The North Merrick School District Board of Education voted four to two, with one abstention, to ratify a new four-year teachers' contract at a Jan. 13. public meeting. Prior to the meeting, contracts in the district were expired since 2008. more

Following two public suicides by students in the past year, residents expressed concern at the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District last week and asked school officials to consider measures the district could take to educate students about the issues surrounding suicide. more

All five local school districts –– including the Bellmore-Merrick Central, and Bellmore, Merrick, North Bellmore and North Merrick elementary districts –– had part of their state allotments for December held back after Gov. David Paterson ordered the payments halted so the state could stay solvent. more

North Merrick School District attorney Albert D'Agostino is fighting back. After recently finding out that the state comptroller plans to revoke is annual $108,088 public pension again, D'Agostino filed a federal lawsuit on Dec. 10 alleging that his civil rights were violated. The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court, says Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and three of his attorneys denied D'Agostino his right to due process when they revoked his pension after determining that he was working as a private contractor. The lawsuit claims D'Agostino's 5th and 14th amendment rights were violated, and that he should have been given a hearing as well as adequate notice of the claims against him before his public pension could be revoked. more

The Merrick School District is starting to feel the financial effects of New York state's fiscal woes. "As of this week, we did not get our check for state aid," Board of Education Trustee Gina Piskin announced at a Dec. 15 public meeting. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Special Education PTA and the Community Parent Center will present the third annual Fair for Transitioning Students with Disabilities on Tuesday, Jan. 19, from 7 to 9:30p.m. in the Calhoun High School cafeteria. For more information, call Cheryl Gitlitz at (516) 992-1349. To register, e-mail MartineTyson at mmtys@optonline.net. The event will feature a panel presentation for parents and students about life after high school. more

Tzvi Lewisohn, a Calhoun High School senior, loves to win. Basketball, bowling, you name it, Lewisohn is a competitor. But, he is quick to note, more important than winning is sportsmanship. “We always congratulate the other teams,” Lewisohn, a member of Calhoun's Challenger bowling and basketball teams, says with a smile. “We don't want them to think we're out to win; we're just trying to have fun.” Of course, it doesn't hurt that both teams are undefeated for the past two years. They have not lost since the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District started the Challenger basketball league for special-education students with a handful of other Nassau County school districts in 2008. more

Craig Papach, Kennedy High School's athletic coordinator and a 19-year phys. ed. teacher, had long heard the stories of poverty and loneliness, and he wanted to help. So, on Thanksgiving morning, he and his family piled into their car and made the trek from their suburban home in a quiet Wantagh neighborhood to a tiny church on Beach 94th Street in Queens. They went to lend their hands and, equally important, their ears to a day-long effort to aid the homeless. Papach was one of 10 Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District teachers who joined roughly 100 volunteers from Rock and Wrap It Up, a Five Towns-based nonprofit group founded by Syd Mandelbaum, to feed hundreds of impoverished street denizens, some of whom had not eaten for days. more

Throughout the long, at times agonizing health reform debate, conservatives and insurance-industry lobbyists have argued that we don’t need a public insurance plan to compete with private insurers. more

Unresolved teacher contracts remained at the forefront of community concerns at the Nov. 10 North Merrick Board of Education meeting. Contract negotiations were not on the meeting agenda, but several residents and one teacher used the public comment period to urge the Board of Education to resolve the dispute surrounding contracts that expired in June 2008. more