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What's Right with Spackenkill!
January 11, 2019
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Dear Spackenkill Community,
Woven into Spack’s educational program is service learning. Said another way, when students perform activities that benefit others in need we reinforce pro-social values and the benefits of helping others. The first three groups of photos below collectively express that theme – beautifying a chorus classroom, creating port pillows for cancer patients, and participating in a basketball competition that raises money to fund a cancer foundation. Thank you students, teachers, and advisors for your leadership.
The Board of Education and I realize that attending evening Board meetings may not be on the top of your agenda of things to do. Just remember that we do videotape all meetings and our BoardDocs website maintains a record of all public presentations. For example, Principals Doherty and Malkischer’s secondary audit has been posted and you are welcome to review and comment if you wish directly to our principals.
Monday, January 21st, is Martin Luther King Day and New York public schools commemorate this federal holiday by closing.
My best,
Mark Villanti, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
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ENHANCED STAR TAX RELIEF CHANGES FOR SENIORS
Beginning with applications for 2019, senior citizens must apply separately for the Enhanced STAR (School Tax Relief) exemption by March 1.
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Chorus Room Mural Reflects Spack Pride
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Twenty-five students from the high school chorus and Spackappella painted a chorus room mural before the holiday break. “It meant so much to the students, and it was wonderful getting our chorus to bond with each other outside of the school day!” said Chorus Director Holden Maiorana.
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FACS Students Donate Services
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Todd Middle School students worked on a service learning project in Family and Consumer Sciences with teacher Albert Scanlon. They made port pillows for Sparrow's Nest recipients. Port pillows cover cancer patients’ portacaths to protect them from seatbelts while riding in a car.
Students worked on the service learning project in class and after school and even took some projects home to complete. Kim Rogers delivered them in time for the holidays!
“I think this says a lot about the type of students we have at Spackenkill!” said Mr. Scanlon. “They were so thrilled to work on and donate this project.”
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Girls Basketball Plays for a Cause
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Spackenkill, Beacon, Millbrook, FDR, Haldane, and Highland participated in the two-day Girls Basketball Holiday Classic over winter break. Highland hosted the first night and Spackenkill the second day. Donations were collected at both sites and the school communities raised $850, which will go to the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation. Spackenkill Girls Varsity Coach Don Neise organized the games and the fundraising efforts. The Spackenkill team is pictured below.
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OM Teams in Training
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The Third and Fourth Grade Odyssey of the Mind teams have been meeting several times a week at Hagan. OM encourages out-of-the-box thinking and learning from others. Teams will compete in Goshen on March 9. |
Fourth Grade Team Writes Script |
The Fourth Grade team, coached by parent Simona Cohen, wrote a play about a young person who starts an Odyssey of the Mind camp. At the camp, students learn that even though OM encourages creativity, it also requires teamwork. Adults who work at the camp learn how to become more creative. The play has to be acted out within an eight-minute time limit. |
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The Fourth Grade OM Team members are (left to right) Marissa Geraci-Peck, Amalia Parsons, Lily Wollman, Rachel Park, Sophia Gilmore, Sasha Turk, and Leah Giorgio. |
Third Graders Experiment with Color
The Third Grade Odyssey of the Mind Team is off to a great start. In their first few meetings, they worked with parent coaches Erin and Mike Ruppert to solve spontaneous challenges, tell stories through improvisation, and also brainstorm alternatives to paint in order to replicate the colors of art by Leonardo da Vinci.
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Hagan 3rd Grade OM Team, left to right: Ali DeSouza, Lexie Stephens, Morgan Agosta, Kaya Ruppert, and Aliyah Brady. |
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The team brainstorms ideas for re-creating the colors of a Leonardo da Vinci artwork (bottom right). Experimental materials included blueberries, tomato sauce, ice pops, grape juice, and food coloring, The best results came from Skittles and Slime. |
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Mrs. Strapec's second graders used their Chromebooks to practice cutting and pasting. Their job was to build a snowman using the Google Slides program. After the students designed their snowmen, they typed a winter story about their creations. There were wonderful princess, cowboy, jester, and even surfer snowmen, just to name a few! Thank you to Mrs Byrne for coming in to help the class create a great slide show.
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15 Croft Road, Poughkeepsie, NY
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(845) 463-7800
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Mission: Inspired by a tradition of excellence and a spirit of continuous improvement, the Spackenkill School District will provide all of our students with the academic and social skills necessary to pursue their goals and become responsible citizens in an interdependent global community.
Vision: All Spackenkill graduates will be lifelong learners who are inspired to pursue their dreams and contribute to the global society.
Please submit story ideas to [email protected]
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