Old Bethpage, West Islip PTAs win regional reading awards
Students at Bayview Elementary School in West Islip listen to a book reading as part of the school's Pick a Reading Partner (PARP) program. Credit: Christina Cristiano
Two Long Island PTAs have been named regional winners for their creative efforts encouraging reading at home.
The Parent-Teacher Associations at Old Bethpage Elementary School and Bayview Elementary School in West Islip have been named the Nassau and Suffolk county winners, respectively, of the New York State PTA’s 2026 Pick a Reading Partner (PARP) Award.
The PARP literacy initiative asks adults to read with children "for at least 20 minutes daily," according to the New York State PTA.
"We go a little crazy and we decorate the entire school," said Christina Cristiano, who last school year was Bayview’s PARP chairwoman. "We all like to joke that it’s blood, sweat and tears, because between those X-Acto knives and glue gun burns it is a lot of work."
Bayview’s two-week PARP program focused on the USA’s 250th anniversary and saw over 60 volunteers transform the school’s interior into various national landmarks complete with cardboard replicas of the White House, Golden Gate Bridge and even Coney Island, according to Cristiano. The program culminated with a PARP Night last spring that attracted nearly 350 children for an evening featuring things ranging from patriotic arts and crafts to a kiddie dance party.
Meanwhile, Old Bethpage’s monthlong program featured a rainbow theme in which children dressed in certain colors on designated days and included guest readers, a visit from children’s author/illustrator Ethan Long and a read-a-thon that raised over $9,000 for the school. The program culminated with a literacy night complete with writing workshops and vocabulary-themed games.
"As a mom, these are the things that you want to see that your school is involved in doing," said Melissa Gomez, who was Old Bethpage’s PARP chairwoman. "It’s so important for kids to really have a love of reading, whatever the genre that they enjoy reading is."
EAST SETAUKET
Finance lab
Ward Melville High School recently unveiled a new finance lab designed to "connect classroom learning with the real world of finance," according to school officials.
The new lab, located in the school's library, provides pupils with access to live financial market data that will enable them to tackle tasks ranging from analyzing economic trends to exploring various investment and portfolio concepts, the school said.
"This lab will expose our students to concepts that no students thus far in this district have had available to them," Three Village Central School District Superintendent Kevin Scanlon said in a statement. "We are committed to continuing to expand opportunities like this and ensuring that our students have access to the tools, technology and real-world experiences they need to keep pace with an ever-changing world."
MIDDLE ISLAND
CTE Center
Longwood High School recently unveiled a new Career and Technical Center designed to prepare students "for the work they will encounter in the field and to enter the workforce directly after high school," according to the Longwood Central School District.
The center includes spaces to train teens in an instructional kitchen, a fully equipped cosmetology lab, a barbering studio, a clinical medical lab and a manufacturing shop that features "industry-standard machining and robotics equipment," the school said. Each program is tuition-free and incorporated into the regular school day.
"This is what a first-choice ready education looks like," Longwood Superintendent Lance Lohman said in a statement. "Our students are training in spaces built to industry standards, taught by people who have done the job, and they are doing it right here on their home campus and in our community."
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
