Five district employees earned SCOPE Awards for Excellence this year, and were recognized at the annual SCOPE awards dinner, held on March 18. Dr. Eliana Levey, the principal of Robert Frost Middle School, won in the Administrator Service category. The other winners were DC Raymond Downey Charity/Scholarship Fund founder Rosalie Downey (Community Service), Deer Park High School special education teacher Laurie Osbern (Teacher Service) and districtwide Food Service Director Barbara Stabile (Support Staff Service).

The district’s music program earned recognition again as one of the NAMM Foundation’s Best Communities for Music Education. The annual designation, now in its 20th year, rewards exceptional achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students.

“Deer Park is very proud to be honored as one of the best communities for music education by NAMM for 2019,” said Bradley Murphy, the district’s curriculum associate for fine and performing arts.

Swashbuckling student-actors at Robert Frost put on an entertaining spectacle, presenting Richard Gremel’s play “The Thrilling Tale of the Three Musketeers” on March 15 and 16.

The titular three swordsmen were brought to life by Steven Discenza as Artie, Marcus Fasano as Porthos and Sebastian Lopez as Aramis. Directed by Michael Moriarty with invaluable assistance from set designer Maria Giglio and Sound and lighting director Scott Surdi, the farcical production also starred Maddy Bernstein as Constance, Drea Hendrickson as Queen Anne, Luke Valencia as Prince Frederick, Ayush Manchanda as the Duke, Carson Warkenthein as Bernard, Dimitra Pavlatos as Claudette, Brianne Vasconcellos as the Page and Gianna Sanchez as the Guard.

“I had the perfect cast for this show,” said Moriarty. “We put on a rather difficult piece, but the kids turned out an incredible performance. When you consistently hear an audience laughing throughout the show, it’s vindication for the cast and crew that they’re doing something pretty special.”

Robert Frost held its fourth annual BandAid Project on March 15. Developed by Frost speech-language pathologist Stephanie O’Connell to coincide with April as National Autism Awareness Month, the daylong event – which won the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission’s Inter-Faith Anti-Bias Task Force Award last year – works to increase acceptance of people with autism and developmental disabilities rather than just awareness and provides students with a firsthand experience of the daily struggles of people with disabilities.

Participating students wear a Band-aid across their mouth for the entire day, and must use pen and paper, gestures and even body language to communicate with their teachers and peers while taking part in all required activities of the school day. At BandAid’s conclusion, the students gather to play a game or complete an activity reflecting on the difficulties they had without the ability to communicate like others.

"Doing the BandAid Project for three straight years was a really good experience, and I looked forward to it every year,” said eighth-grader David Perez. “It’s basically the same as every other day, but once you put the Band-aid on, everything changes for you. When I tried to speak, I felt totally different. I really wanted to rip it off and speak as much as I want, but I knew I couldn’t, because I dedicated myself to finishing the project. It gave me a new point of view on what people with disabilities have to deal with in daily life.”

“This year, at some point during the day, I wanted to cry,” said eighth-grader Karly Haskins, another previous BandAid participant. “It was really hard. I wanted to talk to so many of my friends and tell them what was on my mind. It was definitely a struggle.”

“I was impressed with our students’ ability to reflect on this activity,” said O’Connell.  “I asked them to give me one word that described how it felt to be speechless for the day. Students reported the following feelings: trapped, stuck, sad, embarrassed, annoyed, frustrated, mad, and furious. I acknowledged their feelings and then challenged them to think about what it must be like to feel that way all the time, as it is for someone with a disability. They got it!”

For this year’s Black History Month celebration at Robert Frost, which encompassed February and extended into early March, teachers Lynne Connors and Sara Watkin-Fox focused for the first time on the crucial role of music in the African-American experience.

“What makes our Black History month celebration so unique is the fact that it is a hands-on experience for the students,” said Watkin-Fox. “Each year, we focus on a different theme and the students partner with us to create a celebration that extends throughout the school. Whether it is setting up a historical display case with Mrs. Connors or researching the various musicians, styles and incredible contributions of African-Americans to the world of music with me or working with both of us to raise awareness throughout the school, this is a student-centered project that brings our entire school community together.”

Connors and Watkin-Fox came up with a list of musical genres to cover along with a timeline to cover the topics. Connors then ordered the topics in a calendar, and Watkin-Fox’s classes researched which musicians and songs to use. Each week during Black History Month, student-selected musical choices that span both history and musical styles were played on the school’s PA system, resulting in students dancing and singing in the halls.

Students also utilized Frost’s newly acquired Chromebooks to increase their understanding of the subject, conducting technology and sharpening research skills to listen to and learn about African-Americans' significant contribution to music throughout history.

“The lesson traced the evolution of the African-American contribution to the world of music, starting with African drumming and moving on to a writing prompt on blues, studying how it originated in the time of slavery on the Mississippi Delta,” said Watkin-Fox. “We used technology for the jazz station – an independent study on Louis Armstrong and the history of jazz in this country. Our last station involved creating promotional posters for the Motown recording studio, the first that did not discriminate against African-American musicians. Our students learned about the good as well as the bad, about the racism that many of the musicians had to deal with and the difficulties in getting their music recorded.

“Frost is proud to have showcased several extremely influential African-American musicians including Louis Armstrong, Berry Gordy and Chuck Berry,” said Bradley Murphy, Deer Park’s curriculum associate for fine and performing arts. “Through experiences like this, our students are able to experience the masterpieces these amazing musicians produced many years ago.”

“I learned about different types of music like jazz and the blues,” said seventh-grader Angeline Burnett. “I feel like we should give credit to the African-Americans because they built our structure of music.”

“It was good because we learned about black history and how African-Americans made music throughout the years and through many hardships,” said seventh-grader Jayden Philippe.

Based on student research, Connors created a showcase in Frost’s main lobby, displaying the people’s movement from Africa through slavery and migration patterns, and their music progressing from blues through jazz and into rock, hip hop and rap, as well as different cities in the U.S. where these music genres were birthed. The showcase also featured a poem by student Alexa Cornelia.

“I came up with the poem because I didn’t know black history before, so I made a poem from my heart,” said Cornelia. “People don’t get respected. I made the poem to tell them that they do matter, and not to let anyone change who they are.”

Finally, Connors visited English as a new language classes to discuss her own personal narrative and instill pride.

“As a survivor of segregated schools on Long Island, I can relate to the ENL students’ feelings of being an outsider looking in,” she said. “I started with my family, to show that African-Americans could be prosperous. This is their heritage, and for some it’s their introduction to something they don’t know about.”