Inside Islip Schools

The Islip School District recognized numerous exceptional student achievements from fall and winter on Jan. 19 at the Night of Champions event, held during the Board of Education meeting. Elementary and secondary students who demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, music and leadership received certificates honoring their accomplishments while their proud families looked on.

Director of Fine and Performing Arts Michael Hershkowitz and music teachers honored students who were selected for the SCMEA PEAK Festival from Commack Road Elementary School (Haleigh Casimir, Owen Chandler, Kathleen Doyle, Erin Lella, Emma Myles-McAnally and Korra Saliba) and Maud S. Sherwood Elementary School (Lexi Fernandez, Hunter Grando, Lilah Hirschmann and Joseph Zarchy); a student chosen for SCMEA Day of Tuba (Makenzy Covelli); students participating in the Long Island String Festival from Commack Road (Chelsea Cooper), Sherwood (Christopher Liang), Islip Middle School (Titley Das and Malcolm Friedman) and Islip High School (Lucas Bohr and Alexandra Fitch); and students chosen for SCMEA All-County Jazz (Lucas Bohr and Daniel Rubinson), NYSCAME All-County Band (Jessica Cruz), NYSCAME All-County Mixed Chorus (Lucas Bohr, Isabella Dragos, Rebecca Leo, Alexandra Noles, Michelle Quinteros, Daniel Rubinson, Aaron Thorn and Daniel Turk); and NYSCAME All-State Mixed Chorus (Daniel Rubinson).

Islip High School Principal Lara Gonzalez and Assistant Principals Charlie Rizzuto, Meghan Stern and Lisa Ward presented the high school’s academic awards. The NSCD Award for Academic Growth and Student Leadership in Learning was presented to high school seniors Emma Cirulnick and Emily Lewis for pursuing a high level of academic effort and serving as positive role models for the student body, while Eagan Biscari and Jaci Narducci were recognized as Presidential Scholars Program Nominees.

Advanced Placement awards were then recognized, for students earning the AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Brandon Garces and Daniel Rubinson), AP Scholar designation (Katherine Cottral, Louise Kane, Lawrence Lena, Emily Lewis, Raquel Luna, Melody Madrigal, Caitlyn McDonald, Luna Mendoza, Andrew Owen, Saul Pavlin, Hunter Pellicane and Michael Sanko), AP Scholar and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Jeremy Carroll and Eric Maniscalco), AP Scholar with Honor designation (Brenna Weber), AP Scholar with Honor and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Emma Cirulnick), AP Scholar with Honor and AP Capstone Diploma (Connor Mullins), AP Scholar with Distinction designation (Parker Barry, Erica De Lapi, Maxwell Haynes, Lia Pesiri and Charlie Zimmerman), AP Scholar with Distinction and AP Seminar and Research Certificate (Jaci Narducci), and AP Scholar with Distinction and AP Capstone Diploma (Eagan Biscari and Ryder Hansen).

Athletic Director John Sparacio and several of his coaches presented sports recognitions for the fall season, noting that all of Islip’s fall varsity teams achieved New York State Scholar Athlete Team status.

Honored high school student-athletes included girls cross-country athlete Elizabeth Hamm (All-Division); field hockey player Sabrina Frazer (All-County Honorable Mention, Suffolk County All-Star Team); football players Michael Sanko (All-Academic First Team), Jake DeGennaro (Second Team All-Division), Talan Mede (Second Team All-Division), Michael Vitale (Second Team All-Division), Dominick Albertelli (First Team All-Division), Collin Haug (First Team All-Division and Single Game Yards Receiving Record), Brady Nash (First Team All-Division, Single Game Passing Record) and Jack McLoughlin (All-County, National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete); gymnastics athletes Nicolette Ferraro (All-County), Brianna Lanza (All-County) and Isabella Field (All-County, New York State Qualifier for Beam and Floor); boys soccer players Jamie Atlas (All-Conference), Maxwell Haynes (Academic All-County) and Ronan Montana (All-Conference, All-County, All-State); girls soccer players Gianna Capolongo (All-Division), Abby Dieumegard (All-Division), Mackenna Eastwood (All-Division), Carley Mullins (All-Division), Dakota Dieumegard (All-County), Nicole Matute (All-County, All-State), Peighton McKenna (All-County, All-State, Class A Goalkeeper of the Year); girls tennis players Ava Andria (All-County), Annika Cripe (All-County), Erica De Lapi (All- County), Riley Halpin (All-County) and Reese Wallace (All-County); and league champions boys golf team members Jacob Gordon-Lopez, Ryan Kelly (also All-Academic), Carlo Napolitano, Dylan Nieves, Andrew Owen, Jacob Petelin, Dylan Rhodes, Jacob Schifter (also All-Academic), Brandon Simonetti, Tyler Simonetti (also All-County), Blake Unverzagt and Jake Urban.

Islip High School’s two Virtual Enterprise International teams, FlexFuel and WaveSync, competed against 133 teams and 2,270 students from across Nassau and Suffolk at the Long Island Regional Business Plan Competition and Trade Show, held on Jan. 10 at LIU Post’s campus in Brookville.

The annual event proved to be a wonderful opportunity for students to present their business plans, network with peers and utilize essential skills such as public speaking, critical thinking and business acumen. FlexFuel and WaveSync delivered professional business plan presentations to panels of VE judges. Each business plan presentation was 10 minutes in length, followed by five minutes of questions from the judges. Both Islip firms received Silver Awards in the Regional Newsletter Competition. Additionally, WaveSync advanced to the Long Island Regional Business Plan Competition’s championship round.

Runner Kaiden White, an Islip High School junior, had a spectacular day at the Molloy Stanner Games, held on Jan. 14 at Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory in New York City. In the 300-meter race, White ran a winning time of 34.50, placing him in the top three fastest runners in New York State and top 20 nationally. He was awarded overall Most Outstanding Individual Performance at the meet. His time in the 300-meter was a new personal record for White, breaking his previous record time, which he set earlier this year, and qualifies him for the New Balance Indoor Nationals, which will be held in March in Boston.

Islip’s Wing Elementary School presented a triumphant production of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” on Jan. 19, directed by music teacher Shannon Fogarty. Musical selections included a Taylor Swift parody, “Welcome to Our School,” and traditional folk songs such as “Apple Tree,” “Bear Went Over the Mountain,” “Great Big House” and “There’s a Big Ship Sailing.”

Islip High School’s varsity wrestlers captured second place at the team’s own Kris McDonald Wrestling Tournament on Jan. 13. At the competition’s end, Islip’s Max Haynes was named tournament MVP, and Cartier Perez was team MVP for the Buccaneers.

Islip High School recently facilitated Hands Only CPR instruction during physical education classes at the high school. This state-mandated lesson promotes awareness of the benefits of learning how to perform CPR and using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), and serves as a first step for students interested in pursuing more formal CPR/AED certification. The CPR course, based on the American Red Cross Two Step Save a Life program, is taught by Islip’s physical education teachers, who then take the instruction one step further and introduce how to identify, locate and use an AED located in the high school.

Second graders in Jennifer Beck and Jenna Laura’s class at Commack Road Elementary School have been learning about opinion writing. On Feb. 5, they celebrated their “Books of Awesome” by sharing book reviews with their classmates.

Students in Islip High School’s First Responders Club recently earned their First Aid, CPR and AED certifications through a session with Sarah Weber of CPR & Safety Consulting and Training. The February achievement coincided with February as American Heart Month.

“This is a great certification for our students to have,” club adviser Renee Clock said. “The more people who are trained in first aid, CPR and AED, the better the outcome of getting immediate care if an emergency should arise.”

Second graders at Commack Road Elementary School celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing up as 100-year-olds, canes and all. Students wrote about what they would do with $100, solved 100 math problems and listened to read-alouds about the 100th day of school.

Islip Middle School students and families received crucial preparation for moving from eighth to ninth grade while attending the informative Transition Night at the high school on Jan. 11.

A heartwarming collaboration between Islip High School and Maud S. Sherwood Elementary School recently unfolded during a special monster doll field trip. The Sherwood students and their teacher, Melissa Trocchio-Cohen, had previously unleashed their creativity by sketching imagined monster dolls on paper. These whimsical drawings served as the foundation for the collaboration between the two schools.

Ali Catalano’s fashion class students at the high school, equipped with expert hand-sewing skills, were entrusted with the task of bringing these imaginative creatures to life. With great care and attention to detail, the fashion students meticulously transformed the two-dimensional sketches into three-dimensional dolls. They carefully selected fabrics, matched colors and skillfully sewed each doll’s components together. The result was a collection of vibrant and unique monster dolls that far exceeded the expectations of the elementary students.

The day of the field trip was filled with excitement and anticipation as the high schoolers traveled to Sherwood to deliver the finished products. As they arrived, they were greeted with enthusiastic cheers and smiles from the younger students. The Sherwood students eagerly received their completed monster dolls, marveling at the attention to detail and the transformation from paper to fabric.

On Feb. 8, Suffolk County Legislator Sam Gonzalez, accompanied by two U.S. Army reservists from the Fort Totten base, visited Ted Dieumegard’s classroom at Commack Road Elementary School to talk to fourth graders, and the Islip Middle School library to speak with students from Erin Anderson’s English language arts classes as well as CARE and Keep Islip Clean Club members. The purpose of the visit was twofold. Legislator Gonzalez and the reservists explained how important it is to recognize veterans’ sacrifice and commitment to duty. In turn, the students showed their appreciation with a presentation of handmade Valentine’s cards – and from the middle school, hand-sewn plush hearts embellished with American flags – destined for delivery to overseas service members.

Location: Administration Building - 215 Main Street, Islip, NY 11751
Phone: (631) 650-8200