At 7:30 tonight, the varsity cheerleaders from Suffern High School will be filling holiday stockings with personal care items for members of the military stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They’ll be accepting last-minute donations of items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner at the American Legion post on Pavilion Road in Suffern at that [...]

If you’re interested in the space program or Mars, you’ll want to attend this lecture next week at Rockland Community College.

Ken Kremer, a research scientist and volunteer with NASA’s Jet Propoulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador Program (why do I think his business card must be double-length?), will be giving a lecture on the Phoenix’s mission [...]

The Head Start and After School Program students at the Carver Center in Port Chester each received a copy of the children’s book, “Corduroy” as part of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record.

This info and photo came through my e-mail inbox today:

Maria Diaz, Director of FasTracKids in Rye Brook has partnered with the Port Chester Carver [...]

I offer my heartfelt apologies for missing National Punctuation Day®, which was Sept. 24. I plead ignorance.

While ignorance is never a true excuse, it can be an explanation. I decided to come clean and to share the news about the day anyway for two reasons.

1) Check out this wonderful site, where you can find out [...]

Most of us of a certain age certainly remember walking to school for the majority of our elementary, middle and high school careers, if we lived less than a mile from our schools.

With more and more cars on the roads, however, that’s become a pretty precarious situation for many children in our region. Especially in [...]

And not just any song. A school song.

Got an e-mail today from Beth & Scott Bierko, local musicians/singers/songwriters and “arts-in-education specialists” and they’re sponsoring a free school song contest for Westchester elementary schools.

Elementary school children are asked to submit online a 250-word essay expressing why their school deserves a (new or first-time) school song.  [...]

Just saw this on the Associated Press wires and I’m sorry, but does anyone else think this is going just a bit too far?
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City Education Department has unveiled a plan to give standardized English and math tests to students as young as kindergartners.
It’s the latest move to expand [...]

To help get you in the mood for Back to School, check out this Lunch Lady action figure.

Best. Action. Figure. Ever.

OK, that’s a little hyperbolic, but check it out.

She comes with a lunch counter, removable scoop, food tray and nine lunch stickers that include fish sticks and Jell-O.

A friend bought one of these dolls and [...]

Mercy College is holding an Immediate Decision Week enrollment program next week at all five of its campuses.

The idea is that you get to skip the entire long, drawn-out, oft-stressful college application process.

You bring your high school or college transcripts and fill out an application; if all admission criteria are met, you’re granted admission [...]

Rockland Community College usually holds one new-student orientation session for Fall students, but the school is expecting more students than ever to participate and so is offering two this year.

Students (and their families) can take campus tours, learn about academics and extra-curriculars, check out the bookstore and even get some refreshments. They can meet administrators, [...]

There are openings in the Rockland Community College full-day preschool program for this fall.

Campus Fun & Learn, for children aged 3 through 5, includes art, music and language activities.

It’s open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in room 5151 of RCC’s Fieldhouse and runs from the day after Labor Day through the last week [...]

The Journal News was contacted recently by two readers who claimed they had knowledge that the state Comptroller’s Office had determined some serious wrongdoing had occurred on the part of a North Rockland school district worker.

In brief: the readers said Edward LaJoie retired in 2007 and began collecting a $60,000 annual pension.

But he continued to [...]

Ossining High School held its graduation ceremonies June 26.

Following is a list of all the graduates. Here’s a link to the home page for the photo galleries for all local graduations. Here’s a link to the Ossining photo gallery.

Congrats to all!

RCC sent out a notice today in its effort to find families to host international students who arrive next month. There’s a monthly stipend.

I’ll let RCC explain:
SUNY Rockland Community College is seeking families willing to share their homes and provide English speaking opportunities to international scholars from the Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships (CASS) [...]

We all have them — the teachers who remain forever in our memories because they took the time to nurture us.

Sometimes it was because they listened; sometimes it was because they encouraged; sometimes it was just because they liked what they were teaching so much that it was infectious.

So when I read this article on [...]