Malverne High band wins in state division

Malverne High School has marched its way into the record books.

The school's Pride of Malverne Marching Band beat out 12 other schools statewide last month to win first place in the Small Schools 3 Division of the 2010 New York State Field Band Conference Championships held in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University.

The 100-student ensemble scored 84.45 and finished ahead of upstate Corning East High School, which scored 82.20. Before reaching the state level the Pride of Malverne went undefeated at six local competitions in September and October.

"This was a tough year since we had a lot of freshmen," said senior Dionna Smith, one of the band's three drum majors, along with senior Soraya Orelien and junior Zachary St. John. "But we managed to pull through. Even if someone had a bad day, they managed to be there."

The band's show was based on three movements of "The Planets," an orchestral suite finished by British composer Gustav Holst in 1916, and included everything from different colored flags to rifles to hula-hoop acts, all of which complemented the mood of the music.

To prepare for the performance, the teens attended a four-day band camp in August and practiced twice a week after the start of the school year, said band director Erin Lynch.

"Once we walked out on the field, I knew we were going to take it home," Orelien said of the championship. The Pride also won the state's Small Schools 3 Division in 2006.

Brentwood High School won first place in the competition's Large School 2 Division.

LONG BEACH

Making healthy choices

Long Beach School District recently celebrated the importance of responsible decisions and healthy choices through activities held in honor of Red Ribbon Week and Character Counts!, a character education program from the Josephson Institute in Los Angeles.

At Lindell Boulevard Elementary School, kids were treated to an assembly - titled "Don't Monkey Around with Drugs" - that included adults portraying fictional characters and mascots in anti-drug skits and songs.

Lido Elementary School and Long Beach Middle School walked together in a "Character March" from their schools to the district's administration building on Lido Boulevard.

West Elementary School hosted an anti-drug lecture by professional BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, who followed that with a bike demo.

UNIONDALE

Honors for art teacher

Claudia Sibree, an art teacher at Turtle Hook Middle School, has been named 2010 Art Educator of the Year for the Nassau County region by the New York State Art Teachers Association based on her "outstanding contributions to the field of art education."

Since joining the Uniondale School District in 2000, Sibree has established a National Art Honor Society Chapter, created an eighth-grade studio art class and launched an annual art festival, among other things.

WESTBURY

Walk for scholarships

More than 100 volunteers visited the homes of Westbury High School ninth-graders last month during a "Walk for Success" designed to sign up families for the district's Project GRAD Long Island Scholarship Program. The program will provide college scholarships of up to $6,000 to teens meeting a series of academic requirements, starting with the Class of 2013.

Walk participants included Westbury High School Principal Manny Arias, Farmingdale State College president W. Hubert Keen, and Molloy College president Drew Bogner.

COUNTYWIDE

Thwarting bullies

Dozens of schools throughout Nassau County recognized National Bullying Prevention Month in October with programs designed to educate families on the dangers of bullying.

In Levittown, more than 100 parents and teachers attended a workshop on bullying and teen depression that included speaker John Halligan, a Vermont man whose son committed suicide in 2003 as a result of being bullied by classmates.

Sea Cliff Elementary School Principal Adam Frankel introduced a new school motto: "Just one - You can be the ONE who makes a difference." It was inspired by Kathryn Otoshi's "One," a children's book with an anti-bullying message.

In Cold Spring Harbor, representatives of the New Jersey-based Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication spoke to parents about how "information put online is forever," district officials said.

ISLANDWIDE

Math scholars

Seventy-five students have been named Long Island Young Scholars of Mathematics by the Institute of Creative Problem Solving for Gifted and Talented Students at SUNY Old Westbury. Honorees are among the top 0.1 percent of math students in grades 5-10. The scholars were determined based on an exam given in May. Nassau County winners were:

Albertson: Sahil Abbi, Michelle Vaucura and Keita Watanbe of Herricks Middle School; Baldwin: Kyle Seipp of Baldwin High School; Bellmore: Max Bazil of Shore Road School; Bethpage: Tyler Albert of Bethpage High School; Matthew Musetich, Jessica Nardulli and Michael Sweeney of John F. Kennedy Middle School; Carle Place: Dhara Kadakia of Carle Place High School; East Meadow: Danial Qamar of Woodland Middle School; East Rockaway: Sarina Gonzalez and Joseph McGeary of East Rockaway Junior/Senior High School; Farmingdale: Nakul Gupta of Farmingdale High School; Freeport: Nyeem Maloney and Kaitlin McLaughlin of Caroline G. Atkinson Middle School; Garden City: Ted Flaherty and Alexander Franco of Garden City Middle School; Glen Head: William Dahl of North Shore High School; Great Neck: Catherine Hong of Great Neck South Middle School; Hicksville: David Fellows of Hicksville High School; Jericho: Ian Hua and Leo Hua of Jericho High School; Jessica Huang, Justin Kim and James Song of Jericho Middle School; Amber Patrick of Robert Seaman Elementary School; Long Beach: Kelly Gannon of Long Beach Middle School; Manhasset: Raymond Huffman of Munsey Park Elementary School; New Hyde Park: Nicoletta Bouzos of New Hyde Park Memorial High School; Daniel Celic of New Hyde Park Road School; Sachit Singal of Herricks High School; Oceanside: Jordyn Landau of School #4; Old Westbury: Anthony Graffigna of The Wheatley School; Plainview: Talia Blum and Joshua Wicker of Mattlin Middle School; Port Washington: Hannah Fagen of Paul D. Schreiber High School; Roosevelt: Evelyn Sanchez of Roosevelt High School; Vanessa Chicas of Roosevelt Middle School; Roslyn Heights: Krista Chen of Willets Road Middle School; Syosset: Nikhil Goyal and Adam Hirsch of Syosset High School; Philip Jang, Rachel Kang and Andrea Ruggiero of Harry B. Thompson Middle School; Brian Cueto and Andrea He of Southwoods Middle School.