School News

Montauk

Montauk Public School seventh graders celebrated Buffalo Day. The students received a history lesson from members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation.

To celebrate Halloween, the student council and the students’ parents transformed the school into the halls of horror. Screams could be heard from the parking lot all night.

Mattituck

In time for the start of the holiday season, the Mattituck-Cutchogue School District opened its food pantry and is now accepting donations of nonperishable foods for children and families of the district’s community. The food pantry will be teaming up with the Souper Bowl Food Drive, and all donations can be dropped off in boxes located in the auditorium, cafeteria, blue lobby, gymnasium, guidance office, administration office, and Cutchogue East Elementary School office.

Bridgehampton

Middle School students met with others from East End districts at the bully prevention summit at Hampton Bays High School. They discussed ways to spread kindness and fight bullying.

The Bridgehampton School outdoor club took part in Hampton Library’s “The Great Give Back,” a day of community service at Ocean Road Beach in Bridgehampton. A beautiful Saturday morning brought students and their families out for this “I Spy” cleanup of local beaches.

Members of the Southampton Police Department visited the school to provide students important information on internet safety. Students learned about trusting adults in the school and community.

Bridgehampton’s virtual enterprises international class went to a recent conference at Long Island University. It began with keynote speeches by Marie Moody, creator of Stella & Chewy’s, and Helen Avery, editor of Euromoney Magazine. The students worked in three groups of 500 and participated in an elevator pitch competition. Student Akeem Leckie represented Bridgehampton’s company. Other breakout sessions included financing a business, personal branding, leadership skills, social media marketing, analytics, digital marketing, and the surprising secret to fundraising success.

The Bridgehampton School District is collecting food and toiletry items for deployed military personnel. Food items such as protein bars, peanut butter, gum, beef jerky, dried oatmeal, and dried fruit, along with toiletries like hand sanitizer, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, lip balm, and cough drops are being sought. The collection will end November 26.

“This small act of kindness goes a long way with service members overseas,” Miller said.

Southampton

As part of Anti-Bullying Prevention Month, the Southampton Intermediate School’s guidance department worked with students to create a unity tree in the front lobby of the school. Following discussions about antibullying, students were asked to write a sentence or two on a colorful leaf about how they would address a bullying situation. All of the leaves are displayed on the tree, which will remain in the lobby until the end of the school year.

Tuckahoe

Tuckahoe School’s second-grade students helped harvest carrots in the Tuckahoe Community Garden last month. Isaiah, Alexander, Brandon, and Liliana showed off their hard work. Students were given an opportunity to place the carrots in groups of 10 and skip count to see how many were collected.

Hampton Bays

Students in the Hampton Bays High School science research program helped seed adult clams into Tiana Bay as part of a Shinnecock Bay restoration program October 29.

This is the seventh year in a row that the school’s students have volunteered to restock the local shellfish population and improve water quality. During those years, they have added more than 250,000 clams into no-take zones, which allow the shellfish to reproduce. Their efforts have resulted in an increase of commercial harvests, and for the past two years, there have been no outbreaks of brown tide reported in Shinnecock Bay.

“It is honorable of these students to repeatedly volunteer their time to give back to their local bays,” said science research teacher Dr. Stephanie Forsberg.

Hampton Bays ninth-grader Isabelle Caine and eighth grader Nellie Nicolova performed in the prestigious Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association All-County jazz concert November 2 at East Islip High School. The students were selected based on their solo vocal performances at the New York State School Music Association adjudications last spring and were required to attend nine hours of rehearsals before the All-County performance.

Westhampton Beach

Teachers, principals, administrators, and community members from Long Island school districts came out to Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills November 2 to watch the eighth annual For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics competition invitational, which was presented by the school and School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.

The winning alliance was comprised of Sachem High School’s Sachem Aftershock, Westhampton Beach High School’s Hurricanes, and Hicksville High School’s J-Birds. The finalists were Kings Park High School’s Kingsmen. Patchogue-Medford High School’s Mohawks, and Our Lady of Mercy High School’s Mustangs.

This year’s event featured 17 teams, which competed using the robots they built for the 2019 SBPLI Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition that was held in March. The challenge was dubbed “Destination: deep space,” presented by The Boeing Company. Two three-team alliances had two minutes and 15 seconds to prepare rockets and cargo ships with hatch panels, load as many cargo pods as possible, and return the robot to its habitat.

The invitational is designed to showcase the benefits of robotics programs and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education to students, schools, communities, and local businesses.

The event at Half Hollow Hills signifies the conclusion of the 2019 season. The 2020 FIRST robotics competition season will begin January 4 at LIU Post’s Tilles Center for the Performing Arts.

desiree@indyeastend.com