A group of Rhame Avenue school students are making safety a top priority by banning together and creating traffic calming signs.

With students being back in school, the signs are to encourage community members to be cautious in obeying traffic regulations. These signs were created in the East Rockaway Recreation Summer Program. They are attached to the fence in key areas around the perimeter of school grounds to promote safety.

The district’s Board of Education and administration kicked off the school year by celebrating the accomplishments of three teachers and a student during the September board of education meeting.

Board members congratulated teachers who were recognized in the Herald’s Head of Class Long Island Teacher Awards 2021. Junior-Senior High School foreign language teacher Rebeca Rodriguez was selected as a winner, while Junior-Senior High School English teacher Sara Perrone and Rhame Avenue Elementary School special education teacher Erin Kennedy were both named finalists. This recognition honors outstanding K-12 education leaders in public, private and charter schools.

Fine and Performing Arts Chairperson Peter Ceglio took to the podium to celebrate Junior-Senior High School senior Matthew Pollackov for being selected as a Long Island Scholar Artist in the area of media arts for the 2021-2022 School Year through the Long Island Arts Alliance. Matthew was one of 20 selected Scholar Artists from across Long Island to achieve this accomplishment. He is scheduled to be featured in a December Newsday issue.

Superintendent of School’s Lisa Ruiz concluded the recognition portion of the night by introducing this year’s new staff members to the community. Mrs. Ruiz congratulated new staff and welcomed them to the East Rockaway family.

The school year may just be beginning, but Junior-Senior High School students and teachers have already engaged in the use of Thinking Maps for a variety of purposes. Students in Geometry used double bubble maps to get to know one another. Students in Algebra 2 used tree maps to analyze the class participation rubric and discussed how to be successful in class. Circle maps were used to brainstorm critical issues in America and classroom values in English classes and enduring issues in Global.