_________________ WANtAGH ________________ your HEALTH body / mind / fitness
and JUNE 29, 2023
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MEN’S
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Men’s Health
Vol. 71 No. 27
MacArthur H.S. graduates in style
Celebrating Chabad’s pre-K
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JUNE 29 - JUlY 5, 2023
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‘One-of-a-kind’ teacher retires from Wantagh By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
Michael Malaszczyk/Herald
SAlVAToRE MUlé HAS taught in the Wantagh School District for more than 30 years. Though he is retiring, the hydroponics lab he built will live on, a significant part of his legacy.
Salvatore Mulé, who is retiring after more than 30 years as a science teacher in Wantagh schools, is leaving a “growing” legacy behind in the school district. Mulé arrived in the district as a student teacher at Wantagh High School in the spring of 1992, before taking a job as a leave replacement, teaching earth science, that fall. Then he taught earth science and biology at Wantagh Middle School. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Mulé said.
His real passion, however, has been hydroponics and aquaponics — the process of growing food without soil and creating a self-sustaining model using fish in tanks, respectively — which he studied at Hofstra University. Fish waste provides fertilizer for the crops, and the crops provide oxygen for the fish. While teaching at Wantagh Middle School, Mulé started a hydroponics lab of his own — in, of all places, a custodial closet. The project began with plastic shoeboxes and 10-gallon tanks. From that closet, his lab Continued on page 11
State senator believes Warriors should keep their name By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
The state’s decision to ban school logos and mascots depicting Native Americans has caused a fierce debate in Wantagh — one of the districts that would be forced to abandon its longtime Warriors name. It is an “arbitrary” ruling, as State Sen. Steve Rhoads describes it, that Rhoads refuses to accept. In a recent letter to Betty Rosa, commissioner of the State Education Department, Rhoads requested a meeting to discuss reversing the state’s demands, arguing that indigenous tribes are a crucial part of Wantagh’s
history. “Here on Long Island, where much of the land was originally occupied by indigenous tribes, which continue to be an important part of our history and legacy, the heavy-handed and arbitrary universal application of this regulation results in the devaluing of that history,” Rhoads wrote. “It is unimaginable to me that a department of state government charged with the responsibility of teaching our young would not only allow, but mandate, that team names, logos, and mascots reflecting and paying tribute to that history be ‘cancelled.’” Rhoads, who grew up in
Wantagh, pointed to the community’s history — and noted that Wantagh was actually a person, who was sachem, or chief, of the Merikoke Tribe, which inhabited present-day Wantagh. Chief Wantagh played an important role in settling disputes resulting from the 1643 purchase of the lands that eventually comprised the Town of Hempstead, according to historians. “What your department fails to consider is why that name was chosen,” Rhoads wrote to Rosa, referring to the Wantagh Warriors. “Wantagh is not simply the name of a community.” The Board of Regents unanimously voted on April 18 to end
the use of Native American mascots in schools, impacting 11 Long Island school districts, including Wantagh. The Board of Education of each district must commit to removing its mascot by the end of the 2024-25 school year, officials said. Districts who fail to do so could be considered in willful violation of the state’s Dignity For All Stu-
dents Act and face penalties, including the removal of school officers and the withholding of state aid. S o m e r e s i d e n t s h ave expressed support for the state’s decision, saying that it’s time to move on from these logos and be more sensitive to the history of Native Americans. The ShinContinued on page 2