At the June 15 work session and June 17 regular meeting, the Board of Education and Administration discussed the desire to provide a smooth transition for our students when they enter a new building and, as such, some calendar adjustments were made.
At this time teacher and class assignments as well as transportation information will be visible to families by logging into the portal.
Click on this link to enter the Mahopac Digital Art Show. Great job to all of the students and Art teachers!!
As part of the National 4-H Ag Innovators Project, MHS Senior WISE Intern and Putnam 4-H Teen Leader, Anne Kasparian facilitated the Curbing Your Carbon Appetite Lesson for Denise Hembury’s 3rd Grade at Lakeview Elementary.
This is the eighth year, National 4-H Council has collaborated with Bayer for the annual 4-H Ag Innovators Experience (AIE) to provide 7,000 youth in seven selected states, from urban, suburban and rural backgrounds, the opportunity to develop the workforce skills to feed the planet. The AIE helped drive youth awareness of, and interest in, agriculture innovation and agriculture careers.
Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Program applied for and was selected to take part in the 2021 4-H Ag Innovators Experience, Curbing Our Carbon Appetite Challenge; which is a series of interactive, hands-on activities that helps youth understand why everyone has a role to play in addressing climate change.
In January, Putnam 4-H teens were given an opportunity to apply for a leadership role to serve as 4-H Ag Innovator Youth Leaders. Five Putnam teens representing Brewster, Carmel, Haldane & Mahopac School Districts were selected.
Throughout February and March, 4-H Ag Innovator Teen Leaders took part in National and Statewide train-the-trainer workshops to learn how human activity, including burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, soil mismanagement, and unwise food systems are increasing atmospheric carbon and contributing to climate change. The 4-H Ag Innovator Teen Leaders also learned how to lead a series of hands-on activities, which are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, for elementary and middle school students in both an in-person and virtual format.
The Putnam 4-H Ag Innovator Youth Leaders were also given the task of finding a teacher in their home school district to work with on this project and allow them to teach in their classroom.
Once teachers were identified and the training was completed, the teen leaders began to visit classrooms. Between April and June, Putnam 4-H successfully delivered the 4-H Ag Innovators Experience, Curbing Our Carbon Appetite Challenge to 266 elementary and middle school youth in Putnam County, serving four out of five school districts. We are so proud that Anne and Lakeview were part of this exciting project!
Congratulations to all our Lakeview 5th Graders and their families!
In two beautiful gatherings in the auditorium complete with all the Lakeview traditions from the Finney Award Presentation to the banner exchange to a standing ovation when Principal Jennifer Pontillo exclaimed, “You’re no longer fifth graders, you’re our newest members of the sixth grade class."
Even though it wasn’t the ‘traditional’ moving up it was a memorable ceremony. Mr. DiCarlo wished to the class and their families well and applauded their resilience over the past year and a half and Mrs. Pontillo reminded the class, “Once a bulldog, always a bulldog.”
Congratulations Bulldogs!
MCSD 2020-2021 District-wide Art Show
The Mahopac Central School District believes that Art education is an essential component of human development. Through Visual Art, students are empowered to be creative, “out of the box” thinkers and conscious designers; they are able to discover and express who they are, communicate their ideas, understand the visual, cultural, and virtual world, take risks, work collaboratively, make connections in their learning, innovate, develop an increasing sense of their own aesthetic, and authentically engage in their education.
The inaugural District-wide Art Show centralizes all the a talent district wide from Kindergarten to 12th Grade. Click the link below, explore, and enjoy!
2020-2021 MCSD District-wide Art Show: https://sites.google.com/mahopac.org/2020-2021-art-show
Unlike traditional fundraisers where participation is focused on raising money, this year ALL students participate in Raise Craze by completing Acts of Kindness. Students throughout the school registered on Raise Craze, an online platform where students create a username and request donations via email. Students who were registered would then post their acts of kindness online, and people in the community were able to make a donation.
The initiative kicked off with PAWS, Lakeview’s bulldog mascot, visiting each class to give teachers a bag of paper hearts. Students wrote their name on a heart each time they completed an act of kindness and added it to the Kindness Bulletin Board outside the library.
The more good deeds they did, the more dough they drew in. Kids did everything from writing letters to military members, creating cards for people living in nursing homes, decorating kindness rocks and leaving motivational messages in sidewalk chalk.
Kindergarten teacher Jenn Borst said the school has done fundraisers before, "but what was different about this one was that every child had the opportunity to do a kind act for someone else. We started each day with special education teacher Jim Lieto making fun and encouraging announcements over the loudspeaker and throughout the day they were “caught in the act” of being kind. The kids realized quickly how much their actions affect others.
Along with daily acts of kindness, the students “stuffed a bus” for St. John’s Food Drive, literally bringing in bags and bags of food items that were then transported by bus to the food pantry and the next week a similar drive, this one collecting items to be donated to the Putnam Humane Society.
As with all fundraisers, the money is going directly back to the students. Averill said it will be used for school improvements, like more picnic tables so teachers can hold class outside and other classroom supplies.
In just a few weeks, they raised $22,000, and performed 888 acts of kindness! The entire school celebrated with an ice cream party the day before the Memorial Day weekend break.
We are excited to announce that we are participating in The 2021 Great Kindness Challenge where we will join thousands of schools across the country to create a culture of kindness. This initiative is one week devoted to performing as many acts of kindness as possible in school and at home.
This past year has been challenging for our school community and the world, so we are extra excited to participate in this uplifting week of positivity. To help our students “practice kindness” and put their compassion into action, they will receive a Great Kindness Challenge checklist. The challenge will be for your child to perform as many kind acts as they can in one week. In the chart below is the schedule of events that will take place in school and virtually throughout the week. Your child is part of a powerful and positive initiative that will lead to more kindness, unity and respect at school and beyond.
This Calendar includes school breaks, holidays, and color cohort days for the entire 2020-2021 school year. *Please refer to specific communications from schools for building specific changes and updates.*
Please enjoy this Spotlight especially for Lakeview Families about the Reopening.
Teachers and staff from all three of Mahopac’s elementary schools - Lakeview, Austin Road, and Fulmer Road - held a parade on Friday, June 5, to pay tribute and say goodbye to their students, who they haven’t seen in person since the pandemic shutdown began. Students lined Route 6 with signs so they could say “goodbye” as well in a touching tribute.
Check out pictures of the parade - with many pictures submitted by YOU - here!
Read more about it and see even more pictures in the Mahopac News: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/mahopac/sections/education/articles/a-parade-of-goodbyes
The entire Mahopac Community is invited to line the parade route on Friday, June 5th, as spectators in the Mahopac Elementary End of Year Parade. Expect beeping horns, waving and cheering teachers and staff in decorated cars, and lots of smiles as the parade winds through town.
The parade will start at the bus garage at 10 a.m. After leaving the bus garage, the route will be as follow: right on Myrtle Avenue, left on Brook Road, left on Route 6N, right on Secor Road, right on North Wood Street, bear right on Bullet Hole Road, Right on Austin Road, left on Secor Road, left on Route 6N, left on Route 6 and end at approximately 10:45 a.m. on Route 6 and Crane Road.
See the flyer and trip detail below this message.
