A Look On The Light Side

Let’s Forget Valentine’s Day

I’ll just come out and say it:  I hate Valentine’s Day.  As far as I’m concerned, it exists purely to make some people look bad, and almost everybody feel awful.  

When I was single, Valentine’s Day seemed tailor-made to highlight the flaws in your relationship, if you had one, and in your entire life, if you didn’t.  Now that I am married, Valentine’s Day just makes both of us crazy, running around to make sure we buy SOMEthing so as not to come home covered in guilt.  But of course, all the somethings are way over-priced – they saw us coming a month away – so that even when I come home with one, I still feel taken advantage of.  No “good love” there!

Levittown Community Council Calendar

From The Desk Of Dr. Charles Murphy

Last week I discussed the benefits of an Advanced Regents Diploma for high school students. This is the diploma all students should aim for in our school district. The requirements for an Advanced Regents Diploma are a little more challenging than the regular Regents Diploma – one extra Regents level science course, two additional Regents level math classes, and a foreign language component.  

Letter: Letter To The Editor From The American Lung Association of the Northeast

January is National Radon Action Month and the American Lung Association would like to raise awareness of how radon can affect your lung health. Many may not be aware of what exactly radon is; radon is a colorless, tasteless and odorless gas that is found in soil and forms radioactive by-products which eventually can damage tissue inside your lungs and cause lung cancer. Radon enters your home, school, or office building through cracks in the foundation or even through pipes and/or the water supply.  People who have private wells are more at risk than people with community water supply.

From The Desk Of Dr. Charles Murphy

Over the last few years, Island Trees has encouraged our students to take Advanced Placement (AP) courses. These are the most rigorous classes offered in our school district and the ones colleges covet the most. Happily, we have had many students take up the challenge and succeed. As a result, these students have placed themselves in a very advantageous position in the college selection process. 

From the desk of Dr. Charles Murphy

Recently, I was contacted by a parent who just started to look at the sex offender registry websites. The sites were brought to her attention as a result of our email messages to the community. The parent was surprised to learn after scrolling through the Levittown database that one of her neighbors was on the list. 

Clearly, this is useful information for our residents. I strongly encourage all parents and concerned community members to use the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services website http://www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us/SomsSUBDirectory/search_index.jsp/ regularly to protect your children. Please remember the Island Trees community is comprised of several towns; therefore, using the Levittown zip code in your search may not provide all of the information needed to protect your children and/or to keep you informed of all of the registered sex offenders in our area. I suggest using several zip codes within the Island Trees community (11756, 11714, and 11783), as well as those of neighboring towns. 

From The Desk Of Senator Kemp Hannon

“Effective January 19, a new state law will enhance the fight against breast cancer,” said Senator Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau).  

The new law requires that all mammography reports provided by doctors must now include a notification to patients when it is determined that they have dense breast tissue.  Patients also must be informed about the importance of discussing additional screening options with their doctor. 

Letter: Sandy Hook Elementary School And The Lessons Of Cantiague

On May 20, 1648, at what’s now the corner of West John Street and Cantiague Rock Road in Hicksville, Robert Williams and a small gathering of Christian men met with Pugnipan and other representatives of the Matinecock Indians and acquired the rights to settle the land that became Hicksville, Jericho, and parts of Woodbury. The event was captured in a 1936 WPA mural by Joseph Phsioc and resides in the Hicksville Middle School. Most interesting is what these Quakers and their Indian hosts pledged to one another: “do for miself and in beehalfe of [others] to bargin sell and make over unnto the sayed Robert Williams his ares executors administrators and asines from teme pesuably to ingay forever for us our ares and sucksessers forever also.” Other 17th century Indian deeds in our area read similar.

From The Desk Of Dr. Charles Murphy

America is the land of opportunity. Unfortunately, these opportunities have diminished in recent years; however, with a little hard work they’re still out there for young people. During one of the worst periods in our country’s great history—The Great Depression—opportunities were few and far between for most Americans, much worse than today’s Great Recession.   

At this time, my paternal grandfather survived by working his small farm and many odd jobs in New York’s Mohawk Valley. Although he had left school in the eighth grade, he was considered fairly well educated for this time period. Incredibly at this time, only about 10 percent of students graduated high school. 

From the desk of Dr. Charles Murphy

As many of you know, New York State plans to test students, in grades 3-8, on the new Common Core Learning Standards. Last year, Kentucky was the first state to test their students with these new lofty standards. Unfortunately, the results in Kentucky plummeted from the prior year. Reading proficiency fell from 76 percent to 48 percent in Kentucky’s elementary schools and 70 percent to 46.8 percent in their middle schools. 

Equally concerning, math scores dropped from 73 percent to 40.4 percent in their elementary schools and 65 percent to 40.6 percent in the state’s middle schools.