School News

Riverhead Central School District

Riverhead High School NJROTC cadets recently visited national heritage sites and military installations in New London, Connecticut; Newport, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. During the informative tour, students explored the historic Breakers mansion and the USS Constitution.

In other school news, six Riverhead Middle School students earned accolades from the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Van Rensselaer-Skidmore Post 2476 for essays they wrote for the Patriot’s Pen essay contest.

The students’ winning essays were selected from a field of more than 700 written pieces. The district extends its congratulations to Matthew Alonso, Joseph McCormack, Rachel Hubbard, Kyle Ruschin, Kelsey Squires, and Riley Wendt.

Riley Avenue Elementary School fourth-graders, using paper, glue, markers, and recycled items, engineered a variety of inventions as part of a project held to honor Earth Day and enhance STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) skills.

The STEAM challenge was conducted in conjunction with the Town of Riverhead Recreation Department, which invited the students to envision, design, and build an invention to showcase in its Future Engineers Gallery at the George Young Community Center on April 21. In addition to Earth Day, the exercise supported National Library Week and the district’s STEAM initiatives and Maker Movement.

Hampton Bays School District

The members of Hampton Bays Elementary School’s community service club, K-Kids, recently raised more than $400 for the Ronald McDonald House as part of a kickball fundraiser. The students garnered sponsorships from friends and family to play an hourlong kickball game.

Southampton School District

Southampton High School teacher Kim Milton is selected as the 2018 recipient of the Suffolk Section of the Science Teachers Association of New York State’s High School Science Teacher of the Year Award. Milton is an earth science teacher and K-2 science curriculum liaison.

A 10-year veteran of Southampton High School, Milton joins an elite group of science educators who have demonstrated that they are not only outstanding classroom teachers, but have endeavored to provide students and teachers with programs and strategies for the advancement of science education in and outside of the classroom.

Milton, a Riverhead resident who is a national board-certified teacher, is part of the National Science Teachers Association and New York State Master Teacher Program.

Tuckahoe School District

Metropolitan Transit Authority police officers John Matarazzo and Tom Merkel visited Ms. Verdeschi’s seventh-grade Lion’s Quest classes to speak about their careers and about staying safe.

Environmental Conservation Officer Rob McCabe met with Tuckahoe seventh graders in the Tuckahoe School Library to share information and his experiences protecting our local environment. A good time was had by all because the officers were very entertaining, as well as informative and inspirational.

Westhampton Beach School District

Westhampton Beach Elementary School students celebrated Earth Day by participating in a number of activities on April 20.

They reduced and reused by making crafts out of toilet paper rolls, pledged to take care of the planet, wrote poetry about the planet and donated to the Quogue Wildlife Rescue through a Coins for Creatures fundraiser.