In the spirit of giving, the Flower Hill School community participated in a Thanksgiving food drive. With the help of each class, non-perishable food items and frozen turkeys were collected and forwarded to the Helping Hand Rescue Mission in Huntington Station, as well as to families in the Huntington School District. The children were taught that Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on giving, sharing and being thankful for so many things.
Contract Settled
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The Huntington School Board has approved a memorandum of agreement with the United Public Service Employees Union – custodial unit, effective July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2015. The agreement provides salary increases of 1.6 percent annually.
The district will pay 85 percent of health insurance premiums for existing employees and 80 percent for those employees hired following ratification of the contract. For employees hired as of January 1, 1997, no health insurance will be provided during the first six months of employment.
Find out what's happening in Huntingtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
HHS Robotics Team Donation
North Atlantic Industries of Bohemia, NY has donated $4,000 to the Huntington School District to sponsor the Huntington High School robotics team in the 2014 First SBPLI Long Island regional robotics competition.
The donation is earmarked for the cost of the kit of parts and associated materials related to the regional robotics event. Huntington recently formed its first team of energetic high school students.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to support the participation of the robotics team at Huntington High School,” wrote William Forman, president and CEO of North Atlantic Industries, in a letter to the Huntington School District. “We know through their hard work and dedication they will meet this challenge with enthusiasm and determination. We wish the team much success in this unique experience to develop their knowledge in engineering and technology.”
District’s Legal Firm Top Ranked
The Huntington School District’s legal firm of Guercio & Guercio has been named one of New York’s top ranked law firms by Lexis-Martindale Hubbell. The ranking was the result of reseach, including approximately one million lawyers practicing in the New York metropolitan area. The selection was based in part upon partners in the firm having obtained the “AV Preeminent” rating given to only those attorneys who have been deemed by their peers to have demonstrated the “highest level of ethical standards and legal ability.”
Gregory J. Guercio, Guercio & Guercio’s managing partner, will assume the chairmanship of the National Council of School Attorneys in April 2014. COSA is the nation’s largest organization of attorneys concentrating their practice on the representation of school districts, with over 3,100 members nationwide. Mr. Guercio will also serve on the board of directors of the National School Boards Association.
STEM School Robotics Grant
Arrow Electronics has awarded the Huntington School District a Team Volunteer grant in the amount of $4,459 to support an after school robotics engineering program at Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School. “Volunteers from Arrow Electronics will work with interested students using
Lego MINDSTORMS kits,” Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky said. “Each project begins with a robotics research prototype; students will engage in building and programming associated robotic devices through the length of the program.”
911 Call Buttons Installed
The Huntington School District recently completed installation of 911 call buttons in all eight buildings. “These buttons, located in each building’s main office, provides a direct channel to the 911 police dispatch center in Yaphank,” Assistant Superintendent Sam Gergis said. “Activation occurs once an individual pressed the button, where they would speak to a dispatcher via the wall-mounted apparatus.”
Mr. Gergis said the call button is “for use in extreme or life-threatening emergencies only. There are severe legal ramifications for any misuse. These buttons are not meant for a non-emergency 911 call, but for dire situations as it provides an open channel to the police department dispatcher.”
The district’s Suffolk Police School Resource Officer Andrew Fiorillo is expected to train building principals in the use of the call button.
