School News

Springs

Springs School is celebrating the fall season with a variety of seasonal activities.

Each class made scarecrows, which were placed around the school campus. The annual Halloween parade for grades pre-K through fifth grade was held on October 31. Junior high students celebrated Halloween with their own tradition: an idiom contest. They chose an idiom to dress up as and the top three costumes were chosen during a contest.

In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, some of the school’s diversity ambassadors in seventh and eighth grade shared a book called “The Fight of the Crayons” with classes. After reading, ambassadors led a discussion on the themes of diversity, tolerance, and teamwork. Students were given copies of the book that they could color and take home.

Two athletes achieved major accomplishments recently. James Bradley qualified for the varsity county golf tournament, and Brayan Rivera ran the 1.5-mile course at the Sunken Meadow middle school invitational, finishing first out of over 500 middle school male athletes.

The winners of the Red Ribbon Week bulletin board contest were awarded last week. Mrs. Keyes and Ms. Mackey’s third grade class won first place, Ms. Waleko’s second grade class came in second place, and Mrs. Furey’s class came in third.

Third grade teacher Mrs. Branche hosted the annual Veterans Day Spirit Meet. Retired and current service members were honored with a heartwarming ceremony thanking them for their service. The school is collecting leftover Halloween candy to be shipped to soldiers and children overseas. Students can drop donations off in the front lobby, or give them to classroom teachers. The candy buy-back is sponsored by Bach Grazina East End Orthodontics.

Junior high students also enjoyed a Halloween dance. The theme was Day of the Dead, and students enjoyed dancing, pizza, and a costume contest.

Ms. Frazier’s fifth-grade class recently did a science activity with Play-Doh. Students made topographical maps — making mountains and hills with playdough indicating different slopes. The activity reinforced map features, including reading contour lines.

Southampton

Six Southampton High School seniors have been recognized as commended students in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program as a result of their outstanding scores on the qualifying exam. The seniors — Margaret Carter, Dylan Halsey, Brigham Hancock, Taylor Hemby-Ginsberg, Grace Kearns, and Caroline Oakley —placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT.

As part of a new food service initiative, Southampton High School students are being asked to try new menu offerings and provide feedback and ideas. So far this month, students have tried beef tacos, homemade cornbread, beef chili, enchiladas, honey roasted carrots, and vegetable fried rice. All the dishes were prepared fresh and from scratch by food service workers through the Chef Brigade program.

Through this, inaugurated by Director of Food Services Regan Kiembock, the district has contracted with professional chef Tyler Guerin, who is spending 14 weeks at each of the district’s schools to provide hands-on training to food service workers. Already this school year, small changes Guerin has instituted have made a big difference, like replacing canned fruit with fresh pineapple and watermelon.

Pam Collins’s advanced painting students at the high school were given free rein to paint what they wanted using techniques learned earlier this year. Their vibrant works will be added to their portfolios along with future projects, including their next project of oil-based paintings.

Tuckahoe

Tuckahoe School’s first-grade students are learning about the engineering process. They were given a problem, developed a plan, built a structure to solve the problem, then tested their ideas and made changes. They were given toothpicks and gummy bears to build a small structure to support a textbook.

Hampton Bays

The members of the Hampton Bays Elementary School service organization K-Kids recently donated $450 to the American Cancer Society as part of their 15th annual denim day fundraiser. They raised the funds by selling breast cancer awareness bracelets to fellow students, teachers, and administrators. Students and staff also wore jeans and pink October 25 in honor of the cause.

Hampton Bays Middle School fifth-graders’ eyes lit up when they unboxed hundreds of independent reading selections to explore. “The books aim to engage students with their teachers during daily interactive read-alouds, guided reading mini-lessons, shared reading, and independent reading,” said literacy coach Elizabeth Hewitt. “The emphasis is on fostering and encouraging a love of literacy within and outside the classroom.”

The books were delivered as part of the district’s new Fountas and Pinnell classroom curriculum.

To culminate weeks of activities for National Bullying Prevention Month, Hampton Bays Middle School students and staff celebrated Unity Day October 23. Students signed an antibullying pledge during their lunch periods and reflected on they had learned during the past month. The pledge followed several weeks of antibullying events as part of the school counseling department’s “Stop Our Bullying With Kindness” program.

Four Hampton Bays High School Leo Club members — Christopher Barros, Teresa Lauther, Jennifer Quantano, and Alexander Rojas — recently participated in a wheelchair square dance at the Westhampton Care Center. The Leos partnered wheelchair-bound residents and helped them circle to the left, right, and, of course, do-si-do.

Through his school’s science research program, Hampton Bays High School junior Dave Catena is furthering his independent science research on the medical applications of 3D printing. He is being mentored by Dr. Murat Guvendiren, a professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Catena was accompanied by Dr. Stephanie Forsberg, head of Hampton Bays’ science research program, on a tour of Dr. Guvendiren’s biomaterial research lab October 24. Catena has been working on his research project for the past three years. The project has been submitted for a National Science Foundation grant that would incorporate 3D biomedical printing technologies to the Hampton Bays School District’s science research program. The Hampton Bays science research program is a four-year research course of study that culminates with an annual presentation of research projects by students.

Hampton Bays preschoolers were treated to a special Halloween event October 31 at Hampton Bays High School. Members of the high school’s newly-established Tri-M Music Honor Society teamed up with life skills students to entertain the young guests with trick-or-treating, face painting, fall-themed games, and stories.

Westhampton Beach

Eight Westhampton Beach High School students have been selected to perform in prestigious music festivals based on their solo performances at New York State School Music Association adjudications last spring.

Cole Federico was chosen to perform with the NYSSMA All-State symphonic band and the NYSCAME All-County symphony orchestra; Joshua Kaplan was named to the NYSCAME All-County Symphonic Band; Evan Lockwood, Jocelyn McNamara, Spencer Moyle and Mario Ortiz were selected for the NYSCAME All-County mixed chorus; and Kiley Kaiser and Hannah Parson will perform with the NYSCAME All-County treble choir.