A Message from AGATE’s Co-Presidents
We’re at the end of another extraordinary school year, so we have some final information to share and a lot of people to congratulate and thank!
First, some good news. We’re thrilled to announce that AGATE is launching a blog, and longtime AGATE member Barbara Cohen has written our inaugural post. See below for more information about the AGATE blog and a link to Barbara’s piece. We hope this will be a new way to exchange ideas and information, and we invite all AGATE members to consider submitting a post!
Now some not-so-good news. When we sent out our last newsletter, we had high hopes that the District would resume testing to identify students for the PEP/ESTEAM core group before the year ended. However, Dr. Meoli recently informed families that testing will not resume until the fall due to difficulties in concluding a data privacy agreement with the vendor of the online Standardized Abilities Assessment. We will keep you informed as we receive further information.
Last week, we elected our new Executive Board for the 2021-2022 academic year. Congratulations to Senior Co-President Kim Keiserman; Junior Co-President Rebecca Hughes Parker; Vice President Nancy Ziselman; Treasurer Elizabeth Milbank; and Secretary Kelly McMasters. We would like to thank each of them for their willingness to serve, and we would like to thank our outgoing officers Nanette Melkonian and George Borda for their years of dedicated service to AGATE. Our official board turnover takes place on July 1st.
In addition to the officers who have been elected to our Executive Board, AGATE’s leadership includes the members of our Advisory Board, which is composed of district liaisons, committee heads and others. We always welcome new members! For next year’s advisory board, we need liaisons for each school–especially Daly and Schreiber–and we are also looking for one or two website directors.If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us at co-presidents@agatepw.org.
Before we sign off, we would like to thank our members for supporting our work and attending our events. Despite the difficult circumstances, AGATE had a great year. We would also like to thank our district’s teachers, staff, administrators and Board of Education for their hard work in steering our schools through this challenging time.
Best wishes for a wonderful and relaxing summer!
Kim Keiserman & Nanette Melkonian
AGATE Co-Presidents
Congratulations to the Class of 2021
Toula J. Halperin Scholarship Recipients
Each year AGATE awards the Toula J. Halperin Scholarship to several Schreiber High School seniors who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement coupled with the passionate and dedicated pursuit of a talent, skill, or interest. On June 9th the scholarships were presented virtually to Shayne Bersin, Isaac Goldstein, Rajen Parekh, Samantha Radinsky, Daniel Ruskin, Gavin Shaub and Jeffrey Sung. We congratulate each one of them on their outstanding achievements and wish them the best in their future endeavors!
Introducing the AGATE Blog
The idea of an AGATE blog was inspired by you, our members, because we are continually impressed by the depth and variety of your interests and ideas. We are delighted that longtime member, Barbara Cohen, has written our inaugural post.
Click here to read “Building Up Gifted and Talented Programs Enables More Children to Achieve Their Full Potential” by Barbara Cohen.
We invite all AGATE members in good standing to submit blog posts. Click here to read our guidelines and criteria.
Spotlight on Parents’ Council:
CommUNITY Conversation on Chasing Childhood
Last week, Parents’ Council offered parents the opportunity to watch Chasing Childhood: All Work and No Play is No Way for Kids to Grow Up. This award-winning documentary features our own Dr. Hynes and explores the loss of free play and independence in children’s lives.
On Thursday, June 10th, Parents’ Council hosted a post-viewing discussion, led by Dr. Hynes, author Lenore Skenazy, and author Dr. Peter Gray. Click here to view this thought-provoking discussion.
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