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A Message from AGATE’s Co-Presidents

We are pleased to announce that school board and budget results are in, and the budget passed by a vote of 4,756 to 1,901. We thank the Port Washington community for supporting our schools, and we congratulate the two board winners, Rachel Gilliar and Julie Epstein.

As we near the end of an extraordinary year, we have much to be grateful for. We thank AGATE’s board members for their hard work on behalf of our district’s children; we thank our members for their support and contributions to our work; and we thank our district’s administration, school board, and educators for rising to the challenges of this unprecedented time.   

Looking back on the year, we think we can be proud of a number of accomplishments. We updated our website and refurbished our newsletter. We made a commitment to publicizing and providing language access for each of our events. We introduced a new event, our Enrichment Opportunities Fair, to make parents aware of enrichment programs at all grade levels and all areas of learning. Due to the school closure, we hosted our first virtual event, our “Meet the Candidates Night,” and were thrilled that it was viewed 1,200 times!

Through each of these efforts, we have improved our communication with parents and guardians, and we hope to keep improving. You can help us broaden our reach by:

• • serving as AGATE’s liaison to your child’s school (see flyer below);
  • joining our board as Website and Social Media Coordinator; or
  • liking us on Facebook, following us on Instagram, and inviting your friends to do the same.

Please contact us at co-presidents@agatepw.org if you are interested in these positions or other ways of getting involved. We wish you a safe and relaxing summer and look forward to seeing you in the fall!

With Best Wishes,

Nanette Melkonian and Kim Keiserman

AGATE and Equity

We commend Dr. Hynes for his June 3rd letter to the community pledging to take meaningful action against systemic racism in our school district. This week AGATE sent a letter to Dr. Hynes offering our support for this effort and urging the district to take action to overcome the inequity that exists in access to gifted and talented programming, enrichment opportunities, and advanced coursework in our district.

At AGATE we recognize that we have all have a role to play in overcoming systemic racism. We have made diversity and access a priority in recent years and pledge to continue that work going forward. In the coming year, we plan to launch an initiative to educate the community about diversity in gifted education. Look out for information in our newsletter and on social media!

Congratulations to the Toula J. Halperin Scholarship Recipients of 2020

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 10 the scholarships were presented virtually to Cheryl Chang, Priya Rajesh Chainani, Jeannie Ren, Adam Harris Salzman, and Maansi Shroff. Congratulations!