Caryn Blum describes Merrick Avenue Middle School with a fondness she might reserve for her own home. The MAMS principal arrived at the school in 1999 after having served as a special-education teacher, department supervisor, assistant principal and principal in Brooklyn and Queens for 17 years. And over the past 13 years, she has worked to establish MAMS as a top-rated middle school not only on the South Shore, but also in national rankings. In 2008, MAMS earned the U.S. Department of Education’s highest distinction –– a Blue Ribbon. Now Blum is leaving, but she isn’t going far. more

Big, blue canvas bags labeled “Little Anne” and “Baby Anne” sat at the entrance to the Merrick Avenue Middle School gymnasium last Thursday. Spread across the shiny wooden floor in neat rows were mannequins, a.k.a. dummies. And in a corner, physical-education teachers Art Canestro, Mallory Cogen and Jason Dove were showing a film that revealed the secrets to saving a life with only your hands and mouth to a class of eighth-graders. Soon the students were kneeling before the mannequins, pumping the dummies’ chests with their locked hands and breathing into their plastic mouths. more

If you happened to notice a lot of people wearing blue shirts last week, it wasn’t a coincidence. April 2, recognized internationally as World Autism Awareness Day, was also Light it Up Blue Day, a global initiative to spread autism awareness. more

On Feb. 9, 115 French students and their families from Merrick Avenue and Grand Avenue middle schools, along with their teachers, Denise Schleith and Richard Zawislak, enjoyed an evening of French and hockey. more

School Boards Recognition Week, sponsored by the New York State School Boards Association, was held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, and as is tradition in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, students from Grand Avenue and Merrick Avenue middle schools attended November’s Board of Education meeting to honor school trustees. The Grand Avenue chorus sang for the board, and Merrick Avenue students recited a poem that they had written, as well as offered gift baskets to each trustee. more

When Merrick’s Robbie Rosen performed live Tuesday night with the top 12 males on “American Idol,” he was living his dream in front of more than 25 million viewers. more

Last Saturday Grand Avenue Middle School and Merrick Avenue Middle School held their fourth annual echocardiogram screenings for eighth-grade students. Some 185 Merrick-Bellmore students turned out for the event that tests for heart abnormalities. more

Police responded to Merrick Avenue Middle School this morning at around 9:30 a.m. to investigate a threat made on Facebook that authorities called "fictitous." more

About 40 members of the Merrick Kiwanis Club, the Calhoun High School Key Club and the Merrick Avenue Middle School Builders Club loaded up vans full of food and toys and distributed the goods among families throughout the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District last Sunday. Students at elementary schools in the Merrick and North Merrick school districts, along with the MAMS and Calhoun, collected the toys in recent weeks. The Kiwanis Club collected food donations outside of local supermarkets. more

As if riding a zip line off the Great Wall over water weren’t enough, there was always snacking on fried scorpions to get the four Bellmore-Merrick teachers’ hearts racing. The women also played … more