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Mallie Jane Kim

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Barbara Ransome

By Mallie Jane Kim

Port Jefferson Village is a North Shore gem for locals and visitors alike, with restaurants and shops a cornerstone of this historic district experience. For decades, Barbara Ransome, 16-year director of operations for the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, has worked tirelessly and effectively to keep this charming corner of Long Island thriving.

“Barbara is a force of nature,” said Stuart Vincent, president of the chamber and senior community relations program manager at Mather Hospital. 

Vincent praised Ransome’s ability to organize complicated logistics of village events, and to make sure everything the chamber hosts — from the Health and Wellness festival to the Santa parade — is successful. She also keeps abreast of any new regulation or change that might impact local business, attending countless relevant meetings to keep chamber partners informed. She even dresses as the Easter Bunny for Port Jefferson’s Easter parade and egg hunt.

“Barbara’s all over,” Vincent said. “I wonder sometimes how she gets everything done in the day.”

Ransome, who also owns and operates The Ransome Inn on East Broadway, has brought to the village events like the Dragon Boat Race Festival, the Chowder Crawl during Oktoberfest and the Mac & Cheese Crawl during the village Ice Festival — all features that add to the tangible sense of place in Port Jefferson while drawing more customers to local retail shops and restaurants. 

Her presence has added to a sense of unity among village community leaders as well. According to Lobster House owner James Luciano, who is also president of the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District (BID), Ransome goes above and beyond to volunteer her time to help. 

“If there’s a chamber partner out there who needs help, she’s there,” Luciano said. “Any time I need help with anything, she’s always the first one asking, ‘What do you need?’”

Ransome served six terms in local elected positions, including as village trustee and deputy mayor, so she has a deep understanding of how the system works, and she is adept at helping business owners navigate bureaucracy.

Luciano added that she has been an invaluable partner for other organizations looking to serve the village, including the Business Improvement District. 

“The chamber and the BID used to be very separate years ago, and now they’re very much one and the same,” Luciano said, describing the tight relationship his organization has formed with the Chamber of Commerce. “Having someone as committed as her is what really makes it happen.”

For Ransome herself, keeping the chamber running springs naturally from her personality and her long history in the village.

“I do like to work,” she said. “My motivation is to make sure that things are done correctly and the chamber as a whole benefits.”

Ransome also credits her success to having a board that trusts and supports her, due to her reputation for doing the right thing. 

“There’s an expression in the horticultural community of a ‘proven winner,’” she said, referring to plants that have a track record of success. “I think that’s what I am for them — I’m a proven winner in doing the job here.”

For her unflagging commitment to the continued success of Port Jefferson Village, TBR News Media recognizes Barbara Ransome as a 2024 Person of the Year.

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Horseshoe crab. Stock photo
Gov. Hochul says regulation authority should stay with DEC

By Mallie Jane Kim 

New York’s horseshoe crabs remain available to use as bait, after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the practice. Long Island environmental groups that had advocated for increased protections were not happy with the move.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY.) Photo Courtesy of www.governor.ny.gov

“I’m angry and disappointed,” said George Hoffman, cofounder of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, which monitors water quality in area harbors and was one of about 60 organizations that signed on to a September letter urging Hochul to sign the bill.

“It will be hard to build enthusiasm among the environmental community for this governor,” Hoffman said.

Hochul’s Dec. 13 veto argued the species is already regulated by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), and said the bill could have “unintended consequences” on managing species like whelk and eel, which are harvested using horseshoe crabs as bait. 

“While this bill is well intentioned,” she wrote in a letter to the state assembly, “the management of marine species is better left to the experts at DEC.”

She also expressed concern the bill could be detrimental to the commercial fishing industry and the biomedical field, which uses horseshoe crab blood in the development of vaccines.

Members of the commercial fishing industry were grateful for the reprieve. 

“We’re thrilled that legislation didn’t take the place of science,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.  

Brady questions the sufficiency of methodology and equipment used to count New York’s crab population for the ASMFC’s report, which rated the state’s stock of horseshoe crabs as “poor.” She laid out her concerns in a letter to Hochul earlier this month, arguing the species is already highly regulated and not overharvested. 

“Fishermen’s lives and livelihoods depend on this,” Brady said. “Fishermen deserve the best science available — we aren’t doing anything that’s even close to on par with what other states are doing.”

Brady added that fishermen do not want to see the species depleted, and they will work within the regulations they are given.

Before its veto, the bill drew attention from legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who urged Hochul to sign the bill to protect the ancient species, calling on their “shared sense of responsibility for the natural world.”

For her part, Hochul said she is directing DEC to evaluate whether additional measures could help protect the species, and she pointed to the agency’s current efforts to address concerns about overharvesting, including harvest prohibitions during the May and June spawning season. The agency also limits the annual horseshoe crab harvest in New York waters to 150,000, which is half the quota allowed by the ASMFC.

Environmental groups are not taking her assurance as consolation. 

“Governor Hochul didn’t just drop the ball; she dropped the axe,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, in a statement. “It’s unacceptable to allow the continued antiquated practice of chopping up horseshoe crabs so they can be used as bait by fishermen.”

Esposito said her organization will keep advocating for stronger regulations to ensure long-term protection of the species.

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Ward Melville High School. File photo

Debate over arming school security guards continues

By Mallie Jane Kim

School building maintenance and improvement projects warrant considering a bond in Three Village Central School District, according to district officials.

A bond, which would need voter approval, would allow the district to borrow money over a 15-year term to address needs such as repairing the cupolas that top the aging brick buildings, updating science labs and adding air conditioning to elementary school cafeterias.

The annual increase in cost to the average taxpayer would be about $284, according to an estimate by interim Deputy Superintendent Jeffrey Carlson.

New York State building aid currently reimburses 66% of the cost and interest involved in building projects in Three Village, money that would be paid out over that same 15-year term as the loan.

“If we’re in agreement that work needs to be done, a bond is the fairest way for taxpayers to pay for it,” Carlson said at a Dec. 11 school board meeting. “No matter how you look at it, it’s a great deal that somebody else is paying two thirds of the cost of any of the projects that we have to do.”

The 66% reimbursement rate is high for a wealthier district like Three Village, due to a quirk in the building aid formula that states a district will get either the result of a wealth-calculation formula or the percentage it got the previous year, whichever is higher. 

After Gov. Kathy Hochul’s attempts last year to cut state aid to many school districts, including about $8 million from Three Village, school officials wonder if the building aid formula may also face future adjustments. If so, Three Village building aid from the state could drop to 37.6% based on current wealth levels, according to Carlson, who added that voting to secure a bond would lock in the current aid rate. Any actual work would likely begin summer of 2026.

“Issuing a bond now should secure, in principle, this favorable reimbursement throughout the term of the bond,” said Tracy Harris, reading from a statement by a bond committee made up of parents, community members and stakeholders from district employee groups.

The committee visited each building for a firsthand review of projects that would fall under the bond and, after almost a year of discussions, unanimously recommended the board approve a referendum at the “earliest reasonable date.”

The committee also recommended a tiered approach with multiple propositions, separating out greater needs in one proposition and lower-priority needs in another, contingent on voters adopting the first proposition. 

“This tiered approach empowers the community to support the level of investment they deem appropriate while maximizing the likelihood that critical projects are funded,” read Harris.

But Carlson cautioned the tiers could imply projects in a secondary proposition are not important. He said air conditioning in elementary school cafeterias and junior high school gyms may sound superfluous, except for a new state law requiring schools vacate rooms that reach 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot June or September days could render those spaces unusable. 

“Air conditioning is not quite the luxury that it used to be,” Carlson said.

If the school board decides to approve a referendum at its January 8 meeting, residents could potentially vote on the bond in March, before the district begins its 2025-2026 budget planning. 

Parents speak out against arming security guards

Debate among district parents about whether to arm school security guards continues to percolate after a student accidentally brought a parent’s loaded law enforcement weapon into a classroom at Ward Melville High School on Oct. 10. 

District officials have said they are reviewing and updating security protocol, including working to acquire an AI weapons detection system. A newly formed parent group has called publicly over the past months for metal detectors and armed security guards, but now others are speaking against such measures.

“Actively bringing firearms to the school campus, regardless of whose hands they are in, is not the answer,” argued parent Ian Farber during the board meeting’s public comment section. “It’s incumbent on all of us to bolster effective security measures, not succumb to fears. For if we live in fear, we lose.”

One major concern was whether students with anxiety, ADHD or autism may, in a moment of crisis, inadvertently appear to be a threat to an armed security guard unfamiliar with how to appropriately deescalate such situations.

Others said armed guards and metal detectors offer a “false sense of security” and pointed to a 2021 academic study published on the JAMA network that found school shootings where armed guards were present had a 2.83% greater rate of deaths.

“There are more effective things that we can do before we go to the knee-jerk reaction of putting in metal detectors and armed guards,” said district parent Nadia Busseuil, who suggested preventative measures like addressing bullying and making sure kids are connected to caring adults like teachers, guidance counselors and psychologists.

To those who prefer arming guards, the option is not knee-jerk but a long time coming. 

Three Village parent Alex Dicpinigaitis said district solutions like AI weapons detection are a waste of time.

“At the end of that project, we’ll still have the same situation but with a bigger tax bill: We’ll still have a bad guy with a gun and no good guy with a gun to stop him,” said Dicpinigaitis, whose Facebook group 3v Parents for Armed Security has over 200 members. “For a significantly lower price, we can arm our guards today.”

Groups on both sides of this issue are circulating petitions to present to the Board of Education. 

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Scientists, clean-water advocates, elected officials and Setauket marina owners pose with buckets of shells stocked with larval oysters. Photo by Mallie Jane Kim

By Mallie Jane Kim

In the thick mud of low tide at Setauket’s Shore Road Marina, volunteers and scientists in knee-high rubber boots dumped out a jumble of shells along the shoreline — each with larval oysters attached, ready to grow and help eventually filter the water.

Photo by Mallie Jane Kim

This Nov. 25 “oyster planting” was part of a partnership between volunteer organization Setauket Harbor Task Force, which monitors area water quality, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program. The planting of about 16,000 larval oysters was funded as part of an $80,000 water quality grant secured in 2022 through the effort of Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) during his time in the state assembly.

“We’re making the harbor clean today,” Englebright quipped during the event. “We’re taking the credit, but the oysters are doing all the work.”

Oysters filter feed, removing nitrogen and other harmful elements from the water, either consuming them or binding them into the mud. An adult oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The larval oysters planted in Setauket Harbor are about six months old and were procured by researchers from the Cornell Cooperative. The hope is that the shellfish will grow and spawn, eventually creating an oyster reef with critical mass that can help improve water quality. Marina owners Seth Walker and Mallory Guerin, who opened their shoreline to welcome this project, are also allowing the group to set up an oyster garden on a floating dock in 2025.

“This is a really important educational thing for the community,” said Matt Sclafani, the Cornell Cooperative senior extension resource educator. “When you get a community invested in it, then that increases ownership, and you get more people lobbying for things. Then you can have a bigger plan to improve the water quality.”

But oysters are only one step in the process of cleaning water.

Sclafani explained that a comprehensive water quality improvement plan must include reducing stormwater runoff as well as improving sanitation systems over the currently prevalent cesspools. 

“The oysters can’t do it on their own,” Sclafani said. “It’s a big picture, it’s a complex picture, but it starts here.”

Photo by Mallie Jane Kim

New York voters in November approved a proposition to add a .125% sales tax increase toward funding new sewers and replacing aging cesspools. According to the proposition, there are currently 209,000 cesspools in “environmentally sensitive areas” of Suffolk County. Additionally, the Town of Brookhaven in 2023 installed a drainage system along Route 25A in Setauket to help decrease the stormwater that was previously running straight into the harbor.

The town was also instrumental in the oyster-planting process. Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) led the council in designating the area as a management district, allowing the initiative to move forward with minimal bureaucracy since the work is intended to improve environmental conditions.

Setauket Harbor has long been restricted from shellfish harvesting because of unhealthy water quality and bacteria.

“This is one piece of a bigger puzzle for us, basically just trying to be stewards of these waters,” Kornreich said at the event. “It’s a full spectrum approach to trying to improve water quality, and shellfish mariculture is a really important piece of it.”

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Young horseshoe crabs at West Meadow Beach, Stony Brook. File photo

By Mallie Jane Kim

Legendary conservationist Jane Goodall added her voice to those asking Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to sign a bill that would prevent the harvest of horseshoe crabs in New York waters for biomedical or commercial fishing purposes.

Dr. Jane Goodall Photo courtesy of National Geographic

“As leaders, we have the unique ability to ensure that vulnerable species like the horseshoe crab, which has been part of our planet’s history for over 350 million years, are protected for future generations,” Goodall wrote in her plea to Hochul.

The Horseshoe Crab Protection Act passed the New York State Assembly and Senate last June, but the governor has yet to sign or veto it. If she does not sign the bill by the end of 2024, the bill is essentially vetoed and would have to go through the legislative process again next year. 

Local advocates and environmental groups who sent letters and organized postcard campaigns to motivate Hochul to call up the bill welcomed Goodall bringing her influence to the cause.  

“It’s a rare and special event when Dr. Goodall reaches out and requests New York help her in saving our planet’s endangered species,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “Governor Hochul should heed the wisdom and vision that Dr. Goodall provides and immediately sign this important legislation.”

The pioneering primatologist, who has dedicated her life and career to protecting wildlife and the environment, pointed out in her letter the role horseshoe crabs play in coastal ecosystems as well as the food chain for migratory birds such as red knots.

Horseshoe crabs are considered “living fossils” since they have been around an estimated 450 million years, and they are more closely related to scorpions and spiders than to crustaceans. The species, which is monitored and regulated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, has seen a steady decline in recent decades.

Environmental advocates worry that since Connecticut and Massachusetts recently enacted stronger protections for horseshoe crabs and other neighboring states are considering rule changes, biomedical agencies may draw their attention to New York waters.

Currently the main harvesters of horseshoe crabs in New York waters are commercial fishermen, who use the animals as bait for eel and conch. 

Long Island fisheries and the Long Island Farm Bureau have asked the governor not to sign the bill as written, saying efforts in recent years to sustain the species — including limiting the annual total harvest of horseshoe crabs to 150,000 — need a chance to make a difference. They say the legislation is based on emotion rather than science.

“If [the agencies] felt that the horseshoe crab stock was in danger, we would hear about it first,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, in a previous conversation with TBR [“The bill has passed in Albany, but awaits governor’s signature,” Sept. 20, 2024]. “To use a law to regulate a fishery, when they are already regulated by appropriate bodies that have the science to back it, is just not the way to allow fisheries to survive.”

Goodall specifically addressed preventing the biomedical uses of horseshoe crabs’ blue blood and asserted that synthetic alternatives mean harvesting the animals is not as necessary for research and vaccine development. 

In her letter to Hochul, she appealed to a “shared sense of responsibility” for the natural world.

“I have devoted my life to preserving the planet,” Goodall wrote. “I hope together, we can make a lasting difference in this important corner of the world.”

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Ward Melville High School. File photo

By Mallie Jane Kim

Three Village Central School District is weighing options for enhanced security in the wake of an incident where a student accidentally brought a parent’s law enforcement gun into a classroom at Ward Melville High School Oct. 10. 

The student immediately surrendered the weapon, and a subsequent investigation found there had been no threat, but many parents were disconcerted that a gun could enter the school so easily.

Some parents see armed guards as the solution, and several have publicly advocated for immediate implementation through public comments at board meetings and through a new Facebook group on the matter, which currently has about 200 members.

“Inaction on this issue is negligence,” parent Michael Corbisiero told the school board at a Nov. 6 meeting. Corbisiero, who identified himself as a retired chief of police and U.S. Navy veteran, pointed out that some neighboring school districts, for example, Smithtown Central School District and Miller Place Union Free School District, have voted to include armed guards in their security protocols, and he expressed frustration that he hadn’t seen the board make any changes over the month since the incident.

“I see no armed guards, I see no security upgrades, I see no additional staff,” Corbisiero said. “I see nothing different.”

According to Jack Blaum, the district’s safety and security coordinator, who provided an update at the board meeting, not all security upgrades will be visible to the public. Blaum touted an AI weapons detection technology that would integrate with existing security cameras as a best first step and said the district is close to choosing one. Implementing the technology would take about a month, he said.

Any security solution needs to be part of a robust system, according to Blaum, even the AI technology he prefers. “It’s one tool of many tools that we need to put in place,” Blaum said. “Nothing is the end-all.”

Blaum said he does not support metal detectors since, in his view, the usefulness of those systems does not outweigh the logistical hurdles or the impact on students’ sense of well-being walking through them every day.

“It creates an anxious society for us,” Blaum said. “The goal of the projects and surveys I’m working on currently is to strike that balance between weapon detection and creating a safe environment here.” 

Placing armed security guards in schools has been a fraught issue across the nation, with some parents concerned about creating an atmosphere of fear as well as the potential for accidents or misuse. Others support the idea as a quicker way to stop would-be school shooters.

If Three Village opted to implement an armed security guard program, Blaum would prefer arming existing employees who are familiar with the buildings and the students, as opposed to contracting with an outside vendor. 

“If we determine there’s somebody with a weapon outside room 220 at Ward Melville, our people are going to know that,” Blaum said. “Arriving police? They’re not going to be that familiar with it. Vendors? Not that familiar with it.”

Vice President Karen Roughley emphasized that even in districts where armed guards or metal detectors are voted in, implementation doesn’t happen overnight — and she added that the board is charged with considering viewpoints from all stakeholders before making a policy change like this.

“Everything is on the table for discussion and how we do it, but it needs to be done right,” Roughley said. “Not fast — right.”

The next BOE meeting will be held on Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. 

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Ward Melville High School. File photo
District provides new details during board meeting

By Mallie Jane Kim

Scarier than any Halloween nightmare, the specter of school shootings haunts parents around the United States. So when Three Village Central School District announced a gun had made its way into a classroom at Ward Melville High School the morning of Oct. 10, parents wanted answers. 

Many found the district’s initial response lacking and demanded — and got — some additional information at an Oct. 23 board meeting, which is available to watch in full on the district’s YouTube channel.

“I want to know from the board, what are we doing?” asked district parent and Ward Melville alumna Yolanda Shields, who said Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon’s emails about the incident did little to ease her concerns. “This has been two weeks now. Every day my kids go to school, I am afraid.”

In an initial email to inform parents about police presence at Ward Melville on Oct. 10, Scanlon referred to a “non-threatening situation” in which the child of a law enforcement officer accidentally brought their father’s backpack, identical to theirs, to school. Scanlon wrote that the student surrendered the gun to a teacher immediately upon discovering it, and a police investigation deemed there was no malicious intent. The district did not share information about any action against the parent, who officials said is part of a law enforcement agency in Suffolk County.

Scanlon’s email stated, “At no time was the safety or security of our students and staff in any jeopardy.”

This was a point of contention for some parents, who pushed back that any time a gun is unexpectedly on a school campus, there is danger.

The gun was in fact loaded, according to additional details provided by district security & safety coordinator Jack Blaum. 

“There was a clip in it, one in the chamber, ready to go,” he said at the meeting. “Absolutely, if the trigger was pressed, it would’ve fired.”

Within minutes, responding security guards with law enforcement backgrounds unloaded the gun, according to Blaum, who emphasized that he, other district leaders and board members are taking the situation very seriously and have been meeting “ad nauseum” to figure out the best next steps. He added that installing metal detectors right away, as some parents have called for, comes with inherent complications, including that they would be required at every entrance point in every school building, and would have to be monitored by armed guards 24 hours a day. 

“That’s a big move for this district — it’s not something we could do overnight,” he explained, adding that he is most interested in emerging AI technology that could monitor for weapons using the security camera system.

Installing a visible fix like metal detectors without thinking through the entire system and allowing stakeholder input would be engaging in “security theater,” according to Scanlon, who said many of the measures the district takes in its more than $3 million security budget are behind the scenes.

“We do not want to divulge, even to the community, the levels of things that we have in place,” he said, adding that a robust security plan involves a focus on students’ emotional and mental health, something the district has said is a priority. To add an element of physical security alone, he said, “it’s not as foolproof as people might think.”

Blaum, Scanlon and the board president, Susan Rosenzweig, encouraged parents to email them with questions or comments, and said upcoming board meetings would include updates on the work of the relevant committees and staff.

For his part, Blaum said he is disturbed at the fact that a gun got into the school, and he thinks about it every day. The same is true for the parents who shared public comments.

“I’m so thankful that we’re not all around a vigil of candles,” parent Shields said. “Because that’s what could’ve happened.”

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Bert Conover and George Hoffman, water monitoring volunteers, hold a sign highlighting the five best and worst scoring bay segments, for New York water chemistry. Courtesy George Hoffman

By Mallie Jane Kim

The water chemistry in Port Jefferson Harbor rates as some of the best among bays in Long Island Sound, according to a new report by bistate environmental organization Save the Sound.

The biannual report card released Oct. 10 was based on data collected in 2023 and showed middle Port Jefferson Harbor, the area near Strong’s Neck and Old Field, tied for top marks with Oyster Bay and Mill Neck Creek, which is also in Oyster Bay. Those three areas earned an “A-” in water chemistry quality.

Inner Port Jefferson Harbor, also known as Setauket Harbor, and outer Port Jefferson Harbor, adjacent to Port Jefferson Village, both received a “B+” to round out the top five. The inner port score is up from a “C” in the report card released in 2022, and the outer harbor is down from “A-.”

“We’re pretty happy about it,” said George Hoffman of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, which has been taking water chemistry measurements at set locations within Port Jefferson Harbor twice a month from May through October since 2018. “We’re seeing small evidence of the improvement that we have advocated for.”

According to Hoffman, the harbors have seen a 50% reduction in nitrogen in the harbor over the last 30 years due to structural improvements in stormwater catchment systems and tightened regulations on nitrogen levels in treated sewage that is piped out into area bays.

The task force was part of securing a grant that paid for a storm water collection system on 25A near Setauket Pond Park, and they regularly educate boaters about a free pump-out service to prevent them from dumping human waste into the harbors.

“We’re like guardians of the harbor,” Hoffman said.

The task force is one of 27 harbor groups in Connecticut and on Long Island that participate in the Save the Sound program. Citizen scientists wake up at early hours to bring scientific equipment to specific locations and take measurements at predetermined depths, together monitoring 57 bay segments in the Sound. They measure things like dissolved oxygen, water clarity, chlorophyll, salinity and temperature. They also look at seaweed accumulation.

To note, area counties are responsible for testing for bacteria and other direct water-quality markers, but the water chemistry factors are also indicative of water health. For example, high chlorophyll levels tend to predict algae blooms.

More than 98% of Long Island’s open waters earned a grade “B” or higher, though several areas close to New York City, in the “Western Narrows,” earned an “F.”

“It’s clear that past investment in nitrogen pollution reduction from wastewater infrastructure is linked to improving the open waters of Long Island Sound,” said Save the Sound’s vice president for water protection, David Ansel, at the report card release “Now, our challenge is to find the political will to extend and expand this investment.”

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Ward Melville High School. File photo

By Mallie Jane Kim

New York Regents Exam scores can no longer lower student course grades in Three Village Central School District, after the school board unexpectedly resurrected a policy that directs teachers to only include the scores if they help a student’s GPA.

“I believe we have reached a point in time where it makes sense to let these grades help our kids and let that be their incentive to do well,” said board President Susan Rosenzweig, in bringing the issue back to the table at an Oct. 9 board meeting. “But if it doesn’t, their academic work through the course of the year should stand toward their final grade.”

Just before Regents exams began last June, a new wave of parent advocacy led the board to reconsider the so-called “Do No Harm” policy, but at that time trustees reaffirmed their November vote to include the scores at 10% — down from about 12% before the pandemic.

After the last Regents season, though, students did report lower grades due to exam scores. Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon called out the physics Regents as one that particularly impacted student course grades.

“Teachers and administrators always want to see the students do their best on whatever we give them, and want to give them the best opportunity,” Scanlon said, adding that some comparable districts do not include the scores in final grades since the state does not require it. “It’s not a perfect system.”

This decision comes as the state’s Education Department is considering a new vision for graduation requirements, which would provide alternate means of demonstrating proficiency, rather than requiring the exams for everyone.

But district administrators made clear the exams themselves are not a waste of effort.

“The Regents Exams are extremely important to us as far as the data we get,” said Brian Biscari, assistant superintendent for educational services. “They are one of the only tools of standardization that we have that we can look at our instructional program and see how our kids are doing.”

Celebrating cellphone policy success

The district’s effort to reduce the use of cellphones at school is showing positive results, according to Scanlon. He indicated the culture within the junior high schools, in particular, is improving.

“Seeing students without their faces buried in phones and literally having conversations at cafeteria tables is a real heart boost for everyone,” he said. “We’ve sort of turned a corner on this.”

High school students have welcomed the policy, as well, according to senior Hazel Cohas, Ward Melville High School’s student representative to the board.

“In the past, there have been policies that have faced a lot of backlash,” she shared, pointing specifically to a vandalism-prevention policy instituted last year requiring students to carry their IDs and swipe them to use restrooms. But on limiting cellphone use, she hasn’t heard complaints: “I haven’t heard anything, and I think it’s going well.”

Bullying complaints have seen a “very large decline” from this time last year, Scanlon reported, and particularly those associated with social media.

Scanlon urged vigilance, though, because it is still early in the school year and since “students are very smart,” some may look for ways around the policy.

Junior high to middle school preview

Three Village junior high schools will get new names in fall 2025, officially transitioning to Paul J. Gelinas Middle School and Robert Cushman Murphy Middle School, both comprising sixth through eighth grades.

More will shift than just the name and grade makeup, according to Biscari, who called the focus on transition supports a “comprehensive philosophical change in our middle school model.”

The most significant change is the addition of a standalone nine-minute advisory period to allow a specific time for the Pledge of Allegiance and announcements, as well as for activities to build social skills, social emotional learning and relationships. The schedule can also shift to allow for an extended advisory period on days where the student body participates in special activities, like on Unity Day.

According to the presentation by junior high principals, Corinne Keane (PJG) and Michael Jantzen (RCM), advisory groups will be heterogeneous, allowing students who would normally be in different level classes to be together.

“They start to forge connections with people — with kids, with staff members — that are hopefully making them feel a little bit more connected to their school and their environment,” explained Keane, who said area middle schools she’s spoken to have implemented the advisory period concept. “It’s a cornerstone of middle school culture.”

Sixth grade will operate under “teaching teams,” where a cohort of students will all be assigned the same set of teachers in core academic subjects. This way, teachers can better collaborate to help students succeed, and parents can meet with all of their child’s core teachers at once.

Students will also be able to spread requirements for technology, art, and family and consumer science over three years instead of two, allowing space for an additional elective each year.

The schools are already collaborating with elementary schools to aid in the transition of two grade levels up to next year’s middle schools, and they are looking ahead to additional ways to bridge the gap between middle school and high school. One part of that plan is to allow for some dances, celebrations and a theme-park field trip to be joint affairs with both eighth graders from the middle schools and ninth graders from the high school.

“We want to make sure that the transitions are as smooth as they can be,” said Jantzen, adding that junior high administrators will continue talking with staff from the other schools to continue to fine-tune transition supports. “We are taking into account all concerns.”

Changing to middle schools, though, means saying goodbye to a seventh-through-ninth-grade junior high model that has been around Three Village for nearly 60 years. The principals want to use this year’s junior high yearbooks to recognize that.

“We’re both looking to use the yearbook as a tool to commemorate,” Keane said. “In 50 years when someone picks up the yearbook, they get the sense that this was the year — this was the last year as a junior high school.”

 

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Ward Melville High School. File photo by Greg Catalano

By Mallie Jane Kim

Three Village Central School District officials shared the latest details in their plan to move ninth grade out of the junior high schools to create a four-year program at Ward Melville starting in the 2025-26 school year, in line with state and national norms.

The presentation at a Sept. 25 board meeting comes after more than two years of discussions over restructuring the district and after more than a year of planning.

“Everyone’s been putting their heads together to make this the best possible transition that it can be,” said Brian Biscari, assistant superintendent for educational services, who also touted the change as providing ninth graders access to additional courses outside the core academic subjects. “The ninth graders moving up to the high school are going to have more options for electives as well as activities they can participate in.” 

The district also plans to move sixth grade from the elementary schools to the junior high schools, though an update on those plans will be forthcoming at a future board meeting.

In the presentation to the board, Ward Melville Principal John Holownia laid out some specifics: Core curriculum will remain the same for ninth graders, but electives will expand significantly. Currently the junior high schools offer nine half-year electives and eight full-year electives to ninth graders. Those numbers will jump to 29 and 13, respectively, with some of those electives reserved for ninth grade only.

“We’ll make sure that we have places to go to match their interests,” Holownia said, adding that electives will be contingent on budget and student interest, as is currently the process at the high school. “It’s not a guarantee that we run all of these classes year over year.”

Swimming as a part of physical education will continue to start in 10th grade, and there will be no change in course availability for grades 10-12, outside of the usual course review process.

Ward Melville staff plans to double transition supports and events, like hosting two separate orientation nights and new student walkthroughs.

Not everyone is thrilled about the upcoming changes. Some area parents have expressed on social media and in conversations around the district that the process has felt opaque. As recently as the public start-time forums, some expressed they did not even know the change had already been decided.

“It feels rushed,” wrote district parent Joanna Zalewski in an email read aloud during the public comment section of the board meeting. “We still lack information on crucial aspects such as building utilization, how the high school will handle the increased student population, and what specific academic or social benefits this change is supposed to bring.”

Zalewski said alignment with norms is not a compelling reason and called for delaying the move. “There is no state mandate requiring this change,” she wrote. “Nor is there one from the community.”

Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon has long relied on the outcome of a 2023 survey as his guide for spearheading this change. The survey, which had more than 6,000 responses from among parents, staff, students and the broader community, indicated the majority of each stakeholder group preferred to move up sixth and ninth grades.

“This is going to create some tremendous opportunities for our students,” Scanlon said at the meeting. “This is going to put them on more of a par with their peers in other districts that they are competing with for positions, eventually, in colleges or the workforce.”

Flood damage to Nassakeag

More than a month after the “once-in-a-century” Aug. 19 storm, the district is still working on rehabilitating damage to Nassakeag Elementary School and finding ways to prevent future issues.

The school building itself sits lower than its surrounding land, and a loading dock essentially funneled more than 160,000 gallons of water straight into the boiler room, according to Interim Deputy Superintendent Jeffrey Carlson’s presentation at the board meeting. 

Electrical panels and boiler controls were all submerged, and the auditorium as well as some classrooms had flooding.

“It was awful,” said Carlson, who praised the team of people who spent hours working to get the building ready for the start of the school year on Sept. 2. “We had industrial-sized dehumidifiers throughout the building for days and days, and a whole brigade of mop buckets. It was a mess.”

Initial estimates indicated the building would need a month of cleanup before it was fit for students, but district staff — who were honored with certificates at the start of the board meeting — worked overtime.

“If it wasn’t for the efforts of all these folks, we would not have had the building up and running in about a week and a half,” Scanlon said. “So we were able to open on time.”

The district plans to replace boiler controls “in the not-too-distant future” and to install watertight flood doors to prevent future water damage, leveraging state building aid and a FEMA claim to pay for it, according to Carlson. 

One lingering mystery, possibly related to August’s flooding, was the failure of the concrete slab under two Nassakeag classrooms. School staff recently discovered the floor in those rooms had dropped down slightly. 

District staff dug next to the foundations and discovered a void in that area. Carlson, who assured the board the issue was not structural and did not impact the walls or the ceiling, put forward several theories of how such a void could have formed under the 60-year-old school: Perhaps the building was built over felled trees, which rotted, or dirt washed away in an underground flow. Maybe the original builders didn’t compact the dirt enough, or the unusual April 5 earthquake with a light aftershock shifted the ground.

“We’re investigating,” Carlson said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to figure out exactly what caused that so we can prevent it from happening again, and see if there was anywhere else where this is maybe looming.”

In the meantime, students have been moved to alternate classrooms, and architects are working on a way to restore the concrete slab to make those rooms usable again.

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