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DiGiacomo to lead Huntington BOE

by Rohma Abbas - July 9, 2015

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Christine-Biernacki-oath-of-office-Huntington-school-board_ABBASw — Newly elected Trustee Christine Biernacki takes her oath of office on Monday. Photo by Rohma Abbas

A new leader has taken the helm of the Huntington school board.

Trustee Tom DiGiacomo was unanimously voted the president of the school board at the board’s reorganizational meeting on Monday evening. Trustee Xavier Palacios nominated him for the position, and Trustee Bari Fehrs seconded his nomination.

Trustee Jennifer Hebert maintained her position as vice president of the board.

Newly appointed school board President Tom DiGiacomo is sworn in. Photo by Rohma Abbas

DiGiacomo succeeds incumbent President Emily Rogan, a nine-year member of the board, who has held the leadership role for four years.

After his appointment as president, DiGiacomo publicly thanked Rogan for her leadership, noting she’d “done an excellent job in helping our district improve.” He noted, at one point, that he had “big shoes” to fill.

When reached by phone on Wednesday, Rogan said she supported DiGiacomo.

“I think he will do a terrific job,” she said. “Tom has my support 100 percent. Did I still want to be president? I would have gladly been president. There were trustees on the board who wanted a change.”

In an interview after the meeting, DiGiacomo spoke briefly about his appointment.

“I’m honored and privileged that my fellow trustees have nominated me and made me president.”

Newly elected Trustee Christine Biernacki also took an oath of office at Monday night’s meeting, along with several other school officials, including Superintendent Jim Polansky and District Clerk Joanne Miranda.

Stony Brook University unlocks newest building

by TBR Staff - July 9, 2015

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SBUrbnCutting_SIFORDw — Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley, second from left, joins other honored guests to cut the ribbon unveiling the new Computer Science building. Photo by Rachel Siford

By Rachel Siford

There’s a new big building on the Stony Brook University campus.

Stony Brook’s new 70,000-square-foot Computer Science building had its grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, July 1, and North Shore leaders had a lot of hope for the future within those walls. The new facility cost $41 million and has 18 research labs along with classrooms and offices for professors.

Stony Brook’s computer science program is currently ranked eighth in the country for graduate programs. It was a ranking that several leaders said should improve with help from the new facility.

“The computer science department deserves a place to really showcase our facilities and to match the great people inside them,” said Samuel L. Stanley Jr., Stony Brook University president at the ceremony.

The new building is located next to Roth Pond and will start holding classes in the fall. Speakers, including Senator Kenneth P. LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) and Chairman of the Computer Science Department of 17 years Arie Kaufman, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“Today is a very happy day for computer science,” Kaufman said. “This might be the happiest day in the 46 years of the computer science department.”

Various demos were set up around the three-story building. The Immersive Head Monitoring Displays demo allowed attendees to put on virtual reality goggles to tour the building virtually.

The virtual colonoscopy — invented by Kaufman — was also showcased to show how it could identify with 100 percent accuracy if a patient has a tumor without going through the invasive procedure. It has been licensed, FDA approved and commercialized.

LaValle added that his goal was to get the program from eighth to first place, and the way to do that was to have state-of-the-art equipment for students to use.

“As the country and the world evolve into a high-tech economy and lifestyle, this state-of-the-art facility will ensure that Stony Brook University students and researchers have access to the newest technologies while reaffirming the university’s leadership role as a nationally ranked computer sciences center,” said LaValle.

The newest building has five centers: National Security Institute, Center for Mobile Computing, Center for Smart Energy, Center for Dynamic Data Analysis and Center for Visual Computing. Another demo shown at the opening was the Internet of Things, which predicted that by 2020 everyone would have at least five smart devices on them, like cell phones, watches and tablets.

The Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook is even starting to research how to protect people if someone’s smart device is stolen and how to limit how much information can be extracted from it.

Looking ahead, Stanley said the university would explore ways to establish a five-year capital plan to seek more ways to fund new buildings on campus.

New leaders of the Tigers pack

by Rohma Abbas - July 9, 2015

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Robert-Banzer-is-sworn-in-2015_ABBASw — New Northport-East Northport Superintendent Robert Banzer is sworn in on July 1. Photo by Rohma Abbas

Change is in the air at Northport-East Northport schools.

School board Trustee Andrew Rapiejko, a five-year incumbent who served as vice president, was sworn in as the board’s president at its reorganizational meeting on Wednesday, following a nomination by departing president, Julia Binger, and an 8-1 vote. Trustee Regina Pisacani was the lone vote against the appointment.

David Badanes take oaths of office. Photo by Rohma Abbas

Newly re-elected Trustee David Badanes was nominated and voted vice president of the board — but not without an unsuccessful attempt by Pisacani to nominate newcomer Trustee David Stein to the slot. Her motion to do so failed to gain support, and Badanes was unanimously appointed.

The July 1 meeting was the district’s first with new Superintendent Robert Banzer at the helm. Banzer, along with Stein, recently re-elected Trustee Tammie Topel, Badanes, District Clerk Beth Nystrom and new audit committee member Edward Kevorkian were all officially sworn in.

In his remarks to the community, Rapiejko called it a “critical year” for the district, and pointedly addressed what he called a divide on the board.

“The elephant in the room is this split on the board,” he said

Tammie Topel is sworn in. Photo by Rohma Abbas

While the board typically votes unanimously on most items, Rapiejko said in a Thursday phone interview that the community perceives a divide on the school board. Those differences among board members have given rise to tensions that began under the administration of former Superintendent Marylou McDermott, he said.

“The former superintendent is out of the equation now,” he said in his speech on Wednesday. “And I’m looking forward and to move on. I think we have to move forward and it’s critical we do that.”

He urged the school community to respect each other and said it is the board’s responsibility to set that tone of respect. In a phone interview, he said he was heartened that his appointment earned almost unanimous support, which hasn’t been the norm at reorganizational meetings in recent years past.

“We can disagree, we can have very strong opinions, but there’s a way to do it and a way to do it respectfully,” he said.

Adam Spector’s memory lives on at Jack Abrams

by Rohma Abbas - July 9, 2015

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School auditorim dedicated in honor of late advocate as family members, former colleagues pay him tribute

Meredith-Spector-hugs-Jim-Polansky-following-auditorium-dedication-to Adam-Spector_ABBASw — Meredith Spector hugs Jim Polansky at a memorial celebration in honor of Adam Spector that saw the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School auditorium dedicated in his name. Photo by Rohma Abbas

The memory of the late Adam Spector will live on at the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School.

On Monday night, friends and family of Spector, who lost a battle with cancer last year, gathered to dedicate the school’s auditorium to him and to tell stories about a man who endeared many at a venue for which he cared deeply.

There was hardly a dry eye among Spector’s colleagues.

“I think about Adam every single day,” said Jennifer Hebert, vice president of the Huntington board of education. “There’s not a day that goes by that he’s not in my heart.”

Huntington Superintendent Jim Polansky’s voice broke as he offered personal words about Spector.

He said when he first got to know Spector, the two had no idea they grew up in the same hometown. Polansky jokingly said he recently flipped through his high school yearbook to find Spector in it, “featured more prominently” than he was.

“Adam was always one to keep me on my toes with his questions and most importantly his enduring sense of humor,” Polansky said. “It was always apparent that he loved Huntington and that this school district had a very special place in his heart. He was one of the strongest people I ever met.”

Other school board trustees also offered touching words.

“He was my enzyme, my catalyst into being involved in the board of education,” Trustee Xavier Palacios said, his voice breaking. “His spirit will always live here. I’ll never forget what he taught me.”

Meredith Spector, Adam Spector’s wife, said renaming the auditorium was a fitting tribute to her husband, who always wanted to see the school reopened after it was shuttered several years ago following a rash of crime in the area. Spector made reopening Jack Abrams one of the main thrusts of his campaign for school board. She called the board’s decision to reopen the school as a STEM school “turning lemons into lemonade,” and something Spector was greatly honored to be a part of.

“It’s truly an honor and Adam would be so happy,” she said in an interview before the meeting. “He was so happy and proud to be part of the board of ed and such a great team. They turned what was a bad situation, the closing of Jack Abrams Intermediate, into something so wonderful, the STEM school.”

The new name of the auditorium, the Adam Spector Memorial Auditorium, is affixed in bold letters to a brick wall outside the auditorium. In a celebratory gesture, family members flanked by a group of people ripped the protective covering off the brand new sign.

Tesla documentary making its LI premier in Shoreham

by TBR Staff - July 8, 2015

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July 10 screening and Q&A will take place at SWR High School

Telsal_propertyopen_Karp6w — Tesla Science Center President Jane Alcorn, left, and ‘Tower to the People’ director Joseph Sikorski, right, at the Wardenclyffe site after the center purchased the property in 2013. File photo by Erika Karp

By Talia Amorosano

“Can You Believe Most Americans STILL Have Never Heard of Nikola Tesla?!?!” reads the subheading on the Indiegogo campaign Web page dedicated to increasing public awareness of the often overlooked inventor, not to mention raising funds for the restoration of Wardenclyffe, his last surviving laboratory in Shoreham.

Film director Joseph Sikorski said he first learned about Tesla in a bookstore.

“I was shocked that I had gone through the whole educational system without hearing about him,” he said. “He sacrificed so much for humanity. He needed to be vindicated.”

For Sikorski, this vindication came in the form of a film, which is set to premiere on Long Island at Shoreham-Wading River High School this Friday, July 10, at 7 p.m.

“Hopefully, by bringing attention to who he was and dispelling the myths, he’ll have his credit restored,” Sikorski said, regarding the effect he hopes his documentary, “Tower to the People,” will have on viewers.

Thus far, Sikorski has been pleasantly surprised by the reaction his film has received after its first three screenings in New York City, Toronto and Belgrade.

He described the response as “overwhelming,” noting that each venue had “standing room only,” and “people have been crying.”

He said the Long Island premiere would be particularly special, “because it’s happening just a few minutes from where the tower was” and “because all the benefits from the screening will be given to the Tesla Science Center.”

According the Indiegogo Web page, “Tower to the People” is about the past, present, and future of Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe lab, a site from which the genius inventor dreamed of sending free wireless energy to the entire earth.”

It features interviews with celebrity illusionist, Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller; internet cartoonist, Matthew Inman, of The Oatmeal, who helped launch an online campaign to save the Shoreham site in 2012; award-winning author, Jack Hitt; and Tesla’s closest living relative, William Terbo.

The Tesla Science Center, the nonprofit group that now owns and maintains the site, raised nearly $1.4 million thanks to Inman’s viral campaign and purchased the property in 2013. Sikorski donated $33,000 to Inman’s “Let’s Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum” initiative.

Even the most knowledgeable Tesla fan is sure to learn something new, as the film provides access to rare photographs and documents the first ever ground-penetrating radar investigation into the tunnels under Wardenclyffe.

Sikorski said he hopes the film will motivate viewers to contribute to the effort to restore the Wardenclyffe property.

According to Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, there are still hazardous conditions inside the buildings at this point. But with a $1 million commitment from Elon Musk, inventor, engineer, and CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, to partially fund lab restoration plus funds raised through the Bricks for Nik program, completion within the “next several years” seems promising.

Alcorn expressed hope that the space will eventually encompass a museum, learning center, and maker lab, in which local inventors could learn how to use laboratory equipment to make their visions a reality.

“We would like to support inventors by providing some space for work like that, particularly if it relates to Tesla,” she said.

Sikorski and Alcorn believe that Tesla’s research is still relevant today.

“His ball lightning studies couldn’t be replicated,” Sikorski said. “Because of the way he’s been marginalized, they’ve shunned him and put his research aside.”

Alcorn agreed. “Because he was quite a bit ahead of his time, people looked at him as a bit of a crackpot,” she said. “But much of what he was talking about was very true. … What we’re finding is that a lot of what he was thinking about, including wireless transmission of energy, is a hot topic now. … He’s not taught about in our schools and he deserves to be acknowledged.”

Tickets for the July 10 screening are available at www.Eventbrite.com. Tickets at the door are $12. Seating is limited.

Mount Sinai school board has new vice president

by Erika Karp - July 7, 2015

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RobertSweeney-PeterVanMiddelem-070115-Karp2w — Mount Sinai school board Trustees Robert Sweeney, left, and Peter Van Middelem, right, are sworn in as board president and vice president, respectively. Photo by Erika Karp

The Mount Sinai school board has a new vice president this year.

At the district’s annual reorganization meeting on July 1, Peter Van Middelem, who just finished his first year on the board, was elected to the position in a 4-1 vote. Van Middelem, a retired New York City firefighter, succeeds former Vice President Donna Compagnone, whose term was up this year and decided not to seek re-election.

Van Middelem said his main objectives for the new year include keeping positive communications and relations with the community and the district’s teachers, seeing how new programs, such as Columbia University’s Teachers College Writing Project, which provides writing curriculum and professional development for teachers, is implemented, and keeping taps on the new full-day kindergarten program.

“I know that our emphasis right now is to make sure kindergarten is running and up to speed,” he said in a phone interview.

Van Middelem commended his predecessor for all of her work and stated that he had big shoes to fill as vice president.

Trustee Lynn Capobianco, who was re-elected to her second three-year term in May, cast the lone dissenting vote at the meeting. She said she couldn’t support Van Middelem as he allegedly did some political campaigning in his role as president of the Mount Sinai Lacrosse program. According to the Internal Revenue Service, 501(c)(3) organizations are “prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

Lynn Capobianco takes her oath of office. Photo by Erika Karp

Capobianco said that in doing so Van Middelem jeopardized the tax-exempt status of the organization. According to an IRS database, Mt. Sinai Lacrosse Inc’s status had been automatically revoked in February 2013 for failing to file a return for three consecutive years. Van Middelem declined to comment on Capobianco’s concerns.

“I respect him greatly for the work he has done for that organization, but based on those issues I think the leadership comes into question,” Capobianco said.

While the board saw a change in its vice president, Robert Sweeney, who was elected to his second three-year term in 2014, is staying put as president. Board newcomer Mike Riggio was unable to make the first meeting and was sworn into his position at an earlier time.

Sweeney thanked the board for its vote and seemed to set the tone for the 2015-16 school year. He pointed out how the trustees were all wearing pins that read, “Respect public education.”

“This is an important statement that we are making about our teachers. … We respect them,” he said.

Sweeney continued to speak about the importance and need for public education.

“I wouldn’t be here and in my career without it,” he said.

Former trustee questions Northport-East Northport’s interim official’s salary

by Rohma Abbas - July 6, 2015

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Sabia_Abbasw — Joe Sabia. File photo by Rohma Abbas

A former Northport-East Northport school board trustee is calling the group’s decision to shell out $935 a day for an interim assistant superintendent for human resources “absurd.”

The board voted on June 15 to appoint Lou Curra as its interim assistant superintendent for human resources from June 17 through Dec. 23, replacing former assistant superintendent Rosemarie Coletti, who resigned on June 30 to take another job. Curra didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on Monday, but Joe Sabia, who served on the school board from 2011 to 2014, took to the microphone at a meeting on July 1 to tell board members he and others in the community felt that $935 a day was too high, and that the district should have hired someone from within.

“They think that you’re pushing the envelope too far against the homeowners — the taxpayers of this district — to bring in an interim,” he said.

School board members, however, countered that the appointment is not long-term and that the board needed to find someone with the right skill set to assist new Superintendent Robert Banzer.

“That is a per diem appointment with no vacation time, no sick time, no benefits,” Trustee Julia Binger told Sabia. “… And also we needed somebody who was very experienced, because we have a new superintendent on board, and we need to have somebody very solid who really understands human resources and collective bargaining and so on.”

Board President Andrew Rapiejko said that for human resources, this is the busiest time of the year.

“We are in the process of soliciting resumes for permanent person to take over that and hopefully we’ll have someone on board in relatively short order,” he said.

With costs rising all over, Sabia said taxpayers are struggling.

“You’re pushing people to the limit,” he said.

New leadership on Miller Place school board

by Victoria Espinoza - July 6, 2015

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Johanna-Testa-MP-School-Board-2015w — Johanna Testa. File photo by Victoria Espinoza

The Miller Place Board of Education has a new set of leaders this year.

At its annual reorganization meeting on July 1, board trustees promoted Johanna Testa from vice president to president and elected Rich Panico as vice president. Testa was first elected to the board in 2013, while Panico was elected in 2014.

The meeting also marked Keith J. Frank’s first. Frank won the open seat on the board of education two months ago.

“I was excited, I thought it went well and I continue to look forward to the new year,” Frank said in a phone interview the next day.

Frank said capital improvements to the district’s facilities and buildings that are currently underway would be the first project he focuses on as a trustee. In addition, he would like to find ways to maintain the academic excellence that Miller Place is known for, as well as extracurricular activities, music and art programs.

Keith J. Frank is sworn in as Miller Place school board's newest trustee. Photo by Victoria Espinoza — Keith J. Frank is sworn in as Miller Place school board’s newest trustee. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Testa and Panico expressed similar thoughts. The leaders said the school board’s attention will be on updates to the athletic fields. The Miller Place High School football fields will be replaced with synthetic turf and lighting will be installed. The projects are funded through a bond referendum passed last year.

“I feel honored and positive about being appointed the new board president,” Testa said in a phone interview. “I think we have a good board and I am looking forward to the upcoming year.”

Panico said he didn’t anticipate being nominated for vice president.

“I was very honored since it’s only my second year on the board,” he said in a phone interview. “I wasn’t expecting it, it’s pretty neat.”

The renovations to the athletic fields need to be done by September for the students to use in the fall, Panico said, so he is eager to see the improvements begin.

Change in leadership on Northport-East Northport school board

by Rohma Abbas - July 2, 2015

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Change is in the air at Northport-East Northport schools.

School board Trustee Andrew Rapiejko, a five-year incumbent who served as vice president, was sworn in as the board’s president at its reorganizational meeting on Wednesday, following a nomination by President Julia Binger and an 8-1 vote. Trustee Regina Pisacani was the lone vote against the appointment.

In his remarks to the community, Rapiejko called it a “critical year” for the district, and pointedly addressed what he called a divide on the board.

“The elephant in the room is this split on the board,” he said

“We can disagree, we can have very strong opinions, but there’s a way to do it and a way to do it respectfully.”