Board of Ed Honors Top History Students

With the school year about to become history, the Massapequa School District honored some of its best history students and teachers Thursday night.

At its jam-packed final meeting of the year, the Board of Education recognized a group of middle and high school students for their success in the state-wide National History Day competition, held recently in Cooperstown.

Lauren Reisig, a 10th grader, won first place for her individual exhibit, "Portioning off the American Dream." She will now advance to the national competition at the University of Maryland.

The board also recognized another 10th grader, Jordyn Iger, who took third place for her historical paper; ninth-grader Nicole Heneveld, who won third place for her individual performance, and eighth-grader Meghana Rao, who won a special award from the Archives Partnership Trust for her individual performance.

"We compete against students across the country and across the state,"said Dana Robbins, a social studies teacher who mentors the participants.

"We met with our students on a weekly basis from October through March to prepare their exhibits, papers, or videos."

Robbins and another Massapequa High School social studies teacher, Josee Charvet, were named New York State Teachers of the Year. This is the fourth year in a row that Massapequa has been honored with this distinction and it's the only Long Island district with two teachers who received the award. Robbins was described as a "human dynamo," who encourages her students to get out the vote. Charvet, who holds a law degree, was praised for infusing knowledge into her students and applying that knowledge in classroom debates and mock trials.

Another honoree was  high school senior Jessica Apicella, who was recognized for being named a National Merit Scholarship winner. Only about 5,000 of the 1.5 million students who enter the scholarship competition receive the honor.

Thirteen students were recognized for their language skills in German and Spanish. Three German students placed in the 90th percentile on the National German Honor Society examination while ten Spanish students received medals in the 2010 National Spanish examination.

 Also at the meeting,  a $1,000 donation was accepted from  St. Rose of Lima parish to sponsor two $500 senior awards in honor of Sister Loyola Curtin, who is retiring after 32 years as the parish outreach director, where she helped run a food pantry.

The awards will benefit two graduating seniors from the Massapequa High School Alternative School.

"Sister Loyola is a hero to the community and she will be greatly missed," said Susan Woodbury, Massapequa's assistant superintendent of secondary education. "She welcomed anyone to help her in the pantry and she worked diligently with our students to help fill the pantry for others in need. She's an outstanding person."