Students at the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s Meadowbrook Alternative Program recently worked with a world-renowned artist while learning about environmental issues. more

The college application process, with its myriad academic requirements and deadlines, can be mind-boggling. Then comes the financial aid application, which can seem as daunting as a 1040 income-tax form on steroids. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, in conjunction with the Bellmore-Merrick Special Education Parent Teacher Association and the Community Parent Center, hosted its annual college fair on Nov. 19 at Kennedy High School in Bellmore, which provided information to high school students with special learning needs. more

Last Friday morning, Calhoun High Schools students were driving recklessly in the back parking lot of their school, veering here and there, occasionally crashing into parked cars and nearly missing pedestrians. They were all drunk. That is, a computer simulator gave them the sensation that they were driving drunk. more

Forever 9: Robbie Levine Foundation, in conjunction with the Community Parent Center and the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, recently held training lessons for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of automated external defibrillators at the Brookside School in North Merrick. more

To the many sports parents who dream of sending their star athletes to college on full athletic scholarships, think again, says Seth Tierney, head men’s lacrosse coach at Hofstra University in Hempstead. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center and Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg will present a program about the college athletic recruiting process, “Does Your Child Dream of Playing Sports in College?” The event will take place on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Brookside School, 1260 Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick. more

They’re called “pharm parties,” short for pharmacy parties. A group of teenagers –– perhaps as young as 12 and 13 years old –– methodically swipe opiate-based pain killers like Oxycontin and Oxycodone from their parents’ and grandparents’ medicine cabinets, dump the pills into a big bowl when no adult is looking and take turns rolling a die. Whatever number comes up, that’s the number of pills a teen must ingest. more

Concerned parents are reserving their seats for “Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Children,” a parent-targeted substance-abuse awareness program that will be hosted by the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center, in partnership with the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, the Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore and North Merrick elementary school districts, Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg and the Bellmore-Merrick Coalition Against Substance Abuse. The talk will be held at the Brookside School, 1260 Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11. more

The scenario is tragic, gruesome and perennial. A high school senior, all of 16 or 17 years old, gets a driver’s license. His or her proud parents hurry out to buy their child a new car –– perhaps a fast car. Within days or weeks, the teen is dead, killed in a fiery wreck. more