Archive for January, 2010
Westchester Track and Field Championships at the Armory in Manhattan • 01.31.10
The Westchester County Track and Field Championships were held at The New Balance Armory in Manhattan earlier today.
Look for the story in tomorrow’s edition of The Journal News. For a gallery of online photos, click here.
Wrestler’s compete in Super 16 • 01.30.10
Despite the cold weather outside, things heated up on the mats in Section One high school wrestling.
Ossining’s Daniel Panken battles Yonkers Eliott Maldonado during the 215 pound final of the Super 16 tournament in Yonkers Jan 30, 2010. Panken won the match. Click here for a gallery of photos and check out Jake Thomases story in the Journal News or here on LoHud.com for all the final results.
Children’s Books created by Yorktown High students shared at Mohansic Elementary School • 01.29.10
From left, Mohansic Elementary School second graders Dominick Sanfardino, 7, and Sam Levin, 8 listen as Yorktown High School senior Esteban Rivera reads from a children’s book he and other class mates created as part of the high school’s children’s literature class.
The class is designed to analyze fairy tales and children’s stories in an attempt to uncover subconscious messages that are given. The students look at the messages and analyze in what way they have been impacted by these stories by examining their own expectations about men/women, villains, heroes, happily ever after, magic, and true love. More photographs from this event will be appearing in an upcoming Yorktown-Cortlandt Express and click here to be linked to the daily photo gallery at Lohud.com. ( Joe Larese / The Journal News )
Census jobs for Ossining residents • 01.29.10
Census 2010 is now recruiting Ossining residents for temporary, part-time positions.
Field workers make between $14 and $21 and have flexible working hours. To apply, individuals must be 18 or older and pass a written examination. U.S. citizens are given preference.
The test and application process take about two hours. Registration is required by calling, 845-848-3280. The exams will be given on Feb. 2, Feb. 6 and Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. and on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. For more on U.S. Census jobs, go here.
Yorktown superintendent to propose merging elementary schools, closing one building • 01.28.10
Yorktown Superintendent Ralph Napolitano will lay out merger plans for the district’s elementary school buildings with the intention of closing one of them.
It’s unclear as yet which of the four buildings would be closed. Napolitano will unveil the proposal at Monday’s Board of Education meeting at Yorktown High School off Route 202. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.
District staff will be briefed on the plan prior to the meeting and will get a full presentation Tuesday. If adopted by the school board, it would be implemented this fall.
Napolitano was charged by trustees with studying consolidation as a means to cut costs entering the upcoming budget season. Declining enrollment may make closing a building a viable option. The district might then seek to lease the space.
Shrub Oak: Archbishop’s visit Saturday marks 35th anniversary of Seton’s sainthood • 01.28.10
Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be on hand at the 5:30 p.m. mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Shrub Oak Saturday to help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the patron saint’s canonization.
Dolan, who has visited St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown and in December visited Assumption Church in Peekskill, is visiting at the invitation of Seton Pastor Monsignor Thomas Sandi. Sandi met with the archbishop in New York Wednesday.
“This is a great honor,” Sandi said. “We thought it would be nice for him to meet our people and for our people to meet him.”
“He really cares for the people of the archdiocese,” he added.
The church, the first ever named for the first American-born saint. Born in Aug. 28, 1774 in New York City, Seton died Jan. 4, 1821. Her Feast Day is typically celebrated the last Sunday of January, Sandi said.
(more…)Croton-Harmon High School closed temporarily • 01.28.10
Croton-Harmon High School was closed for about an hour this morning because of a potential gas leak. Around 10 a.m., the smell of gas was detected outside the school. Con Edison was called in, and the students were evacuated to the nearby middle school. After the all-clear was given by the utility around 11 a.m., a normal school day commenced.
Snow-covered farmscape • 01.28.10
The morning downfall didn’t do much good for the roads, but Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown wears a blanket of fresh snow well.
Photos by Brian Howard/The Journal News
(more…)Ossining school officials declare negotiations impasse with Support Staff Association • 01.28.10
The Ossining Union Free School District and the Board of Education have declared an impasse in negotiations with the Ossining Support Staff Association and will file a document with the New York State Public Employment Relations Bureau indicating the impasse. A mediator will then appointed to assist the parties reach a settlement.
The Board of Education and the Support Staff Association, which includes teaching assistants, security aides, teacher aides, school monitors and literacy facilitators, have been in negotiations since last spring. The current agreement expired June 30, 2009.
The parties met for 10 negotiation sessions and had reached a settlement for a “successor collective bargaining agreement.” A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was delivered to the Association. But in the fall, the Association rejected the MOA and demanded to “virtually double the salary increases that had been agreed to by the parties and to seek a substantial decrease in the previously agreed to health insurance premium contributions,” according to district officials. The district had several options but decided to go with the impasse with PERB plan. Board President Alice Joselow said:
The Board has determined that its scarce fiscal resources would be better expended in other areas such as educating children, and will instead declare impasse with PERB indicating that it has bargained to impasse without success.We remain optimistic that seeking assistance of a neutral third party will eventually result in a fair and equitable settlement for the parties.
Preparing seniors for graduation seminar in Ossining • 01.28.10
Ossining Communities That Care and the Ossining High School PTSA are co-sponsoring the “144 Days until Graduation,” seminar, Feb. 2, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Ossining High School library, 29 S. Highland Ave.
Ellen Morehouse, the executive director of Student Assistance Services in Tarrytown, will speak about what’s going on socially and emotionally with students as graduation approaches. Morehouse will discuss a variety of topics, including how to navigate the many traditions associated with the end of senior year, i.e., prom, graduation, along with what seniors need from their parents to assist them in getting ready for college and work.
