On Monday, Dec. 1, from noon to 6 p.m., community members can start the month of giving by participating in Riverhead Free Library’s blood drive, held in its Grand Room and Lobby, located at 330 Court St. in Riverhead. 

Appointments are preferred but walk-ins are welcome. To make an appointment, go to nybc.org.

On Friday, Dec. 5, from 1 to 7 p.m., community members can also donate blood in the Banquet Room of the Riverhead Fire Department, located at 540 Roanoke Ave. in Riverhead. 

Appointments are preferred but walk-ins are welcome. To make an appointment, go to nybc.org.

On Thursday, Dec. 11, from 1 to 7 p.m., members of the community are encouraged to donate blood in Riverhead Cider House’s Barrel Room, located at 2711 Sound Ave. in Calverton. 

 
Appointments are preferred but walk-ins are welcome. To make an appointment, go to nybc.org.

On Monday, Dec. 29, from noon to 6 p.m., community members can donate blood in übergeek Brewing Co.’s Barrel Room, located at 400 Hallett Ave. in Riverhead. 

Appointments are preferred but walk-ins are welcome. To make an appointment, go to nybc.org.

On Tuesday, Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., you can round off 2025 with one final good deed by donating blood at Shoreham-Wading River Central School District, in the building’s cafeteria, located at 250B Route 25A, Shoreham. This blood drive is in honor of Ruby and Everett. 

Appointments are preferred but walk-ins are welcome. To make an appointment, go to nybc.org.

Each of the above drives gives donors the opportunity to donate either whole blood or double red blood cells. The New York Blood Center recommends first-time donors to select a whole blood donation appointment. 

In order to be eligible to donate blood, eat and hydrate well beforehand, bring photo ID, feel good and be symptom-free, and meet the minimum weight requirements of 110 lbs. Donors must also be 17 or older, or 16 with parental consent. To see additional eligibility requirements, go to nybc.org.

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The budget proposal will align with the district’s 2025–2029 Strategic Plan, help maintain all SWR programs and current class sizes, and include additional funding for field trips and co-curricular, technology conferences, software and subscriptions, school officials said. Money is also allocated to replace 12 interactive Smartboards, add up to six contracted armed security guards and cover the $1.2 million in contract transportation costs, according to the district’s budget newsletter.

The hike in transportation expenses is due to the district’s plan to enter into a five-year transportation agreement with First Student Inc. for roughly 65 passenger buses, almost 30 passenger vans, and to provide for athletic trips, field trips and summer transportation services. It is estimated the first year of the five-year agreement will cost $5.8 million for 2025–2026, and total close to $31.6 million in its entirety until the contract expires June 2030.

In addition, there are two propositions on the May 20 ballot for the public to vote on: Proposition No. 2 and Proposition No. 3. Proposition No. 2 is for the expenditure of existing funds from the 2021 Capital Reserve Fund to finance districtwide projects; Proposition No. 3 is to establish a new capital reserve of $7.5 million at a probable 10-year term.

There will be no added costs taxpayers to complete the $6.8 million of remaining work on several projects outlined in Proposition No. 2, such as the replacement of synthetic turf at the high school’s Cutinella Field, various district-wide technology projects and equipment replacements, the RISE and Science classroom renovations at Prodell Middle School, partial replacement of exterior windows and doors at Wading River School, and classroom ceiling and lighting replacements at Miller Avenue School.

Voter approval is also needed to allow the school district to spend from its reserve fund in Proposition No. 3. Accessing the fund won’t come at any cost to the taxpayers and won’t impact the tax levy in any year; its purpose is strictly to plan for future capital improvement projects.

“This Shoreham-Wading River School District budget was carefully constructed and aligned to the Strategic Plan, with student success and safety as top priorities,” SWR school board president Thomas Sheridan said in a statement. “Those [priorities], when coupled with our commitment to the community for fiscal responsibility, will help to guide our schools and learning communities well into the future for success.”

Two incumbents — Meghan Tepfenhardt and Mr. Sheridan — are running for two open seats on the SWR Board of Education for the 2025–2028 term. 

When and where to vote on budget

The budget vote is set for Tuesday, May 20, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the main gym of Shoreham-Wading River High School, located at 250B NY-25A in Shoreham.

A qualified voter must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the school district for at least 30 days before the election and not otherwise prohibited from voting under state election law, according to the school district’s website.

Any completed early mail or absentee ballots are due on or before May 20 at 5 p.m. For more information, contact the district clerk’s office at 631-821-2359.

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The policy allows schools to omit a State Regents exam score from a student’s final course grade if it negatively affects their average. Some districts adopted the policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, when learning conditions were severely disrupted and more flexibility was needed in assessing students’ overall progress. 

Since then, local school districts have been debating whether to opt out of or extend the “Do No Harm” policy. It is also up to individual districts to decide how to apply Regents exam scores to final grades. 

According to its website, the New York State Education Department “does not require or recommend that schools use Regents examination grades as part of the calculation of a student’s final average.” 

Riverhead is one school district where the Board of Education is currently reviewing and revising its policies, including the weighting of Regents exam scores — which was last undertaken in 2019. 

The current proposal is to reduce the weight of a Regents score  from 20% to 10% of a student’s final course grade. Each quarter’s grade would then be weighted at 22.5% of the final, the policy states. 

There are also a handful of exceptions to how a Regents score might affect an overall course grade, including a lower passing threshold for students with a disability and English Language Learners, or an invalid test, which is a correction issued for a specific Regents exam that may affect the administration or interpretation of the test. 

Additionally, students who decide to retake a Regents examination in a specific course will have that course grade recalculated to reflect the highest grade earned, and that higher grade will be recorded on their transcript. 

“Education isn’t meant to be punitive,” said Riverhead school board president Colin Palmer. “If a student does better a second time they take a Regents, that’s evidence of education, evidence of increased mastery over the subject, and that’s the whole point of a class.” 

After a lengthy discussion about the policy at an April 16 meeting, the school board voted to postpone approving the second version of the revised policy until Tuesday, May 16, and sent that draft back to the policy committee for review.

Board members Virginia Healy and Cynthia Redmond said they felt conflicted about how to properly weight Regents exam scores and agreed there needs to be more community input. 

“I think we need to operate from what is best for our students,” Ms. Redmond said. “They are mixed as well — there are some who feel it should count for something and then there are others who have expressed that they themselves have had issues with the testing.” 

Interim district superintendent Cheryl Pedisch said that if the school board decides to extend “Do No Harm” until next academic year, a slight amendment would need to be made to the existing district policy and the 20% weight would remain. 

Some Riverhead school parents have requested that the district reinstate the “Do No Harm” policy, including Allyson Mateway of Wading River. She launched a petition in 2022 in favor of establishing a permanent policy and has advocated for “Do No Harm” for over a decade. 

“This is the most equitable solution for all our students,” Ms. Mateway said in a letter to the school board.

In response to the pandemic and its effect on instruction, the Greenport Union Free School District also changed the weighting of their Regents exams on students’ final averages from 20% to 10%. 

Gary Kalish, secondary principal at Greenport High School, said that since making the change, everything has been “relatively status quo.” He said some students benefited in terms of their passing grades. 

Mr. Kalish said he can “appreciate” the idea of “Do No Harm” and supports the policy to an extent, considering many of the Regents exams are required for a student to graduate. 

He argued that if a student performs poorly on a Regents exam and it is placed into the local quarterly class average of the year, whatever the final grade turns out to be can prevent them from graduating on time. 

“Some could say it’s a bit of a double jeopardy,” Mr. Kalish said. “I am in support of districts, and in our district I’m grateful we were able to put together a new policy in consideration of that.” 

Like many other Long Island school districts, the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District implemented a “Do No Harm” policy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — counting a Regents exam score only if it helped a student’s overall average grade. 

Frank Pugliese, Shoreham-Wading River High School principal, said the district has since done away with this measure. Regents exams in that district now account for 12% of a student’s overall final grade. The marking period grades are weighted at 22%­ — a combined average of the student’s average daily grades and average major grades. 

Mr. Pugliese said the district believes the Regents are a “valid exam” and the scores are used to help determine placement for students. He added that he sees the students scoring “well above” the average in the state exams and so far, the district has not identified any issues. 

The challenge right now — which Mr. Pugliese said is a common post-pandemic problem — is rebuilding test stamina. However, he said, the value of the Regents exam can follow a student beyond graduation. 

“It’s just getting them back to where they previously had been in their ability to sit for a longer assessment, really not much to do with content,” Mr. Pugliese said. “We firmly believe that [the exams] establish good habits for our students, whether they are going on to college, into the work field — in terms of focus and attention and being able to stay on task. Those are all skills that are going to be essential as they move into adulthood.” 

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Theodore “Teddy” Haarke, a 17-year-old junior at Shoreham-Wading River High School, and his sister, April Haarke, a 15-year-old sophomore, are both in the running for the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank, according to their website.

The Boy Scouts of America started allowing girls to join in 2019. Teddy is in Boy Scout Troop 161 Shoreham and April is in Troop 23G Center Moriches.

Teddy’s project involves setting up a U.S. flag depository site for proper disposal of U.S. flags that are no longer suitable for display due to wear and tear. 

His depository site is located on Sound Avenue in Riverhead, outside the Long Island Antique Power Association.

“I decided to do my project because there’s not a lot of depositories where you can retire torn flags out east,” Teddy said. 

The Long Island Antique Power Association was the perfect location for his depository, he added.

“I’m part of the club there since 2016, so I take honor of always helping out around that club trying to show the past to the future generation,” he said. “I thought this could be a good place — people always hang flags on tractors, old trucks, old equipment — to retire [the flags if] they know there’s a spot here.”

Teddy and other members of his troop will pick up the flag and perform a ceremony that consists of unfolding it and laying it over a fire pit, he said.

He got into Scouting because of his cousin, who also did an Eagle Scout project when Teddy was in Cub Scouts.

April’s project involves creating shoeboxes containing descriptions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects. She was inspired by the Long Island Science Center’s STEM outreach program, which provides no-cost STEM access to homeless shelters and their residents across Long Island. 

“What I ended up doing was creating 75 shoeboxes for three different age groups: K through second [grade], third through fifth and sixth through eighth,” she said. “I wanted my project to be something that they can take instead of just staring in front of a TV, an iPad or a phone, so these boxes were just left for the kids to grab anytime they felt like they wanted to do something.”

Each box outlines various STEM projects that children can do using affordable household items.

“One of my favorite projects in the box is we have a balloon car, and the balloon car is made out of old plastic water bottles, bottle caps and straws,” she said.

She wanted to make sure that the projects in the boxes were affordable.

“[Projects] in the boxes are roughly under $10 so it’s something that’s easy enough for you to attain,” she said.

April wanted to join the Boy Scouts because she was very drawn to what her brother was doing.

“I saw Boy Scouting as an opportunity to kind of further what I thought Girl Scouts would be,” she said.

April spent $1,400 to complete her project and Teddy spent around $2,000 to complete his.

Among many other requirements, Eagle Scout candidates are required to complete a comprehensive service project within the community to qualify for the rank. Teddy and April will be eligible after filing the required paperwork on their projects and completing a Board of Review interview.

Earlier this month, Teddy and April’s mother, Liz Haarke, received confirmation from Boy Scouts of America Council that April and Teddy would be the second sibling pair in Suffolk County to receive the rank together.

“It’s an honor,” Ms. Haarke said. “It was two different journeys, but they had the same goal.”

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