth Art Month in March.

ISLIP

New principal

Jacqueline Beckmann has been appointed principal of Commack Road Elementary School. She replaced David Seinfeld, who held the position on an interim basis.

Beckmann served for the past two years as principal of Lawrence Elementary School in the Lawrence school district and before that was an assistant principal since 2016. She has also worked as a first- and fourth-grade teacher for the New York City Department of Education.

“I plan to build strong relationships with students, teachers and families, creating a powerful network of support that helps every child thrive,” Beckmann said.

DIX HILLS

Adolescent Voices

Half Hollow Hills High School East sophomore AnnaBelle Deaner recently launched a new quarterly literary magazine, “Adolescent Voices,” which serves as a forum for youth who are interested in writing poetry, prose and editorials and want to be a “voice for positive change,” she said.

The magazine’s first issue, which was published in the fall, featured material that covered topics such as environmental conservation and seasonal affective disorder. Submissions are open to individuals ages 13-23 and can be made through the magazine’s website: adolescentvoices.org.

“Solitary acts of self-expression have become increasingly rare as social media use has grown at an exponential rate during the last decade,” Deaner said.

ISLANDWIDE

Education Partners

Eleven individuals and three organizations have been named 2024 Education Partners by Nassau BOCES for their “profound effects on public education in Nassau County,” the agency said.

This year’s winners: Laura Bagdziunas and Jerry Nobile, educators, Nassau BOCES Long Island High School for the Arts; Robert Connolly, commanding officer of homeland security, Nassau County Police Department; Vera Feuer, assistant vice president, Northwell Health’s School of Mental Health; Dawn Haskell-Carbone, curriculum coordinator, Nassau BOCES Vision Services; Gina Pellettiere, the late music teacher for the Farmingdale School District who died last year in a bus crash in Orange County; Michelle Pineda-Rodgers, director of bilingual education and world languages, Hempstead School District; Stephanie Ralton, counselor, Howard B. Mattlin Middle School in Plainview; Alexia Vitsos, student, Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District; Danielle Williams, director of alternative programs, Valley Stream Central High School District; and Tiffany Wong, student, Elmont Memorial High School. The three organizations were the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, the Herstory Writers Network in Centereach and For the Love of Pete’s Pantry in Levittown.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.