In a pride-filled Board of Education meeting on Jan. 8, the East Islip School District honored the achievements of East Islip High School’s talented artists and athletes.
First, an acclaimed group of 17 East Islip High School student artists – Michael Carrature, Paige Danowski, Christina Dorgan, Brittney Encarnacion, Nicholas DeSantis, Jayden Fariello, Olivia Garcia, Abigail LaMorte, Bee Law, Viki Li, Kayla Lopez, Heba Luqman, Madison McCarney, Jacob Saracena, Joe Sasso, Ty Strychalsky and Jayden Suriel – were recognized for excellence in the visual arts after being selected to exhibit their work in the district office. Dorgan, Encarnacion, LaMorte, Saracena, Sasso and Suriel attended the board meeting and were presented with certificates by Art and Music Director Mark Bernard.
“Each year, we like to showcase exceptional artists in our high school community,” teacher Heather Toomey said. “We are grateful that the hard work of our visual arts students was recognized by our Board of Education and displayed in the district office. We are so proud of all of our wonderful young artists and the amazing work they produce each and every year.”
Next, East Islip High School’s varsity football team were honored for winning the Suffolk County championship last fall. It was the team’s third county title in the past five years and East Islip’s 15th overall.
“This group was pretty special,” coach Sal J. Ciampi said. “We far exceeded what anybody expected, and all the credit for that goes to the kids. What they were able to do this year as a group says a lot about them, because I think they genuinely cared more about their teammates than they cared about themselves. This was one of my favorite teams I’ve ever coached.”
Following the student recognitions, Executive Director of PPS/Special Education Krista Legge and Director of Special Education Amanda Sammarco gave a detailed presentation on the district’s Special Education Plan, and Connetquot Elementary School Principal Nicholas Bilotti shone a worthy spotlight on the the school’s dedicated PTA.
In addition, in the wake of the recent retirement of Dr. Lisa M. Belz, Executive Director for Student Achievement and Instructional Technology Richard Zwycewicz was named interim assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
