
Community Update
December 22, 2023

Dear Syosset Community:
Holiday cheer and break week anticipation electrified our halls this week as students prepared to welcome the new year. Every morning, high school musicians filled the student lobby with cheerful tunes. Students at HBT and South Woods celebrated Spirit week – which included Cozy Day, Tie Dye Tuesday, Ugly Sweater Day, and more (so many pajamas!).All across the District, students spent this month taking care of everyone in our community with coat drives, food drives, and toy drives galore!
For example, at Robbins Lane, the student council created a food drive contest for the season of giving. Each grade brought in hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of non-perishable food items to donate to the Island Harvest Food Bank. Second grade (they may be small, but they are MIGHTY!) may have taken home the top spot with 268 cans of vegetables, but the real winner is our whole Syosset community!
Facilities Presentation
With the Administration’s help, the Board of Education has developed a DRAFT school repair and construction proposal to address our aging facilities and our enrollment growth. We’ve posted a video presentation about the plan, which you can view at this link. After the break, we’ll be sending a community survey to get feedback on the draft plan. We’ll also be collecting questions to incorporate into a Frequently Asked Questions document. The Board and Administration will use the public feedback to refine the plan before it’s finalized and presented for public approval.
Spotlight on Instruction 🔦
Our Baylis fifth graders are becoming balloon engineers through a project-based STEAM unit. First, students read the book Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of the Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet. After reading about the inventor of the original parade puppets, students created their own floats. Just like real-world engineers, our students learned quickly that their designs needed several iterations before they would stay afloat. Then, each team developed computer code to guide their “bee bots” (little robots) through the parade routes they had mapped out. After each trial run, students refined their programming code until their algorithms steered the Bot through the entire route. At the end of the unit, students put on a “Balloons Over Baylis Bot Parade.”
At South Grove, students are giving one another a peek into their family’s winter traditions. For the second year in a row, the school hosted Windows of Winter Wonder, a schoolwide project aimed at honoring and learning about each other’s family history and traditions. Each student and teacher schoolwide drew a picture that gave a “peek” into their home’s winter windows. Then, each window was turned into a winterscape that showed the many cultures and traditions in one South Grove. Students and families were able to walk through the display and appreciate the beauty of our diversity and unity.
Baylis
South Grove
In the News 📰
Senior Carly Greenbaum has been named Newsday’s Athlete of the Week! Carly is a triple threat. She plays soccer in the Fall, basketball in the Winter, and lacrosse in the Spring. She’s unstoppable on the court and the field – and is known for being a team leader. Congratulations, Carly, on this honor!
#SyoStars ⭐
Bright Spot
HBT sixth grader Smrithi Varadarajan decided that during this season of giving, she wanted to do just that – give to those who are less fortunate. But, she didn’t really know where to start. Through some social media connections (thanks, Mom!), Smrithi was able to join a toy drive for a local homeless shelter. In three weeks, Smrithi collected 35 gifts, and Mom shuttled her to the shelter. It took several trips for Smrithi to bring everything inside, while the eventual recipients eagerly watched her efforts. She told her Mom on the way home, “I want to continue doing the drive every year from now on until there are no more homeless kids.”
For me, the best part of the “bright spot” stories is the magical moment when a young person discovers the joy that comes from giving without any expectation of reciprocation and then catches the fever! What I’ve learned for myself, and hope our young people also find, is that feeling never fades, no matter how many times it’s repeated. Of course, we hope our students remember their Math lessons, but the joy of giving is the most lasting lesson of all – for both the recipient… and the giver.
Yesterday was the Winter Solstice. While it’s not a religious holiday for me, I do assign it metaphorical significance. It is, by definition, the darkest day of the year. But it also marks the start of a period where each passing day will be a little lighter than the last. Here’s hoping that new beginnings will lead to brighter days ahead for our community as well.
Wishing you all a peaceful break and very happy new year. Until 2024…
#Light&Love
Tom Rogers