$1
Friday, December 21, 2018
Vol. 78, No. 51
30 Berry Hill
Road, Syosset
Happy Holidays Offering free home
market analysis &
Call for an ap complimentar y services pointmen MARA NAVA RETTA Broke t r / Owner
516-551-3347
Syosset schools continue HS start time talks
THE SPIRIT OF GIVING
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Berry Hill students enjoyed the spirit of giving at the school’s annual Holiday Boutique, organized by the PTA. At the event, Berry Hill’s PRIDE Pals, helped younger students pick out gifts. See page 6.
Town recycling program to be modified BY GARY SIMEONE Beginning in January 2019, the Town of Oyster Bay’s Recycling Collection Program, will be modified as a result of greater import restrictions from China. In the last decade, China has been on the receiving end of industrialized nations’ recycled goods, but that has changed as the country has begun enforcing stricter policies on recyclables entering their country. “Due to new import restrictions
placed on recyclables by the Chinese government, the Town must part ways with its current recycling vendor,” said Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino. “We will continue with our single stream recycling initiative but will no longer recycle glass or certain types of plastics.” In a meeting earlier this month, the Town Board entered into an IMA (Inter-Municipal Agreement) with Hempstead Sanitation District 1, to help minimize costs in hauling away recyclables. The Board agreed
to pay $69.75 per ton of recyclables to the district, and Omni Recycling Inc. of Westbury will work under contract with the district. “This IMA, approved by the Town Board, will allow the Town to continue picking up recyclables weekly,” said Saladino. “While the adoption of a single-stream recycling initiative a year ago resulted in the Town earning a positive revenue stream, restrictions from See page 18
At the Syosset Central School District’s meeting on Monday night, December 17, resident Tanya Goetz brought up a recent New York Times article from December 12 that highlighted a scientific study about a successful change to a later starting time in the Seattle School District’s high schools and middle schools. Syosset Schools administration has held two presentations on the subject in 2018, in April and October, just as competitive districts across the tri-state region have deliberated on moving high school starting times to later times such as 8:30 a.m. to better serve the needs of hardworking, sleep-deprived and studious teenagers. A month ago at the Board of Education’s November 19 meeting, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Rogers said the district had been attempting to follow a timeline outlined April 17 during a board presentation. He said this was an “aggressive” timeline -- in order to make a change effective in September 2019, for the 2019-2020 school year -- and he informed the board that while the investigation would continue as quickly as possible, “we didn’t want the quality of work to suffer by trying to meet the timeline.” The New York Times article last week contained much on the presence of screens and social media keeping teenagers up later, but the conclusion drawn was that students’ wake up times shifted, and on weekdays their morning activity started about 45 minutes later than prior to the change in school starting time. Goetz read part of the article aloud and commented for the Syosset Board of Education at Monday’s meeting. Over the two years since the move (fall 2016) scientists recruited 78 sophomores across Seattle “to wear wrist watch-like monitors for two weeks to track activity and light exposure.” Their findings were published earlier this month in the journal Science Advances. “Combined with a slight shift to later bedtimes See page 18
Local Girl Scouts thank local veterans PAGE 8 Jericho Chamber of Commerce formed PAGE 3