Newsletter: The Middle Years, Working Together for School Success

District Announcements

Board of Education Hires New Assistant Superintendent for Business

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (July 29, 2019) – The City School District of New Rochelle has appointed Gregory W. Kern as the new Assistant Superintendent for Business. The Board of Education approved Kern’s appointment at its meeting tonight. He officially begins the position with the School District on or before October 1, 2019.

Kern currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent for Finance at the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, a position he has held since 2016. He has also served as Assistant Superintendent for Administration at the Enlarged City School District of Middletown; and as the Assistant Superintendent for Business at the Washingtonville Central School District. In addition, he has served in administrative positions with the Greater Southern Tier BOCES, Amherst (NY) Central School District, Newark (NY) Central School District and Medina (NY) Central School District.

He has overseen several major bond construction programs including one for $100 million for the Elmira City School District while he was at BOCES and a recently passed $257 million bond project in Newburgh.

“We are looking forward to Mr. Kern bringing his extensive administrative background, leading business offices within school districts for the past 16 years,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Magda Parvey. “This experience demonstrates that he is an excellent fit for New Rochelle as our next Assistant Superintendent for Business.”

In his latest position in Newburgh, Kern oversees a general fund budget of $282 million in a school district with a student population of 11,500.

“Mr. Kern has the experience of working in large school districts and will help continue the District’s efforts to maximize value for our taxpayers while also prioritizing education for our students,” Board of Education President Amy Moselhi said.

Kern is a member of the Newburgh school district superintendent’s cabinet, working closely with other assistant superintendents as well as curriculum, pupil services and human resources.

“I am excited to come to the City School District of New Rochelle and join this leadership team,” Kern said. “I am eager to get started and support the District’s efforts to remain fiscally sensitive while providing great educational value for our students.”

About the City School District of New Rochelle
With nearly 11,000 students in 10 schools, the City School District of New Rochelle, through an active partnership amongst community, parents, staff and students, provides a high-quality and challenging education for every child, in a safe, nurturing environment that embraces rich diversity and drives success.

City School District of New Rochelle
New Rochelle Schools Reach Tentative Agreement with FUSE Union

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (July 9, 2019) – The Board of Education of the City School District of New Rochelle and the New Rochelle Federation of United School Employees (FUSE), the union representing teachers, other pedagogic staff and school-related professionals, are pleased to announce that the parties have reached a tentative settlement for a successor agreement.

The agreement is subject to ratification by the Union membership and the Board, which the parties anticipate occurring in the early fall.

The District and FUSE are excited to have reached a settlement that benefits all and demonstrates the deep appreciation the District holds for its teachers, other pedagogic staff and school-related professionals. All are looking forward to a productive 2019-2020 school year.

City School District of New Rochelle
New Rochelle School Board Leadership Named

Moselhi Chosen as President, Warhit as Vice President

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (July 5, 2019) – New Rochelle Board of Education chose its leadership Tuesday, July 2, naming Amy Moselhi President and Paul Warhit Vice President. The selections came at the annual reorganizational meeting, at which new members William Iannuzzi and Valarie D. Williams were also sworn in.

Moselhi served the past year as Board Vice President with President Jeffrey Hastie, who did not run for re-election when his term was up this spring.

Moselhi and Warhit were both elected to the Board in 2017.

“It is a great honor to serve in the capacity of President of the Board of Education for the City School District of New Rochelle,” Moselhi said after taking the oath of office at the meeting in Central Administration. “It is a responsibility that I take very seriously and that I hope I will fulfill in a way that makes each and every member of the city confident that your voices have been heard and that your concerns are always a part of the fabric in the decisions that we make.”

A civil engineer by trade, Moselhi is Chief Executive of United Structure Solution, a Brooklyn firm that designs and installs high-end ornamental metal work and glass. Warhit is a past president of Devonshire Discount Tire & Auto Centers.

Williams is a teacher and K-12 reading specialist in the Greenburgh Central School District. Iannuzzi serves as Director of Programs for the Boys & Girls Clubs of New Rochelle.

The Board’s nine members serve five-year terms.

About the City School District of New Rochelle
With nearly 11,000 students in 10 schools, the City School District of New Rochelle, through an active partnership amongst community, parents, staff and students, provides a high-quality and challenging education for every child, in a safe, nurturing environment that embraces rich diversity and drives success.

City School District of New Rochelle
New Rochelle High School Senior Awards
Members of the Class of 2019 were awarded hundreds of scholarships, trophies, certificates and other prizes in the New Rochelle High School Senior Awards Assembly and Senior Awards Ceremony. Both ceremonies were held in the Whitney M. Young Jr. Auditorium. Find the honorees here:

The following link opens a list of the students who received awards in the Senior Awards Assembly held Friday, June 14 at 9:30 a.m.

Senior Awards Assembly honorees Opens a New Window.

The following link opens a list of the students who received awards in the Senior Awards Ceremony held Monday, June 17 at 7 p.m.

Senior Awards Ceremony honorees Opens a New Window.

Two faculty members received the Donald J. Conetta Service Award. They were:

Joel Fridovich, who is retiring as Director of the Alternative Campus High School

Deborah Minchin, New Rochelle High School social studies teacher
City School District of New Rochelle
Forensic Students Learn from Wrongfully Convicted Man

New Rochelle High School forensic science students had just learned about DNA evidence. Yesterday, they and some schoolmates gained perspective on the topic they could never get from science studies alone, when they heard the harrowing first-hand account of man wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years before DNA evidence proved that someone else committed the crime.

"I was a sophomore," Jeffrey Deskovic said of his wrongful conviction in 1990. "I was younger than most of you."

Despite the original DNA evidence in the case, Deskovic was convicted of murder on the strength of a confession he says was coerced. It wasn't until 2006 that Westchester County's then-District Attorney Janet DiFiore ordered another DNA test, which led to Deskovic's exoneration and release.

He spoke Thursday in the Whitney M. Young Jr. Auditorium to an audience of mostly juniors and seniors from two forensic science classes, the AP Government class, the Law in Government Class and others. He told them about starting the Deskovic Foundation to further his work on behalf of others who are in prison for crimes they did not commit.

"I wanted to take my work to the next level," he said. "I wanted to reach back into the prisons and free people - innocent people - who were in the same position I had been in."

He told them of the challenges of returning to society after 16 years - unfamiliar technology, lost friends and family members, the difficulty in finding a job. He received a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and is set to graduate with a law degree from Pace University in May.

Speaking with the experience of a former inmate, he urged the students to appreciate what they have, enjoy sunlight and the freedom to travel and to understand that they can overcome difficulties. For those entering law enforcement, science or the legal professions, he implored them to dedicate themselves to doing the job well.

"Take your job very, very seriously, and go that extra mile," he said.

It was a message received by students such as senior Kimberly Sanchez, who plans to become a police officer.

"It helps me to see how I should be as a cop," she said.
City School District of New Rochelle
Forrest, Manns Sign with Holy Cross, UMaine

Huguenot running back Jordan Forrest had already announced that he would attend College of the Holy Cross next year, but teammate Khairi Manns kept followers in suspense until the signing ceremony.

On Wednesday - National Signing Day - Manns, the football team's defensive end, revealed that he will attend the University of Maine. They held a ceremonial signing in the New Rochelle High School library, applauded by family, friends, teammates and supporters. Several reporters captured the event.

Forrest, Manns and the entire team have spent much of the year in the spotlight, mainly when they fought their way to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association state championship in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse in November. Ultimately, Aquinas Institute - a private school in Rochester - won the game, but the Huguenots' performance captured the hearts of New Rochelle.

Last month, Forrest was named Player of the Year for Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association. Last week, he was named one of the "Golden Dozen" by the Westchester Chapter of the National Football Foundation for his excellence on the field and in the classroom.
City School District of New Rochelle
NRHS AP Government Class Visits Washington

New Rochelle High School's AP Government class, led by teacher Debbie Minchin, took a four-day trip to Washington D.C. to learn about the workings of our government.

Also accompanied by teachers Timothy Kuklis and Timothy Orlando, they toured the Capitol and met with U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, whose Congressional district includes New Rochelle. They visited the U.S. Supreme Court, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress and the United States Holocaust Museum.

They also took a nighttime tour of the monuments and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. The trip included a performance of "Twelve Angry Men" in Ford's Theatre, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

"Sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives made me tear up," said senior Dylan Klein. "I want to be there as a legislator one day."

Student Alexander Gonzalez said; "The trip was a wonderful opportunity to learn and explore in an exciting new environment, and to enjoy being with my friends to experience a place where many of us have never been before."
City School District of New Rochelle

Food Ed Students Serve Schoolmates 'Mindful' Lunch

Forty New Rochelle High School students were treated to healthy dishes including beet bruschetta with hummus and sweet potato and parsnip soup served by their schoolmates recently.

The student cooks in the Science of Food class whipped up dishes from their own recipes with farm-to-table, sustainable ingredients as the culmination of a semester-long "Food Ed" program with the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

They studied personal and cultural connections to food as well as topics of sustainability. The lessons focused on many facets of agriculture, even caring for the soil itself.

"They studied how to maintain healthy soil, how to restore depleted soil and how the foods that you choose to grow have an impact on that living skin of the earth," teacher Julia Chillemi Kouyoumdjian said.

For the lunch event, Chillemi Kouyoumdjian's 30 students prepared, cooked and served the meal to two other classes in Room 207. The focus was "mindful eating," which "increases your awareness of the positive and nurturing opportunities that are available through food selection and preparation," their menu explains. It continues, "Eating mindfully is a practice that uses all your senses in choosing to eat food that is both satisfying to you and nourishing to your body."

They chose ingredients from the Stone Barns farm; others were sustainably sourced. In addition to the bruschetta and the sweet potato soup, there was kale risotto, "classic farm soup" and a seasonal salad. With each course came a story about how people can share their cultures by sharing foods, how food can be a form of medicine and how healthy soil leads to more nutritious ingredients.

Students who took the class said they planned to eat healthier and to spread the word about the connection between how we grow food and the world around us.

"I commit to eating healthy foods and staying away from bad foods that may be detrimental to my health," Gillian Okaiteye wrote in an action plan questionnaire.

Several said they would start their own gardens or join a community garden. Nick Calderone said he would like to help his mother cook and perhaps even make the family dinner on his own. Colin Logan, like many others, said he would let others know what he had learned.

"I will spread awareness about issues with the food system, such as unfair distribution and non-ethical production practices," Logan said.

City School District of New Rochelle

Jake Logan Wins Con Edison Athlete of Week

New Rochelle High School senior wrestler Jake Logan won last week's Con Edison Westchester Scholar Athlete of the Week. Logan won the County Championship on Jan. 19, going 3-0 and being named Most Outstanding Senior at the event. He also had a victory in a dual match win vs. lona Prep.

Logan won the Eastern States Wrestling Tournament's 182-pound class on Jan. 12. It is the second year he has won that tournament. He also won the Shoreline Tournament earlier in January.

His record for the season is 26-0. He has a career record of 161-29 and is 67-0 the last two years. As a junior, he went 41-0 and won the state championship in the 182-pound class. He has not given up a takedown since his sophomore year.

He has earned a scholarship to Lehigh University, one of the top Division I wrestling programs in the nation.

"Jake has outstanding character and leads by example in every practice," Wrestling Coach Eddie Ortiz said. "He consistently demonstrated a positive attitude and work ethic that the younger kids on the team look up to. It is for these reasons that he was named captain of the team his junior year."

Listen to an interview with Logan on 100.7 WHUD.
City School District of New Rochelle
Meteorologist Teaches Students Science of Weather

While many of us complain about bad weather, the third-graders at Daniel Webster Magnet School can talk about it more knowledgably, thanks to meteorologist Erica Grow of NBC TV's Storm Team 4.

Grow and a team of helpers stopped by the school on a recent (very rainy) day to teach the students about hurricanes, tornadoes and flash floods.

"Flood water, when it's in motion, is more powerful than a tornado," Grow said. "Just six inches of water can knock you right off your feet if it's moving fast enough."

With a can of shaving cream, Grow sprayed depictions of clouds on the arms of students who had volunteered to help with the demonstration. She created horizontal stratus clouds, puffy cumulous clouds, tall cumulonimbus clouds and, finally, high-in-the-sky cirrus clouds, which are "very thin, delicate, wispy even."

"Our approach is to get students excited about science, to create lifelong learners," Grow said before the lesson. "It's important to bring STEM education to students in a way that they might not get otherwise, and that will hopefully spark a newfound interest."

Principal Melissa Passarelli added, "This fits perfectly with our strategy of offering inquiry-based learning centered on real-world applications."

Consider that interest sparked.

"It's fun to explore what it feels like to be in that weather," said student Addison Kurtin.

"When it's over," schoolmate Clara Garcia-Gallet added, "you can see what's left from the bad weather and you can study it."
City School District of New Rochelle