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Teq CEO Damian Scarfo, and President Chris Hickey. Photo from Lisa Hendrickson

There’s been a lot of hubbub about the 21st century classroom, where interactive whiteboards replace chalk, and pencils and pens are subbed out for iPads and Chromebooks. Even our own governor has incentivized such reforms at our schools.

But let’s push pause and ask: Is all this technology helping or hurting? And what benefits are we missing out on in the real world beyond the bright screens?

This week, a Huntington Station company, Teq, announced it had partnered with Canadian company SMART Technologies — yes, the creators of the famous SMART Board that is a staple of today’s classrooms — to be the sole distributor of Smart products for grades K to 12 in New York. That’s a big deal and we applaud Teq’s success. The educational tech company, already projecting sales of $50 million this year, anticipates the partnership will boost its revenues 20 percent.

That’s not just chump change, and it’s a good deal for Long Island’s economy.

Yet how much of our new technologies are really needed for learning and how much are we just advancing for the sake of advancing? It feels like a lot of the new software and hardware is needed only to keep today’s student boredom at bay, as many kids are so used to having tech products in the home that they will not concentrate on paper.

A culture of distraction is one of the greatest setbacks of today’s overly technological society. We understand that it benefits our students to be familiar with today’s gadgets, so they will be prepared for tomorrow’s success. But it also benefits children to know what it feels like to hold a real book in their hands, to solve a difficult math problem using a pencil and loose-leaf notebook, to be able to tell time without a digital display, to play outside instead of staring at their phones.

Today’s kids are being handed iPads not long after retiring baby bottles.

Steve Jobs once told a New York Times reporter that he limited his own children’s tech time at home. Instead of rushing to live in a completely digital world, our educators, parents and political leaders should place importance on carving out some time for a little reality — some quiet time and disconnect to facilitate thinking and creativity.

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Stony Brook University international students at a potluck supper hosted by the Colatosti family of Setauket. Photo from Susan Colatosti

Soon, hundreds of international students will be arriving at Stony Brook University to begin their academic careers in search of advanced degrees. For most, it will be their first time in the United States. They have no family or friends here, and are in a completely foreign and unfamiliar environment.

The Host Family Program, a community-based organization now in its fourth decade, provides a newly arrived international student with the friendship of a local American family.

It is run by volunteers, with the cooperation of the university, and has been directed by Rhona Goldman since 1974. It is not a home-stay program; students live on or near campus. Host families invite students to share a meal, some sightseeing, or a favorite activity.

Both students and host families can have the enriching experience of a cultural exchange and gain perspective about the world. A host family may be a retired couple, a family group, or a single individual. The only prerequisite is the desire to make an international student feel comfortable in a new setting.

Students are arriving on campus in late August for the start of the fall semester and are looking forward to meeting an American family. The university will host a reception for the students and the host families to meet each other before the semester begins.

There is always a shortage of local volunteers to host all the students who sign up for the program.
If you would like to find out more about the program, email Rhona Goldman at: [email protected].

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Earl L. Vandermeulen High School sophomore Arunima Roy. Photo from Port Jefferson school district

By Rita J. Egan

It was a successful school year for 15-year-old Arunima Roy of Port Jefferson. The sophomore and high honor roll student at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School was recently chosen as an ambassador to Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots National Youth Leadership Council.

The Roots & Shoots council has many branches all over the world, according to Roy. Teenagers with a passion for saving the environment apply to the group in order to aid each other in their projects.

A member of her high school’s environmental club for the last two years, Roy said she got involved with Roots & Shoots when her Spanish teacher, Dawn DeLeonardis-Moody, who is also one of the faculty advisers of her school’s club, suggested she look into the organization. After visiting the website and researching the organization’s work, Roy said she became extremely interested in its youth council. After applying for the program and completing two interviews, Roy became an ambassador.

During the application process, Roy told the organization, “I want to help clean up the environment, and I want to help save and preserve natural habitats.”

DeLeonardis-Moody has been involved with Roots & Shoots for a decade, so she knew Roy would work well with the group. The Spanish teacher said as a sophomore, Roy is the perfect age to take on the role as she has a concept of the environment and community. She described the student as soft yet strong, who works well in a group and individually.

“Arunima … she can be quiet on the surface — she has such a compassionate soul — but she’s also a very hard worker and dedicated. So I see her as an upcoming leader, especially because she has that quiet compassionate side. But once you work with her you realize that her compassion and her passion are so strong, and she’s so in tune with nature,” DeLeonardis-Moody said.

In the past, Roy has worked on beach cleanups and most recently the Green and Clean 2015 event in Port Jefferson to raise awareness about local plants and Monarch butterflies. DeLeonardis-Moody said the student not only worked at the event, but it was partly Roy’s idea to have it, and she worked 8 months to prepare for the day.

The Port Jefferson student said as an ambassador, she will work on her future environmental goals with the school’s environmental club and will get support from Roots & Shoots and her fellow ambassadors.

Jonathan Maletta, co-adviser of the environmental club, said that Roy has the school group’s complete support when it comes to her future environmental projects. Maletta, who has also worked with the sophomore on the Science Olympiad, where she has won gold and silver awards on the regional level, said Roy is an intelligent student with a sound work ethic. “She’s an inspiration, and it’s nice to see someone of the younger generation lead by example, take charge and move in a sustainable direction,” Maletta said.

The club adviser said the student is currently working with the Jane Goodall Institute to recycle e-waste.

Maletta explained that when we recycle electronics and cell phones, we help conserve an ore called coltan, which is found in the Congo, where gorillas and chimpanzees live. Recycling reduces the need for Coltan and the disruption of the animals’ habitat. In addition, when it comes to recycling cell phones and other e-waste, fewer toxins are released into the environment.

Recycling is very important to Roy, and she wishes more people would do so, especially when it comes to items that are simple to discard, such as cans and bottles. She said it not only helps preserve materials, which would, for example, prevent us from cutting down trees or looking for ore and disturbing the habitats of animals, but it also affects us on a local level.

“It’s so important to recycle. There are often garbage cans and there are recycling cans right next to each other. I feel like if they just make the littlest effort to put it in the recycling bins instead of the garbage bins, it would make such a huge impact. The landfills are getting full of garbage, and we’re going to run out of places to put them. We don’t want our backyards to be filled with garbage,” Roy said.

Her advice to aspiring environmentalists is to get a group of friends together and to set easy goals. She said it helps to break things down into something as simple as collecting a certain number of things or filling one bin in a day. She also suggested organizing two groups to clean a beach or area, and make the cleanup a fun competition.

This summer, Roy will attend a Roots & Shoots retreat where she will learn about hydraulics. As for her future goals, she said she wants to be a physician with Doctors Without Borders. In addition to her dreams of becoming a doctor, Roy said that in her adulthood, she will continue to volunteer to help the environment.

“I see it as more of a stress reliever. I feel like I’m making an impact on the environment. I don’t see it so much as work as I see as it as being one with nature,” Roy said. “It would be a nice way to take some time off and get back to my roots, and just find some space for myself to think.”

When it comes to her future plans, especially her environmental goals, both of Roy’s club advisers believe she will accomplish a great deal.

“She’s just so humble, and I think that’s what makes her — that’s part of why she’s so good at this. She’s so quietly passionate and humble, but yet she’s dedicated and really in tune with the community and the environment. She really cares,” said DeLeonardis-Moody.

Formed in 1991, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is the youth-led community action and learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute. With more than 150,000 members in more than 130 countries, all working on local and global service projects, the program builds on the legacy and vision of Dr. Jane Goodall to place the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges in the hands of young people. Through the program, young people map their community to identify specific challenges their neighborhoods face. From there, they prioritize the problems, develop a plan for a solution, and take action.

For more information, visit www.rootsandshoots.org.

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Graduating seniors walk to the front of the high school as the band plays “Pomp and Circumstance” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Graduating seniors walk to the front of the high school as the band plays “Pomp and Circumstance” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Students return to the bleachers after receiving their diplomas at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Graduating senior Jack Tanzi sings “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Valedictorian Eric Wang mentions classmates and their many talents by name as he outlines what makes the class of 2015 an outstanding group at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Student government president George Zenzerovich presents the school with the class gift — banners —which he says will “show who we are and what we stand for” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Soon-to-be graduates watch their friends receive their diplomas at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Soon-to-be graduates watch their friends receive their diplomas at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Proud soon-to-be graduate is all smiles as she holds her diploma at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Excited senior returns to the bleachers with his diploma at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
A graduating senior receives her diploma from Principal Baum at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.
Salutatorian Jayne Green tells women in the audience they are not alone and that together “Nothing can stop us” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Three Village Central School District
Salutatorian Jayne Green tells women in the audience they are not alone and that together “Nothing can stop us” at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Three Village Central School District
Graduates celebrate by tossing their caps at the Ward Melville High School graduation on June 28, 2015. Photo by Andrea Paldy.

Umbrellas, usually necessary to ward off blazing sun, protected spectators from light drizzle as Ward Melville High School honored around 600 graduates Sunday.

Graduating seniors took their places in bleachers set up alongside the high school’s entrance, which still featured the “Journey to Neverland” backdrop from Thursday night’s prom.

Salutatorian Jayne Green told the women in the audience to remember they were not alone and that as half of the population, women should unite and work together. If they did, she said, “Nothing can stop us.”

Valedictorian Eric Wang shared his moment at the podium with his classmates by mentioning many of them and their contributions by name.

From state athletic champions to talented performers, innovators, “extraordinary leaders,” “patriots serving the country” and those always ready to offer a lending hand, “Each and every one of us is exceptional,” Wang said.

He then urged his classmates to “pay it forward” and channel their energies into their future endeavors.

Following student government president George Zenzerovich’s presentation of the class gift were words from Principal Alan Baum and school board president William Connors. The rain subsided in time for Baum and assistant principal Rosanne DiBella to hand diplomas to the members of the Class of 2015.

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School building handicap accessibility, communication between parents and staff at top of list of concerns

Flanked by members of SEPTA, Stacey Riccardi presents a letter of requests for special education students to the Northport-East Northport school board on Monday, June 15. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Parents and teachers of disabled students have called on the Northport-East Northport school board to address issues ranging from communication to handicap accessibility in the district.

The members of the district’s special education parent teacher association, known as SEPTA, presented a letter of requests to the board at its meeting on June 15 on behalf of the more than 900 Northport-East Northport students classified as having a disability.

Stacey Riccardi, SEPTA vice president, presented the letter and urged the board to “ensure that the needs of our most vulnerable students be met.”

The group plans to submit the letter to the board again on July 1, once incoming superintendent Robert Banzer is present.

The letter requests the district conduct an internal audit of the special education department, with the investigation going back to 2010, when the last assistant superintendent of pupil services, John Lynch, retired and the position was eliminated.

Members of SEPTA say that since then, the lines of communication between parents and the administration have been compromised.

“We’re being held at arms-length as parents; there seems to be a disconnect between the parents and the special ed department,” Cathy Josephson, SEPTA recording secretary, said in a phone interview.

Outgoing longtime school board Trustee Stephen Waldenburg Jr. said another employee absorbed Lynch’s duties, adding that just because a position is eliminated, does not mean those responsibilities are eliminated as well.

“Once Lynch retired, those needs were not ignored; the tasks were taken on under a new title.”

The letter also highlighted other needs, like the elementary and middle school playgrounds becoming compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act — for example, being outfitted with special swing sets — as well as school building entrances. SEPTA members pointed out that entrances to multiple schools in the district are not handicap-accessible, or some that are accessible are only open during school hours and are locked after school hours, when clubs are meeting.

Waldenburg countered, however, that, “There is no intent from the board to be out of compliance,” Waldenburg Jr. said.

“Our buildings and grounds team consistently analyze school facilities and completes upgrades through capitol improvement projects, which are reviewed and approved by the State Education Department,” Thomas Caramore,  interim superintendent of Northport-East Northport said in a statement.

Aside from making facilities more accessible for students with special needs, SEPTA is eager for a more inclusive learning environment. Josephson has a daughter in a wheelchair who was enrolled in the Northport-East Northport school district from second grade to eighth grade. However, she attends high school outside the district, at a facility that has the resources to meet her special needs.

“These students live in this community,” Josephson said. “Why can’t they get an education here as well?”

Caramore said that no student in the district has ever been denied services due to accessibility, and that students have remained educated in their home schools.

“Our schools should be as inclusive as possible to ensure the special education student has access to the least restrictive environment,” according to the letter presented to the board. It refers to the fact that many disabled students who live in the Northport-East Northport district, like Josephson’s daughter, do not attend school in the district because the schools do not always have the facilities, programs or educators to ensure a proper education for the them. Disable students are frequently enrolled in BOCES instead.

SEPTA wants special needs students to be able to “access the same school their siblings and neighbors attend.”

Caramore said that the community’s concerns are being heard.

“The board and administration will continue to carefully review the concerns raised by the members of the community.”

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Port Jefferson High School. File photo by Elana Glowatz

Officials are working toward updating Port Jefferson school district policies for the coming school year, largely in relation to student behavior.

The board of education accepted first readings of 14 new policies or policy changes, regarding the dress code, student conduct and discipline, and substance abuse, among other topics.

If adopted, the policy on student dress code would change to specifically list types of inappropriate clothing, whereas the current policy leaves it more open to interpretation, saying only that clothing cannot be obscene, too revealing or a health hazard.

“Extremely brief garments such as tube tops, net tops, halter tops, spaghetti straps, plunging necklines … and see-through garments are not appropriate,” the proposed policy reads. “Underwear [must be] completely covered with outer clothing.”

It would also rule out, like the current policy, vulgar or obscene items on clothing, as well as items that denigrate others or promote drug use or illegal activities.

More changes would be made to the district’s policy on visitors to the school buildings. Under the current policy, visitors must report to the school office and receive a visitor’s permit, and “whenever possible, entrance to the school buildings shall be restricted to entryways most effectively supervised by building staff.”

But if the new policy is adopted, all visitors to the schools during classes would enter only “through the designated single point of entry, have a clear purpose and destination, and report to the designated visitor sign-in area.”

The visitors would have to surrender a photo ID for the duration of the visit and receive a badge to be worn at all times.

In the policy regarding substance use and abuse, the school board might add language to the list of prohibited substances — which currently includes alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, PCP, heroin, steroids and other drugs — to also ban synthetic versions of them, whether or not they are illegal.

Trustee Bob Ramus, the head of the board’s policy committee, said the 14 policies could be adopted upon a second reading later this month or next month. Five old policies — the outdated versions of some of the new policies — would be deleted at the same time.

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The Commack School District is investigating reports of students from its high school spotted wearing offensive T-shirts once again, administrators said.

The district said on its website that pictures surfaced on social media from an off-campus house party during spring break last week showing students sporting anti-Semitic T-shirts. It was the second incident of its sort over the last several months, adding onto a September occurrence when students posed for photos wearing T-shirts that spelled the word “rape.”

“Our attorneys have advised us that given the fact that this incident took place off campus, during a recess, and during an event that was not school-sponsored, the school is limited in its ability to address this matter,” the district said on its website. “However, the district is taking all necessary steps to investigate and will impose discipline related to this where legally permissible.”

The names of the students were not disclosed, as the district is not legally permitted to do so.

Back in September, the district disciplined five high school students after pictures of them wearing inappropriate T-shirts surfaced on social media. A statement on the district’s website at the time outlined the incident, which occurred during the last period of classes on Thursday, Sept. 18, when all Commack High School seniors assembled on the bleachers of the varsity field to take the annual senior photo. Soon after that photo was taken, another picture was posted on Twitter of five smiling male students in T-shirts spelling out “rape,” with a sixth pretending to be bound by the wrists.

Moving ahead, the district said it would continue to provide programs to reinforce student sensitivity of others.

“The district would like to state that the actions of these students are not representative of the student body at Commack High School, and is committed to the district’s mission statement to foster a caring community of learners. We do not condone or permit any form of discrimination, bullying, or hateful messaging,” the statement said. “The district will also make counseling available to any student involved in or affected by this incident. The welfare of our students is always our paramount concern.”

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