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Commack School District

Excellence in Education

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Science Research Students Impress at NYSSEF!

On Monday, March 25th, four Commack students won awards at Round 2 of the New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF), held at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. NYSSEF is the most competitive science fair in the state, drawing projects from all over New York.

We'd like to take a moment to congratulate the following students on their achievements at this high level: 

Special Awards: 
  • Regeneron Biomedical Science Award - Mehek S.
Grand Awards: 
  • Kevin M.: 2nd Place, Biomedical and Health Science
    Decreased Immune Activation as a Driver of the Differential Therapeutic Responses to Chemoradiotherapy between HPV+ Head and Neck Cancer and HPV+ Cervical Cancer
  • Aaron M.: Honorable Mention, Translational Medicine
    Classifying Hemorrhagic and Ischemic Stroke CT Scans Via a Deep Learning Approach
  • Shivani M.: 3rd Place, Computational Biology
    Evaluation of Attribution Methods Alignments with Deep Learning Model Predictions in Genomics
  • Mehek S.: 1st Place, Microbiology
    Secretion of the Francisella tularensis Protein FTL_1123 by Escherichia coli Containing the HlyBD Operon
These impressive results would not have been possible without the guidance, dedication, and support of our amazing Science Research team of Jeanette Collette, Dr. Daniel Kramer, and Andrea Beatty, and our Science Director, Ms Laura Longo.

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Posted Thursday, March 28, 2024

Students Advocate for District at Capitol

Commack High School student leaders impressed their state representatives and Education Department administrators with their command of issues affecting students and the district during a visit to the State Capitol on Tuesday.
 
 Twenty-two CHS students from the Legislative Advocacy Committee accompanied superintendent Dr. Jordan Cox and his cabinet as well as Board of Education vice president Steven Hartman and committee co-chairs Eric Biagi and Dr. Jennifer Santorello on the advocacy trip to Albany.
 
 The group met with state senators Mario Mattera and assemblymen Keith Brown and Michael Fitzpatrick. They then crossed Washington Avenue to meet with New York State Education Department deputy commissioners Angelique Johnson-Dingle and Jason Harmon as well as a dozen senior staff members from throughout the department.
 
 The politicians and education officials both praised the students’ effective lobbying on behalf of the Commack School District with respect to policy and funding requests.
 
 “We love the fact you’re becoming young advocates,” Assemblyman Brown told the students. “It keeps our finger on the pulse.”
 
 Said Harmon, the Education Department’s P-12 operational support deputy commissioner: “This is critical for our work being able to hear from all of you.”
 
 The students’ presentations focused on six general topics: school funding, environmental sustainability, safety, mental health, local governance and technology.
 
 The specific proposals included requesting funding for a wellness room for mental health breaks, the expansion of security badges to younger students in the district to improve safety, and assistance developing educational opportunities at the six-acre farm that had been bequeathed to the district. The students also advocated for increased practical learning opportunities such as state-sponsored financial literacy coursework and the freedom to do internships as part of the academic coursework.
 
 Students from the district annually have traveled to Albany for nearly a decade to meet their representatives as well as Education Department officials. In fact, current social studies teacher Crystal Curcio — one of the chaperones for Tuesday’s trip — had visited Albany as a CHS student leader several years ago.
 
 The officials clearly listened. Johnson-Dingle and Harmon took copious notes and pledged to stay in touch with the students to get further feedback as the state looks to reexamine how students experience school.

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Posted Tuesday, March 26, 2024

FBLA Hosts Spring Fun Day

CHS' Future Business Leaders of America hosted its annual Spring Fun Day on Saturday afternoon. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade participated in carnival-type games and Bingo. The Easter Bunny even made an appearance.

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Posted Saturday, March 23, 2024

State Winners in PTA 'Reflections' Contest

Commack students scored big in the annual Reflections contest sponsored by the New York State PTA.
 
 Six students from the district won state-wide awards for their “I Am Hopeful Because … ” submissions. The entries came in forms including literature, music composition and photography.
 
 The district’s state-wide winners: CHS’ Bianca Awerman and Alessandra DeStefano, Burr’s Max Niebling and Ryan Scarola and Sawmill’s Benjamin Lopes and Mylo Trinagel.
 
 Ryan Scarola and Benjamin Lopes’ submissions will advance to the national competition. Commack will have two of only 30 New York State entries.
 
 (Pictured: award-winning rainbow photo submitted by Max Niebling)

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Posted Thursday, March 21, 2024

CHS Hosts College & Career Fair

Commack High School welcomed representatives from 150 colleges and universities as well as professionals in assorted fields, military academy reps and local businesses to its annual College and Career Fair on Wednesday night.

 The event is particularly special not just because of the volume of higher education institutions that attend, but also because of the alums and Commack residents who come to answer questions about their careers.

 Wednesday's fair was welcome to all Commack students and staff members and their families.

 Neighboring districts also send their students with special needs to Commack's event because a wide range of transition agencies, such as New York State's ACCES-VR, have booths at the event.

 Among the local officials who attended were representatives of the sixth-month-old Commack Chamber of Commerce.

 The wide range of professionals discussing career paths included the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and the Suffolk County Department of Civil Service.

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Posted Wednesday, March 20, 2024

'Mamma Mia' - What an Amazing Weekend!

Congratulations to the cast, crew, and the entire team behind this year's musical - Mamma Mia! After months of hard work, dedication, and long rehearsals, the entire Commack community was treated to three amazing performances of the hit show, starting with the Senior Citizen Matinee. An amazing time was had by all! Thank you for sharing your amazing time and talents with all of us!

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Posted Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Field Day!

CHS students in the Garden Club, led by Ryan McGrath, spent the mid-afternoon on Tuesday preparing a field at Marion Carll Farm for planting using rakes and shovels.
 
 The district's third graders soon will use the field to grow mammoth cabbage as part of the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program.
 
 The younger students will compete with students at other schools to grow the largest cabbage while learning at an early age how to grow healthy food and to value the fun and hard work that goes into gardening.

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Posted Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Trading Floor, Financial Literacy Coming to HS

Students will soon graduate from Commack High School with an essential understanding of real-world financial topics, including investing for retirement and the perils of credit card debt.
 
Superintendent Dr. Jordan Cox unveiled plans during Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting for an innovative partnership with Bloomberg that will include the conversion of existing space at the high school into a finance lab resembling the New York Stock Exchange trading floor — down to a stock ticker streaming across the walls.
 
Beginning with the Class of 2025, all seniors will be required to take a financial literacy course in the finance lab utilizing Bloomberg terminals that will be embedded into their social studies coursework.
 
The high school's staff is beginning to train on state-of-the-art Bloomberg terminals that will be installed in the school's soon-to-debut replica trading floor. The terminals are the same technology used at real-world financial institutions and contain modules for teaching subjects ranging from financial fundamentals to complex topics such as market concepts.
 
Other financial literacy topics students will learn include college loans, mortgages and checking, savings and investment accounts.
 
"This is so critically important," Cox said. "It is our vision to ensure that every senior who graduates from Commack is financially literate, and that they understand how money works in the world and how they run their lives financially."
 
The district has started its search for a financial literacy teacher.
 
Commack High School is transforming the traditional educational experience with real-life spaces, such as a mock courtroom that debuted this past September.
 
 The stock floor, courtroom and associated curriculum are part of a larger plan by Dr. Cox and the Board of Education to expose students to career pathways while still in high school.
 
"Students are empowered to make meaning of their learning by engaging in relevant coursework and applying their knowledge to real-world experiences," Cox said.
 
During Thursday night's board meeting, Dr. Cox announced that the district plans to implement specialized schools within Commack High School, including schools of Business, Education, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Fine Arts, Liberal Studies, Medicine and, in the near future, a School of Law. The schools are set to begin for the 2025-26 schoolyear.
 
Students will be presented with clusters of elective courses that will begin to prepare them for careers in those fields.
 
No specific courses will be mandated within a particular school. A student may take as many or as few of the elective courses as they want — while also receiving the benefits of invitations to attend presentations from guest speakers in that field, college admissions advisors and other programming.
 
Students may freely sample courses from other schools within Commack High School.
 
The School of Liberal Studies is intended to expose students to a wide range of courses and professions.
 
"This is an opportunity to ensure that all students graduate prepared to make the best decision for their college and/or career journey,” Cox said.
 

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Posted Friday, March 15, 2024

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