In honor of School Board Recognition Week, the district praised its dedicated Board of Education during the Oct. 20 meeting.

“On behalf of the Harborfields Council of PTAs, I would like to extend our thanks to the Harborfields Board of Education trustees,” PTA Council President Rachel Risinger said, “The time and effort you put into making Harborfields an exemplary school district never goes unnoticed. Beyond the work you do to better our classrooms, buildings and curriculum, you volunteer and each take time from your own lives to make Harborfields a part of your own family. To quote one of your board goals, thank you for always striving to provide an innovative and collaborative learning environment where all students are empowered to realize their unique potential while striving for academic excellence.”

Superintendent Dr. Rory Manning then presented the board with a certificate from U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi recognizing the trustees’ hard work.

For the student and staff recognition portion of the evening, the Board honored Long Island Arts Alliance Scholar-Artist winners Caitlin Fealy, Caitlin Rees and Moore Theobold as well as their teacher Allison Scilla; National Merit Scholarship Program Commended Students Anya Glass, Aidan Katz, Christopher Qi, Marshall Singer, Jack Steel, Moore Theobald and Joseph Weitman; and National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalists Alison Ryan and Jacob Siegel. Additionally, Harborfields School District Human Resources Office assistant clerk Lynda Abner, who was unable to attend last month’s board meeting, was recognized for receiving the SCOPE Support Staff Service Award.

The board, administration and community members attending the meeting were then treated to an exciting performance by high school theater students of a scene from their fall production of the comedic stage play “Puffs,” which will be presented on Nov. 5 and 6.

Alexandra Daleo’s physical education class at Oldfield Middle School recently took turns at outdoor stress management stations. The students participated in a Peloton mindfulness class, walked and got fresh air, and made stress relief buddies out of balloons and sand.

Dedicated cheerleaders from Harborfields High School’s varsity team and Oldfield Middle School’s team held a youth Cheerleader for a Day event on Oct. 6. Ella Beal, Bella Chillemi, Jean Constantatos and Gigi Sbarro volunteered to teach different cheers to younger students in grades K-6 for them to perform at the high school junior varsity football team’s final game of the season.

“Our JV football team does not have cheerleaders this season, unfortunately, due to a decline in the number of athletes participating in cheerleading at the high school, and we also don’t have a youth cheer program,” said cheerleading coach Marissa Hillebrand. “So, we offered ‘Cheerleader for a Day’ to these younger athletes so they could come in and work with the volunteers, and then have an opportunity to cheer for a team in our home district.”

Young engineers in Brittany Rae’s earth science classes at Oldfield Middle School recently designed their own safe sun viewers and built their designs out of common objects. They then tested their sun viewers and made improvements.

“We are studying our sun right now,” Rae said. “We took the time to discover how the sun produces energy through nuclear fusion and while doing so, the question that emerged was, if the sun releases tremendous amounts of energy and light, how can we look at it? We decided to run with this question and complete an activity using the engineering design process.”

Seven outstanding Harborfields High School seniors – Anya Glass, Aidan Katz, Christopher Qi, Marshall Singer, Jack Steel, Moore Theobald and Joseph Weitman – were recently designated as Commended Students in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. Their high selection index scores place them among the top 50,000 of over 1.5 million students who took the 2020 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. 

“These students continually demonstrate a commitment to academic success, and we are so proud of their efforts and achievements,” Principal Timothy Russo said.