Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Opens
STEM School
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a new school was held in the Huntington School District for the first time in decades last Wednesday. The Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School swung open its doors and welcomed 149 students spread across grades 3-5.
The school is housed in a building that at 45 years old is the newest in the district. The STEM school will offer an emphasis on teaching science, technology, engineering and math, along with traditional elementary school subjects, including reading, writing, social studies, music, art and physical education.
United States Representative Steve Israel was on hand to speak with students, parents and teachers and help cut the ceremonial ribbon to formally open the new school program. The congressman expressed his full support of the school’s mission and of an $11.7 million grant application the district has submitted to the US Department of Education to help fund the establishment and growth of the new STEM program over the next three years.
Following a series of informational meetings for parents, more than 300 students applied for admission to the school with a lottery determining the students who were ultimately invited to enroll. If all goes well, the program expects to expand to the sixth grade next fall.
Last Wednesday, students were escorted to the school gym after disembarking from their respective bus. There, teachers took attendance and organized their class before bringing the youngsters back outside for the opening ceremony. Students were massed in the bus circle as they listened to Superintendent James W. Polansky express his excitement and that of the entire district in launching the STEM program. He thanked members of the Huntington School Board and everyone who had a hand in initiating the opening of the new school.
Mr. Polansky paraphrased the school’s vision statement, emphasizing his belief that “learning is an active process and is most effective when it is real, purposeful and useful to the student.” Trustees Bari Fehrs, Jennifer Hebert, Emily Rogan, Adam Spector and Tom DiGiacomo were also in attendance along with various PTA officials.
The Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, which has offered to participate in a partnership with the new STEM School, brought a Grumman one-seat kit airplane to the opening ceremony. The small Honda-engine powered plane was parked on the lawn near the main entrance. Classes visited the plane throughout the day and were given a “tour” by a museum educator. Students were even given an opportunity to sit in the cockpit after climbing up a short staircase.
“It was exciting to sit in an airplane made by Grumman and built right here on Long Island,” said Nate Coulter, a fifth grader at the school. “Maybe some of us here at the STEM school will design airplanes or rockets in the future.”
Later in the day, classes were once again brought outside, this time to plant small maple trees along the south side of the school grounds. Each class planted a tree, taking measurements of the saplings, digging holes and noting the soil composition and quality and insuring the root structure was securely in place.
Print, online and television reporters and cameras were on the scene during the bus arrival, ribbon-cutting, tree planting and afternoon dismissal. Parents and students were interviewed and by the end of the day seemed at least partially worn-out by all the hoopla.
One of the happiest people at the ribbon-cutting ceremony was Jack Abrams, the retired school principal and founding curator of the district’s School Heritage Museum for whom the STEM school building is named. Mr. Abrams has been associated with the district since September 1955 and at 82 years old, remains a familiar figure in every building.