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Community Update

January 19, 2024

Community Update January 19, 2024

Dear Syosset Community:

Well, it wasn’t enough for a snowman (unless you were really ambitious or creative), but it was more than enough to blanket our community beautifully in white. I went to college in Buffalo (where my college buddy right now has four feet of snow in his yard), so the snow kinda feels like an old friend coming to visit. Whether the storm is Buffalo-sized or a bit more modest, I know I can count on our grounds crews and custodians to arrive extra early (despite the cold) to make sure we’re ready to safely welcome our students and staff. Thanks, team!


A reminder that the Board will be having a work session on Tuesday, January 23rd, to continue their discussion about facilities and review community survey feedback. No public comment will be scheduled.

Spotlight on Instruction 🔦

Students in the Film and Computer Animation class at Syosset High School have been working on learning the “mouth-abet.” Before you assume this is another of my wretched puns – I assure you, it's actually a thing! In this activity, students model the mouths of their animated characters to synchronize lips and expressions to reflect the many sounds and dialogue. These motions are what makes animated movies and shows that people enjoy both at home and in theaters engaging and interesting.


To do this, students (under the direction of teacher Michael Carolan) are learning to use Adobe Animate, which is used in movie, television, and game studios around the world. Students must create up to 24 images for every one second of animation, which requires recording a voice track, while carefully going step-by-step through the “mouth-abet” to apply the shape aligned with their character’s dialogue and singing.


Our students are so excited about this coursework – they formed an Animation Group at the High School where they work on their passion projects in the field of animation – using the professional software on quality hardware to get a world-class experience.

#SyoStars ⭐

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Freshman Kelly Ponce is being recognized by the New York State Art Teachers Association for her original piece, submitted in response to the Youth Art Month competition prompt “Dream in Art.” Kelly’s submission was one of nearly 1,700 – and her piece was given an honorable mention. Congratulations, Kelly!
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A.P. Willits Enrichment Specialist Tiffany Rennard received a grant that will benefit our students for years to come. The grant money (from Jovia Federal Credit Union) will be used to purchase a subscription to a project-based learning database that will give our educators access to a plethora of additional teaching exercises. We love project-based learning because it is a student-centered approach where students acquire deeper knowledge through exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Thank you, Ms. Rennard for thinking outside the box – so that our students can too!

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Yet again, one of our students has made me feel like an underachiever. Sophomore Grace Liu has published her first book! Since the eighth grade, Grace has been hard at work studying the best research practices, and distilling them down into simple steps. Her book aims to inspire, support, and empower young students to tame and master this daunting skill. Congratulations, Grace! My new goal is to write my first book before you complete your second! Game on! (Truth be told, after our conversation this morning, I’ve concluded the most likely thing I’m going to be writing is my concession speech.)

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Bright Spot

I’ll share a more personal bright spot this week. I joined some new friends at Village elementary school during lunch. They had made bracelets for themselves incorporating a personally memorable word. It’s not easy being the new kid at lunch, so they welcomed me with bracelets too – one bearing the word SMART, and the other the word CARING. I thanked them for my gifts (which I’m still wearing today), and especially the compliments. The juxtaposition reminded me of the Teddy Roosevelt quote – “people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – and I reflected that of their two compliments, the second was particularly generous.


My role often keeps me at a distance from our 7,000 young people, but I learned I had made an impression by spending each morning welcoming students during summer school arrival. So my young friends, you’ve made an impression in return by showing me just how much you care.


#Light&Love
Tom Rogers

Syosset Central School District