School Notebook: Smithtown West wins fundraising competition
Smithtown High School West’s Relay for Life Club raised more than $7,000, the most out of 32 high schools nationwide, to place first among high schools as part of the American Cancer Society's Fall Fumble competition. To raise funds, students sold items ranging from bagels to waffles. Credit: Dillon Archer
Smithtown High School West has taken the top spot in a national fundraising competition coordinated by the American Cancer Society.
The school’s Relay for Life Club recently raised $7,000 — the most out of 32 high schools nationwide — and placed first among high schools as part of the society’s Fall Fumble competition.
The bracket-style tournament, which spanned four weeks this past fall, challenged the country’s top fundraising high schools and colleges to face off each week to see which could raise more money in a seven-day period. All donations went to the American Cancer Society.
“The students worked so hard,” said Dillon Archer, a Smithtown West social studies teacher and an adviser for the school’s Relay for Life Club. “Even though they’re young, cancer has already affected a lot them in some way, shape or form.”
To raise funds, Smithtown West students coordinated the sales of everything from bagels to waffles. Each dollar raised equaled one point, with the points for the losing school added to the winning school’s score each week.
The final two high schools, Smithtown West and Tartan High School in Oakdale, Minnesota, competed for a 24-hour period on Giving Tuesday, which was Nov. 29. Smithtown West finished with 6,052 points.
BALDWIN
Students in the Plainview-Old Bethpage school district learn the basics of structural integrity using plastic cups as part of Engineering Awareness Night, which was led by the Plainview-Old Bethpage J.F.K. High School’s robotics team. Other activities included building and launching paper rockets and creating electrical circuits with Play-Doh. Credit: Plainview-Old Bethpage School District
Featured ensemble
Baldwin High School’s wind symphony was the only Long Island group to perform as a featured ensemble last month at the New York State School Music Association’s 86th Annual Winter Conference in upstate Rochester. The invitation is among the highest honors statewide for a school ensemble, the association said.
The 48-member symphony was selected based on recorded performances of Davide delle Cese’s “Inglesina,” Vincent Persichetti’s “Pageant” and Norman Dello Joio’s “Satiric Dances.”
“With the theme of this year’s conference being ‘Belonging, Equity, Diversity and Representation,’ we are excited to showcase not just the diverse students of Baldwin but a really musical, artistically satisfying program of music by composers from diverse backgrounds,” said Scott Dunn, the band’s co-director with Deanna Nikirk.
In East Setauket, Brook Laine, left, and Samantha Margulies were among students in Ward Melville High School’s principles of engineering classes who created locking safes almost entirely from cardboard with at least one method of securing the door. Credit: Three Village Central School District
HUNTINGTON
New principal
Stephanie L. Campbell has been appointed principal of Nathaniel Woodhull Intermediate School. She replaced Scott Oshrin, who is now an assistant superintendent in the Commack School District.
Campbell previously served as an elementary instructional coordinator at Ocean Avenue Elementary School in Northport since 2019. Before that, she was a third- and fifth-grade teacher at the school for five years and worked as a teacher at elementary schools in Virginia.
“I am excited and honored to be joining the Woodhull Intermediate School community and look forward to building positive relationships with the students, staff and families,” Campbell said. “Together we will build upon our strengths, celebrate our differences, and continue to make Woodhull a wonderful place to learn and grow.”
In West Islip, kindergartners at Paul J. Bellew Elementary School learned about stars and constellations in the high school’s planetarium and then made telescopes from cardboard tubes in their school’s STEM lab. Credit: West Islip School District
ISLANDWIDE
Coca-Cola Scholar semifinalists
Fifty-one Long Island students are among 1,557 semifinalists nationwide in the 2023 Coca-Cola Scholars Program, which will name 150 scholars this spring to receive $20,000 scholarships. Students are evaluated on factors such as academic achievements, community service and leadership skills.
Semifinalists and their school districts are: Victoria Allen and Janae Lindsay, Baldwin; Michael Beirne, Bay Shore; Otto Velting, Bellmore-Merrick; Brett Patrick, Deer Park; Nicole Mazza and Sarah Vasquez, East Islip; Joshua DeLuccia, East Meadow; Mahdi Bhalloo, East Williston; Angelina DeMarco and Nathaniel Tyll, Elwood; Jillian Chang, Sebastian Lennox, Kevin Ou Yang and Rachel Woo, Great Neck; Samir Batheja and Arissa Zheng, Half Hollow Hills; Ivie-Ann Mergille, Harborfields; Navya Gautam, Hauppauge; Namit Kapoor, Carolyn Lau and Patrick Leu, Herricks; Isabella Diaz, Hicksville; Kevin Zhu, Jericho; Faid Faisal and Daniel Scimecca, Levittown; Juliette Bohn and Alexandra Spector, Lynbrook; Grace Leppard, Manhasset; Jenna Sledjeski, Mattituck-Cutchogue; Thomas DiLeo and Jesse Sheps, Plainview-Old Bethpage; Sophia Augier, Smithtown East; Zahra Choudry, South Huntington; Danna Duarte Giron, Southold; Sabrina Guo, Syosset; Mikaeel Zohair, Three Village; Samantha Altieri, Valley Stream Central; Ashlee Boodoo, Gloria Guerrier and Victoria Guerrier, West Hempstead; and Berlinda Pierre Louis, Westbury.
Other semifinalists were: Jesus Garcia, Kieran Rafferty, Lucas Randell and Nicholas Soliman, Chaminade High School in Mineola; Shadia Suha, Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead; Grace LoPiccolo and Emily Moreno, St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington; Grace Leppard, St. Mary’s High School in Manhasset; and Alicia Soler, St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip.
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.
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9/11 on Long Island ... East Quogue district hires armed guard ... Trump rally in Uniondale ... Presidential debate recap
