In the past, only Advanced Placement English students in the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District took the English Regents in January of 11th grade. The feeling was that they should be ready at that point to pass the exam with a high mark, giving them greater time to concentrate on the A.P. exam in May. more

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a saying: “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” For King, service to others was the highest form of humanity. more

Kennedy High School junior Claire Kelly spent three weeks last summer at the University of Chicago, delving deep into the human brain, examining the connection between impulsivity and drug addiction. Senior Rachel Mashal, the class of 2016 salutatorian, put fruit flies on a restricted diet to determine whether lower food intake would ward off drug addiction — specifically caffeine addiction — while also extending life. (As it turn out, it did both.) And senior Alexis Tillman hung out on lonely street corners (with either her mom or dad nearby) for weeks, filming homeless panhandlers to determine what, precisely, might persuade charitable passersby to give them loose change or even a dollar or two. more

The drug addicts’ brain scans that Dr. Stephen Dewey takes appear in psychedelic shades of red, yellow, green and blue, each indicating a level of brain activity — or inactivity. Red means excited. Blue is dormant. Dewey is the laboratory director for behavioral and molecular neuro-imaging at the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In that capacity, he’s put hundreds of addicts’ brains to the test — the positron emission tomography test, that is — seeking to understand precisely what happens to the mind when a pot smoker lights up or a heroin junkie shoots up. And, he has found, it isn’t pretty. more

Kennedy High’s Homecoming was ablaze with school spirit, on and off the football field, last Friday. Homecoming festivities were held at the school, which takes in students from parts of … more

“Remember, you are the future.” Douglas Smestad repeated this affirmation daily to the hundreds of students he taught for two and a half decades in history classes at Calhoun High School, … more

By all accounts by Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District principals, opening day of school on Sept. 1 went off without a hitch. more

A little under 50 percent of Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District seventh-graders passed the New York State English Language Arts exam and just over 56 percent passed the math test, according to the State Education Department. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Board of Education kicked off the 2015-16 school year on July 14 by electing Skip Haile as president and Janet Goller as vice president. more

Jake Thomas and Alex Vargas, both 21, played baseball together in 2011 at Calhoun High School under legendary coach Joe Corea. In 2010, Thomas led the Colts squad that captured the Nassau County Class AA title. In 2012, Vargas played a critical role in the Colts’ victory at the Long Island Class AA championship. Major League teams recently drafted them both. more