One week after the Baldwin Board of Education’s Facilities Review Task Force recommended the closure of two of the district’s elementary schools, Superintendent Dr. James Mapes weighed in with his recommendations to the board. They included closing the Shubert and Milburn schools and halving Baldwin’s kindergarten program, among other belt-tightening measures. more

To the many sports parents who dream of sending their star athletes to college on full athletic scholarships, think again, says Seth Tierney, head men’s lacrosse coach at Hofstra University in Hempstead. more

On Jan. 17, in front of New York’s policymakers, Governor Cuomo announced his 2012-13 budget. The governor used the speech to apply pressure to our state’s unions, interest groups and school districts by defiantly stating, take what we’re offering or make due without state funding. more

The Middle Country School District in Suffolk County faces a $10.3 million budget deficit in 2012-13 because of Governor Cuomo’s vaunted 2 percent property-tax levy cap, so Middle Country is considering eliminating its pre-school program, reducing full-day kindergarten to a half-day and axing sports and after-school clubs for middle and high school students, according to News12. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center and Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg will present a program about the college athletic recruiting process, “Does Your Child Dream of Playing Sports in College?” The event will take place on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Brookside School, 1260 Meadowbrook Road in North Merrick. more

They’re called “pharm parties,” short for pharmacy parties. A group of teenagers –– perhaps as young as 12 and 13 years old –– methodically swipe opiate-based pain killers like Oxycontin and Oxycodone from their parents’ and grandparents’ medicine cabinets, dump the pills into a big bowl when no adult is looking and take turns rolling a die. Whatever number comes up, that’s the number of pills a teen must ingest. more

It was standing room only at the School-to-Careers breakfast at the Baldwin Senior High School library last month. Staff and faculty of the Baldwin’s Union Free School District networked with local business leaders and Baldwin students over coffee at a breakfast marking the official program kickoff for the 2011-2012 academic year. BHS assistant principal Rich Miskiewicz opened the event, introducing the School-to-Careers program as one that “ensures our economic future by providing career training in order to retain Long Island talent and provide a valuable service for our students here in Baldwin.” more

Now that we’ve flipped the calendar, our local school officials will soon start getting into the nitty-gritty of budget planning for the 2012-13 school year. more

For decades, public health officials have hammered home a message –– smoking kills. They have done so in splashy advertising campaigns and in the halls of government. Any number of laws and … more

“It is not hard to figure out that you are being discriminated against when your supervisor calls you a nigger and routinely reminds you that you are a black woman.” So opens the … more