City School District of New Rochelle
News & updates
March 3, 2020
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Superintendent
Updates District
On COVID-19
Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo continues to keep the community apprised of the developing Coronavirus (COVID-19) concern. Earlier this week, the administration, led by Dr. Feijóo, produced its Coronavirus P.R.E.P (Prevention Responsiveness Education Physical spaces) Plan.

She has also issued daily updates on the situation. A Coronavirus Resource Center has been set up on the City School District of New Rochelle’s website, www.nred.org , for all updates and other information.
You can find the P.R.E.P Plan here:
Rhett Named
Head Football Coach

Raymond L. Rhett Jr., an assistant varsity football coach at New Rochelle High School, was appointed as the team’s head coach Tuesday by the New Rochelle Board of Education.

Rhett has 19 years of experience as coach in various sports – football, basketball, softball and track and field. Since 2017, he has served as an assistant coach for the varsity football team, a post he also held from 2001 to 2004. He served on the coaching staff that led the football Huguenots to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for the past two years, coming home with the state championship last November.

“We are excited to have Coach Rhett take on the role of head coach for our championship team,” said Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo. “We embarked on a rigorous selection process to fill this position, and Coach Rhett emerged as the candidate with the right skills and attitude. He has been an integral part of the team’s leadership during its phenomenal performance in recent years. That, and his understanding of the importance of academics as well athletics make him the right fit.” 

The Board made the appointment at its meeting in Jefferson Elementary School.

“I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity and to continuing to build the program,” Rhett said. “It starts in the off season with a focus on academics and in the weight room. We’re focusing on having the student athletes grow academically and become stronger and faster.”

Rhett commands the respect of the students on the team and in his physical education classes, said District Director of Athletics Steve Young.

“He’s a role model to both athletes and non-athletes,” Young said. “The students have a lot of respect for him. He’s a good person and a good family man. Ever since I arrived in the District, he has been nothing but friendly and a true professional. I am very happy for Ray and I look forward to working with him in his new role.”

Even before the varsity football team’s recent successes, Rhett showed himself to be a skilled coach.

“He’s very competitive, very intense,” Young said. “He did a great job as head coach of the junior varsity football team. They were a very successful team, having three consecutive undefeated seasons.”

Rhett has served as a physical education teacher and coach with the District since 2001.
At Hamilton Grange.
Discovering Hamilton,
The Musical and the Man

The New Rochelle middle school students taking in Hamilton recently got more than just an afternoon enjoying the hottest ticket on Broadway. Isaac E. Young Middle School teacher Calvin Heyward used the enthusiasm for the blockbuster musical to craft a field trip designed to expand their knowledge of the Founding Father on which it is based.

On the day trip, which took place over the winter break, Heyward and chaperones took 18 students from IEYMS and Albert Leonard Middle School, to visit the Hamilton Grange, the preserved home of Alexander Hamilton in Upper Manhattan.

“It gave us the background on how he lived and what he came from,” said IEYMS eighth grader Toriona Johnson.

ALMS eighth grader Brendan Degnan said the musical sparked interest in man.

“I think that the play it brought Alexander Hamilton out as a person for a lot of people and that’s how they got interested in him,” he said.

At Hamilton Grange, a national memorial, they saw replicas of much of Hamilton’s furniture, and one original piece from when the statesman lived in the home – a piano that Hamilton’s wife Eliza used to teach their son Philip to play music.

They were able to enjoy the day because of a discount group rate Heyward arranged on the tickets, and a grant from POPS_LOVE, non-profit group dedicated to promoting the arts and sciences.
 
Even their lunch spot, Café du Soleil at 104 th Street and Broadway, fit with the theme of the day, considering France’s influence in the American Revolution. They also passed Columbia University, which Hamilton attended when the school was called Kings College.

The outing inspired them to learn still more. IEYMS students Melvina Cann and Julianna Rizzo went out and bought the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernoff after the trip. Cann isn’t stopping there.

“There’s another book that explains his love for his wife Eliza,” she said. “It want to get that, too.”
Davis Students Meet Author Whose Characters Survive Disasters, Perils

 The George M. Davis Jr. Elementary School students met an author whose books offer lessons in history with the thrilling stories of young people escaping attacks by shark and grizzly bear, the sinking of the Titanic and the great Chicago fire.

Author Lauren Tarshis, editor of the Scholastic magazine “Storyworks,” began writing the “I Survived” series at the prompting of messages from teachers.

“It helped me to realize it could be a great way to expose kids to history and science,” she said. “I put it within a suspenseful framework, with a child at the center.”

The stories cover disasters from the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79 to the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011.

Michael Dunn, a Davis fifth grader who enjoyed Tarshis’s presentation, has read several of the volumes. He enjoys not only the action, but the facts the main characters learn.

“I like how they kind of snoop around and find out interesting things,” he said.
IEYMS Student to Compete
In State-Level 'GeoBee'
Rocco Sansotta, an Isaac E. Young Middle School eighth grader, is on his way to Albany for the state-level competition of the National Geographic GeoBee, a nationwide contest with an ultimate grand prize of $26,000 in scholarship funds and cash, plus a trip to the Galápagos Islands.

“I’m going to study a lot so I can do well in it and maybe even win it,” Sansotta said. “This is very important to me.”

With a devotion to studying and a thirst for knowledge of far-flung locales, Sansotta won his school’s competition in January. He was one of 2.4 million students across the country who took the first-round test. The level after the school round was an online test that Sansotta did not find all that difficult.

“There were only four or five questions that were tough,” he said.

His success on that test secured his spot as one of 100 semifinalists in New York State eligible to compete in the 2020 National Geographic GeoBee State Competition. The contest will be held in Albany on Friday, March 27.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Secondary Schools Social Studies Chair Christopher Francaviglia. “Rocco is the first student at Isaac E. Young to make it to the state championship in more than twenty-five years. He is highly determined and takes ownership and accountability for his learning both inside and outside of the classroom. It was a joy to see Rocco's smile and reaction when he learned he would represent his school in the state championship.”

State champions will each receive a medal, $1,000 in cash, and other prizes, as well as a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent their states in the National Championship. The second- and third-place State GeoBee winners will receive cash awards of $300 and $100, respectively.

The finalists will gather for the 2020 National Championship on May 18-21, at National Geographic headquarters. The National Champion will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, $1,000 in cash, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour ll .

The second-place finisher will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; the student finishing third will receive a $5,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; and seven runners-up will each receive $1,000 in cash.

Sansotta is not about to slow down his studying, which he does whenever he can, even in the car on the way to and from school each day. He would like to win that Galápagos Islands expedition.

“It’s a very nice and interesting place,” he said. But that’s just one of the places he wants to see.

“I would like to visit places all around the world,” he said.

Visit www.natgeobee.org for more information on the National Geographic GeoBee.
Members of the Prestige step team performing at the Black History Month Celebration.
Black History Celebration
Features Art, Performances
From Across District

The New Rochelle community came out in force for the annual Black History Month Celebration last Saturday, viewing the art from students around the District and packing the Whitney M. Young Jr. Auditorium for the singers, drummers, steppers and spoken word.

Artwork and performances from every school in the City School District of New Rochelle added to the festivities in New Rochelle High School. “Celebrating Africa” was the theme of the eighth annual celebration, presented by the Westchester Alliance of Black School Educators and the New Rochelle Black History Month Committee.

“I think that it’s important to show the younger generation that our culture is being recognized by the community,” said Murana Sheriff, a sophomore at NRHS who came to the community from Sierra Leone six years ago. He served as a student ambassador at the event.

Works included colorful African masks, portraits of luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and the Ugandan chess player Phiona Mutesi, and works inspired by kente cloth patterns.

This year, the event was sponsored in part by the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, the New Rochelle Council on the Arts and the New Rochelle Federation of United School Employees.

NRHS seniors Asia Harris and Jaden Crisp served as mistress and master of ceremonies for the performance portion of the celebration.

“When I think about black history, I am empowered to be who I am,” Crisp told the audience. “I am proud of the skin I am in.”

Candace Pinn, President of WABSE, said she was gratified by the way the celebration turned out.

“I am so proud of how we have been able to grow this event over the past eight years,” said Pinn, who is also a kindergarten teacher at Henry Barnard Early Childhood Center. “It is the only gathering in the City School District of New Rochelle that brings together such a cross section of our community.”
District Picks MBK NewRo Advisory Board Members

The City School District of New Rochelle has chosen six community members to serve on the Advisory Committee of My Brother’s Keeper New Rochelle. They are:

Latisha Burgos, Otilia Taylor-Tanner, Dr. Gail Perry-Ryder, Shane Adelaja Osinloye, Luis A. Andrade and Alejandro Alvarez.

“ We received many applications from community members to serve on the MBK advisory committee,” said Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo. “This process has affirmed that New Rochelle is rich with talent, expertise and a deep devotion to building an ever-stronger community. We appreciate the new members’ interest and are confident that their experience and perspective will help MBK achieve its goals.”
District Seeks to Fill Post
Of Assistant to Clerk
The City School District of New Rochelle is looking to fill the position of Assistant to the Clerk and Secretary to the Board of Education. The candidate chosen must be a New Rochelle resident.

The position “involves important contact with members of the Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools, Superintendent’s Cabinet and the general public,” according to the job description. “This position requires exercising extreme confidentiality in carrying out the responsibilities of the position and independent judgment.”

When the Clerk and Secretary is absent, the assistant assumes that employee’s duties.

Sports Schedule
For upcoming New Rochelle athletic competitions, check out the Athletics Calendar.

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Dates to Remember
●           Monday, March 9: Trinity Kindergarten Registration Begins

●           Monday, March 9: Davis Kindergarten Registration

●            Monday, March 9: PTAC Meeting, NRHS Room 222, 7 p.m.

●             Tuesday, March 10: Davis Kindergarten Registration

●             Tuesday, March 10, Board of Education Budget Review Session, NRHS Library, 7 p.m.

●             Wednesday, March 11, Health and Safety Committee Meeting, Central Administration, Carew Room, 3 p.m.

●             Thursday, March 12: Progress Reports for Students K-12 Available Online

●           Thursday, March 12: Davis Kindergarten Registration
●           Thursday, March 12: Davis Kindergarten Registration

●            Thursday, March 12: Columbus and Webster Magnet Lottery, Central Administration, City Hall, 9 a.m.  

●                Thursday, March 12, Barnard PTA Meeting, 7 p.m.

●                Thursday, March 12, Ward Math Night, 7 p.m.
 
●                Friday, March 13: Trinity Kindergarten Registration Ends

●                Friday, March 13: Ward Popcorn Friday

●                Friday, March 13: Columbus Chess Night, 6 p.m.

●                Saturday, March 14: SAT, 8 a.m.
City School District of New Rochelle | http://www.nred.org/