School board briefs

District inks two contracts

At the school board meeting on Feb. 23, Assistant Superintendent for Business Robert Bartels announced that the Board of Education has recently reached agreement on contracts with two unions — the CSEA (Custodial and Maintenance) and the OSA (Office Staff Association). Both contracts are for four years retroactive to July 1, 2009.

  The salary increases in the OSA contract for each year are 0 percent, 0 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent. In addition, OSA health insurance contributions will increase from 7 percent to 10 percent over the life of the contract.

  The CSEA contract calls for yearly salary increases of 0 percent, 3 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent. CSEA members’ health insurance contributions will increase from 8 percent to 10 percent over the life of the contract.

What's in a name?

School board president Mark Masin addressed the question of why the Rockville Centre school district uses the designation “Union Free” when in fact it has unions.

The answer is that “Union Free” is one of New York state's official designations for a district formed from one of more common school districts to operate a high school. Other state school district designations include: a Common School District that operates elementary schools from grades K-8; a Central School District formed by combining Common, Union Free and Central districts that may operate a high school; a Central High School District providing only secondary education from two or more common or union free districts; a City School District having boundary lines identical to a city; a Special Act School District that is created by a "special act" of the Legislature mainly to educate students for unique reasons who cannot be served in a traditional public school system and a Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) which is a voluntary cooperative association of school districts in a geographic area to provide educational or business services more economically than each district could offer by itself.

Some of our best

School board members and district administrators took time from budget and other considerations at last week's school board meeting to honor the accomplishments of a number of students in the areas of science, music and sports.

Science research students who submitted projects to the Intel competition were up first, they included: Kevin Yim who worked on "Flame Retardant Formulation of ABS" to improve the structural integrity of existing fire retardant material; Brett Cohen and Kenneth Karaivanov's "An Evolutionary Study of Genetic Resistance to Saxitoxin in Mya Arenaria" that examined changes in DNA of soft shell clams along the east coast; Greg Rizzo's "The Provenance of Quartz Pebbles Pertaining to Lead-Lead Dating," in which he re-examined the age and formation of Long Island; Kyle O’Neil's study of "The Synthesis and Characterization of a Nanocomposite Blend with Ideal Mechanical and Biodegradable Properties" to develop a biodegradable plastic; Cathy Mackey's report, "Developing More Accessible and Cost Effective Microbial Fuel Cells" that examined how bacteria produce energy through the electron transport chain; and William Riley's project "Improving a Multi-touch Padlock Through the Use of Dynamic Time Warping Algorithms," in which he wrote code to improve computer security (not completed in time for this year's Intel competition but gaining top honors at other science competitions.

Also recognized were Alyssa Ehrlich, an Intel semifinalist who authored "Effects of Starvation on Wild Type and adipose 60 Mutant Drosophila melanogaster" that examined the Adipose 60 gene and the effects of obesity and finalist Lori Ying who is currently down in Washington, D.C. defending her project, "Female mating patterns and mate quality in the dengue vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti" that examined the mating patterns of mosquitoes, and the feasibility of using the mating patterns to disrupt the spread of dengue fever.

Next up were South Side High School's National Merit Scholars — Christopher Boss, Alyssa Ehrlich and Michael Kardas.

Two of South Side's scholar athletes were recognized next: James Rodriguez placed third in the Nassau County Wrestling Tournament Championship and Nathan Bailey placed first in the Nassau County Fencing Championship..

The district's music students were not forgotten.

In the All-County Division I - Elementary Schools, the honorees included: Band — Grace LaCava, Ryan McCarthy, Liam Chung, Colin Mullooly and Sarah Baylis; Chorus — Joshua Curtis, Madisyn Eckhardt, Kristen Enea, Amanda Hetzel, Natalie Marinelli, Michaela Titus-Simmons, Brandon Stein, Conor Coniglio, Clare Petrocelli, Tess Siegel, Sydney Levy, Kiera MacAneney, Taylor Nunziato, Paige Pusateri, Maria Saia, Anna Shamroth, Sarah Visconti, Rita Gentile, Allison Mullooly, Elizabeth Navarino, Anna Rose Rodriguez, Victoria Ward; Orchestra: Danny Schwartz, Alexandra Diez, Grace Donovan, Megan Fahy, Hanna O’Connor, John Healy, Nikki Stamile, Nigel Viegas, Olivia Edell and Erin Sherlock

All-County Division II – Middle School honorees included: Band — Victoria Boldis, Hannah Dion; Chorus: Samuel Rachmuth, Olivia Seifert, Thomas Weiss and Orchestra: Audrey Walsh

All-County Division III - Middle School honorees included: Band — Nicolas Marcotrigiano, Kayla Principato; Chorus — Brittany Berke, Will Duggan, Quiana Ferguson, Sara Jacobellis, Quinn Lysaght, Tristan MacAneney, Stephanie Massa, Maya Shabbir and Orchestra — Meghan Mullooly

All-County Division IV - High School honorees included: Band — Noah Dion, Jane Dragovich; Chorus — Alyssa Adler, Lauren Baez, Jackie Cano, Patrick DelBello, Mairead Koehler, Paul Lawrence, Joey Nizich, Emma Weissman, Stephanie Ziegler; Orchestra — Ian Bowen, Kasey Ng, Justin Wong

All-County Division V - High School honorees included: Band: Jeremy Bowen, Justin Charles, Jake Frey, Ryan DeMarco, William Marrin, Pauline Jung; Chorus — DeJuan Bacchas, Caitlyn Brady, Margaret Brennan, Eric Carey, Christopher DelBello, Daniel Kriss, Lauren Maietti, Benjamin Muratore, Dakota Rizzi, Crystalyn Wynter and Orchestra — Benjamin Kutner, Brian Schmidt, Christopher Wright

Long Island String Festival Elementary (Grades 5-7) honorees included: Jake Camarillo, Grace Donovan, Sydney Levy, Emma Su, Maya Shabbir, Anthony Sourial, Meghan Mullooly, Cathryn Weiss.Middle/High School (Grades 8-12) honorees were: Ian Bowen, Ben Kutner, Kasey Ng, Harrison Park, Brian Schmidt

All-State Mixed Chorus — Caitlyn Brady, Margaret Brennan, Ben Muratore, Crystalyn Wynter; Symphony Orchestra — Pauline Jung; String Orchestra — Benjamin Kutner; Symphonic Band —William Marrin; Alternate Flute — Pauline Jung; Alternate for Viola — Benjamin Kutner

America Choral Directors’ Association Honors Choir — Eric Carey, Christopher DelBello, Lauren Maietti, Dakota Rizzi

American Choral Directors Association Summer Honors Choir —Catherine Dunne, Charlie Gillett, Alexandra Kosakoff, Alex Maher, Katie Negroni, Laurence Plonsky, Samuel Rachmuth, Kaitlyn Rosenbaum, Mark Visconti, Sarah Visconti, Thomas Weiss.