The North Rockland Academy of Finance is holding its annual intern/mentor breakfast tomorrow as a thank-you to the businessmen and -women who have given 18 Academy students jobs over the summer

The Academy requires its high school members to get internships over the summer as part of a program to prepare them for the working world.

This [...]

Students at St. Augustine’s School in New City have decided to donate the proceeds of their fair day to helping buy an awning for the new handicapped-geared playground at BOCES’ Kaplan schools.

The playground was built with grants and donations  from the state and local organizations, but could use an awning —at a cost of about $80,000. [...]

Rockland’s Real Life. Real Talk. Coalition is participating in a month-long project about sexual health issues through a program also taking place in New Haven, Conn., Portland, Maine and Tucson, Ariz.

The project is asking people to submit stories that answer the question, “What do you wish someone had told you about sex?” online at www.realliferealtalk.org.

At [...]

FairTest, an organization that promotes using alternate ways to  assess children, has finished compiling a list of more than 775 colleges and universities that no longer require either the SAT or the ACT test for admission.

The information comes from a report released today by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling.

The list is regularly updated [...]

File this under the “should have known, but didn’t” heading:

As of 2000, the world has five identifiable oceans, according to the International Hydrographic Organization: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and  Southern.

The Southern Ocean includes all water below 60 degrees south including frozen territory surrounding Antarctica.

The Ramapo Catskill Library System and SUNY Purchase have become part of a statewide link to provide online reference services every day, at all times.

The free virtual reference desk services has been in service since 2003 and involves 18 libraries and library systems across New York.

To access the service, visit either library system’s Web site [...]

Carla Silberstein, principal of Pearl River’s Franklin Avenue School, said she announced over the loud speaker on Tuesday that the school was one of only 320 schools across the nation to be named a blue ribbon school.

She said one child, who heard the report while in the library, turned to the librarian and asked her [...]

In Mamaroneck, ninth- and sixth-grade students as well as the elementary schools had their first day of school yesterday and the remaining grades started today.
The district has made several security changes at the high school this year, in light of a string of bomb threats there in March.

District spokeswoman Debbie Manetta said security cameras are [...]

Eastchester students and parents said they were generally satisfied with the way the district handled combining classes from Greenvale and Anne Hutchinson elementary schools yesterday, after an asbestos problem at Hutchinson last week delayed the building’s opening.
“It seem really organized today when I dropped my son off,” Tricia Abrams said of her son Edward, 8. [...]

Schools in Pelham opened without incident yesterday, though only the high school was open all day. The district’s four elementary schools were only open for half the day and the middle school students only attended school for 90-minute orientations.
On Tuesday the new Superintendent Dennis Lauro, Jr. held an event for school staff at the Pelham [...]

In the Rye Neck school district, students were welcomed by teachers wearing matching black outfits symbolizing an ongoing battle with the district over new teacher contracts.
The union has said in the past the district is treating them unfairly including the obligation to work mandatory overtime.
District spokeswoman Deirdre Gilligan declined to comment on the contract negotiations.
“The [...]

The 10 or so kids at the Soundview Loop bus stop were excited to go back to school at Meadow Pond Elementary in Lewisboro yesterday, said Lisa Valdes.
Valdes, the recording secretary of the PTA, was sending her almost-6-year-old son Nicholas off to first grade.
“Everyone was just eager to get back, taking pictures and everything,” she [...]

Yorktown High School freshmen Paige Priskie, 13, of Cortlandt Manor, and Taylor Hubner, 14, of Yorktown, reflected on the end of their first day
while buses collected students at the main entrance. The friends said they had been a little concerned about getting lost in the Crompond Road school building but found their way to classes [...]

At the Bedford Central School District, the first day of classes meant some parents had to figure out how to get their children to school amid the elimination of bus routes within a half-mile of the district’s five elementary schools.

Bedford Village resident Andrew Payne was among those who lost busing because of budget cuts earlier [...]

Robert Meyer, principal of Austin Road Elementary School in Mahopac, said the first day back was a success.
“Everything went very smoothly,” Meyer said. “The kids were eager to get back and are already engaged in the classroom.”
But getting home did not prove as seamless for some Austin Road students. Carmel police responded to an incident [...]