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A Few Clouds Bellmore-Merrick district officials, Board of ed. reflect on start of a new school year
Each of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s principal had an opportunity to share their first day of school reports at the Sept. 5 board of education meeting.
This year’s overwhelming theme, according to district officials, was “energy.”
Palpable, excited and inspiring energy filled the halls, they said, by way of bright eyed students refreshed from summer break. Even through the apprehension and nerves of a new environment for some, seventh graders and freshman warmed up swiftly to the energy of the new school year.
“It was great energy to start the year. The ninth graders were excited, lots of smiles, lots of looking forward to being a part of the building,” Calhoun High School Principal Nicole Hollings said. “It’s been a wonderful, wonderful beginning.”
Included in the opening remarks were many thanks and gratitude towards Jon Simpkins, the school districts Director of School Facilities & Operations and Security & Chief Emergency Officer. The district thanked him for his tireless work preparing the schools for opening this past week and for going his help in restoring Grand Avenue Middle School after a small fire broke out a few weeks back.
Grand Avenue had an eventful summer full of tremendous improvements on its campus. Principal Carlo Conte detailed all that had been done and continued on to graciously thank the district and community for the support in undergoing this large expense.
The tennis courts were turfed, the track was resurfaced, and many of the sidewalks curbs were replaced. The front and back parking lots were changed and an additional sidewalk was put in for student safety in the back parking lot. Lastly, the Family Consumer Science classroom was completely gutted and renovated.
Assistant Superintendant, Curriculum and Instruction Scott Bersin presented the anticipated school district’s 2022-2023 Academic Year in Review.
The district significantly surpassed the Nassau County average on all Regents Examinations and AP Exams participation, and success rates showed the same results. Bersin emphasized the district wide focus on inclusion and equity in the participation rate for AP Examinations.
“In all of our areas, we are going to have more enrollments in ‘23-‘24 than we did,” he said. “And that’s a real credit to all of the leadership teams, but especially the principals, directors, chairs, and the assistant principals who are doing all they can to encourage kids to take more and more challenging classes. So our AP program was a success last year,”
Almost two thirds of the seniors graduated with success in at least one-college level AP class according to the review.
Down to graduation rate and future planning, the district celebrated exceptional statistics.
Conte and Principal Katelyn Dunn of Merrick Avenue Middle School introduce the new Advisory Program to be integrated into the middle schools. The goal of this program is to give each student the opportunity to feel like they have one trusted adult in the building they can connect with.
The program is set to meet bi-weekly as small, interactive group with two adults per group. Part of the curriculum will be utilizing a program called The Social Institute — a digital learning platform aimed at guiding students on how to positively interact with social media and technology for their own future health, happiness, and success.
To learn more about The Social Institute visit TheSocialInstitute.com.
“We’re going to talk about is what the expectations of a student are, responsibility, collaboration, what it means to be part of the community, how do we best support one another, and have a place that we can kind of have safe environment safe conversations” Dunn said.
