School Notebook: Serving up eatery ideas

Long Island high schoolers recently got a taste of being restaurateurs for a day.

A total of 38 three-person teams went head-to-head last month in the first Plainview Challenge, a competition of entrepreneurial skills where teams pitched fictional ideas for a restaurant establishment.

First place went to a team from Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills -- Aneesh Shah, Natalie Haebich and Ron Qiao -- that presented a concept for a health-food restaurant called Fitness in Time. It specialized in organic dishes and a fast service.

"I believe the solution to all the obesity issues in the world can be alleviated with this fun and novel restaurant," said Shah, noting the team aimed to start the business in Manhattan. "It would get a great deal of exposure, and we can use innovative marketing strategies to get our name out there."

Each team was given one hour and 45 minutes to complete a full business plan, said Jennifer Santorello, a business teacher and adviser to the Business Honor Society at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, which hosted the event. The business plan included such details as where the restaurant would be located and what type of food would be served. Teams then presented their ideas to a panel of judges.

Second place went to Dan Goldbaum, Scott Leo and Matt Farber of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School. The school also had the third-place team of Dan Borko, Jake Egert and Jordan Ross.

"It was an extremely successful day," Santorello said. "It's important for kids this age to know they have options in business and take a strong interest in it."

Other high schools represented were Half Hollow Hills West, Commack, Lawrence, Northport, Sanford E. Calhoun in Merrick, and Long Island Lutheran in Brookville.

BOHEMIA

Habitat fundraiser

Connetquot High School's Habitat for Humanity Club recently raised $10,000 at the school's first 5-kilometer Santa Fun Run to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk County.

The event attracted 400 runners from as far away as Brooklyn and Quogue, school officials said.

In other news, students at the district's Helen B. Duffield Elementary School in Ronkonkoma succeeded in getting band teacher Val Jones to dress for a day as Darth Vader -- complete with light saber -- by winning a challenge to learn new music in various genres.

DEER PARK

SADD conference

Deer Park High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions Club recently hosted a districtwide Neighbor to Neighbor Conference in which dozens of students in grades 5-8 participated in activities addressing "current issues that youngsters face," district officials said. The goal was to foster awareness of the issues and develop plans of action.

In one workshop, groups created skits on topics such as texting and social acceptance.

The conference culminated with each group creating a poster depicting what they learned. Those pieces, along with a certificate of participation, were displayed inside their schools.

SMITHTOWN

Math contest winners

Nesconset Elementary School fifth-graders recently beat out 70 schools statewide to take first place in a 10-day math contest hosted by sum dog.com, a website designed to improve math fact fluency for students in grades K-8. The school placed first in nine of the 10 days of the contest.

Nesconset also had three of the top four students in the entire state: Dylan Curtin, Dipcy Eranki and Ben Levine.

The district's Dogwood Elementary School was the first runner-up in the competition.

ISLANDWIDE

Robotics teams formed

Forty 40 teams of local students kicked off the 2012 season of the FIRST Robotics Competition earlier this month at the Javits Lecture Center at Stony Brook University. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

The teams -- along with 2,000 others nationally -- received the game rules via a NASA satellite transmission from the FIRST headquarters in New Hampshire. They also received a kit of parts to begin building their robots over the allowed 42-day period. The Long Island regional competition will be at Hofstra University on March 29-31.

"The [competition] is not just about the design and building of sophisticated robots," said Scott Schuler, acting president of the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, the event's sponsor. "These students each develop maturity, professionalism and teamwork skills that enrich their lives."