BOCES duo wins LI round of National Automotive Technology Competition

Two Western Suffolk BOCES students have taken the top spot in a local auto competition.

Matt Bizzaro, 17, and Jordan Hallen, 17, who attend Wilson Technological Center in Northport, won first place last month in the Long Island round of the National Automotive Technology Competition, which attracted 20 local teams.

The competition, coordinated by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, required two-student teams to demonstrate their skills as auto technicians at 15 different workstations. Tasks ranged from measuring a tire's tread depth to answering questions about air-conditioning systems.

For winning, Bizzaro and Hallen received prizes including $14,500 in scholarships and a $500 Megatech Corp. gift certificate for their school. They and the four runner-up teams will compete next week at the regional level for a chance to reach the national finals in the spring at the New York International Auto Show.

"I was pretty confident we would do well; the areas I'm weak in Matt is strong in, and vice versa," said Hallen, a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills. Bizzaro is a senior at Smithtown High School West.

Among the runners-up, second place went to Matthew Anderson and William Burns of Eastern Suffolk BOCES' Harry B. Ward Technical Center in Riverhead, while third place went to James Curtin and Hovnan Orangian of Nassau BOCES' Joseph M. Barry Career & Technical Education Center in Westbury.

Fourth place went to Robert Mayer and Joseph Vicale of Gerald R. Claps Career and Technical Center in Levittown, and fifth place went to Peter Biondo and Eustacio Hernandez of Harry B. Ward Technical Center.

LEVITTOWN

New principal

Jami Anspach has been named interim principal of Lee Road Elementary School in the Levittown School District. She replaced Anthony Goss, who retired in December.

Anspach was most recently the district's assistant director of elementary education, and before that had served as assistant principal of the district's East Broadway, Gardiners Avenue and Northside elementary schools.

"I'm really looking forward to being a part of the community, getting to know all the children that are a part of the school, the staff and everybody involved," Anspach said.

MASSAPEQUA

Record donation

Lockhart Elementary School recently raised more than $13,800 to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The amount, which will help grant wishes to three children through the nonprofit, was the largest the school has raised since beginning its partnership three decades ago with Make-A-Wish, school officials said. 

Students and staff raised money through a walk-a-thon in the fall. The school also hosted a Make-A-Wish concert in December that featured holiday songs performed by the school’s fifth-grade band, chorus and orchestra.  

"I'm happy to see that something we started 30 years ago has blossomed into something so wonderful," said Clara Goldberg, a former principal who began the school's tradition.

ISLANDWIDE

Amazon Future Engineer

Five Long Island high schools — Garden City, Longwood, North Babylon, Walt Whitman and Wantagh — have been designated as Amazon Future Engineer schools for the 2019-20 school year. They will join Central Islip High School, the only other Long Island school using the AFE curriculum.

The Amazon Future Engineer initiative is designed to provide students with access to AP computer science courses, college scholarships and paid internships in software engineering. Amazon is providing the coursework for the classes through a partnership with Amazon Web Services Educate and the online learning platform Edhesive.

 "This program will provide our future generation of innovators with the tools necessary for a rapidly changing technological world," Longwood Superintendent Michael Lonergan said.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

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.