Both Smithtown Central School District high schools have received an impressive honor from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association for their performances in the classroom as well as in competition.

High School East and High School West received School of Excellence awards for the 2020-21 academic year.

To earn the School of Excellence Award, 75 percent of a school’s varsity teams must qualify and receive the Scholar-Athlete team award.

The purpose of the School of Excellence Award is to unite varsity coaches in challenging their teams to achieve a statewide academic honor.

Each school will receive a plaque to recognize the honor.

“This program highlights and celebrates schools that value the importance of academics as well as athletics,” said Dr. Robert Zayas, NYSPHSAA executive director. “It is always exciting to see how many of our member schools take advantage of this opportunity and show the value of education.”

The Smithtown Robotics team celebrated Nikola Tesla’s birthday by displaying its talents at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.

The team displayed its robotics prowess through interactions and presentations on July 10 — on the 165th anniversary of Tesla’s birth in the Austrian Empire.

Suffolk County legislators including Laura Ahern, Kara Hahn and Sarah Anker visited the team during the annual event.

“The team had a blast alongside the children and other presenters,” said David Savage, the team’s head coach.

The Tesla Science Center’s mission is to develop the site of Tesla’s last remaining laboratory into a transformative global science center that embraces his spirit of invention, provides innovative learning experiences, fosters the advancement of new technologies and preserves his legacy.

The Smithtown Robotics team also has been active in charitable work in recent weeks.

The Mechanical Bulls worked with Make-A-Wish to prepare kits for children with critical conditions. Each kit included a variety of 3D-printed items, such as a puzzle cylinder and dinosaur toy, along with stuffed bears donated to the team. Each package also included a pamphlet of instructions on how the toys work.

“Aside from the bears, everything included was student-made with care,” Savage said.

The Smithtown Superintendent of Schools, Mark Secaur, wants to meet you and answer your questions.

Dr. Secaur will host weekly, one-hour open houses beginning next week.

The sessions are open to all members of the community. Advance registration is not required.

The first of the five sessions will be held at the High School East library on Thursday, July 29, at 10 a.m.

Additional one-hour sessions at the High School East library will take place on Aug. 11 at noon and Aug. 17 at 2 p.m.

The High School West library will host sessions on Aug. 5 at noon and Aug. 25 at 2 p.m.

"I look forward to interacting with members of our school community, and having an informal opportunity for dialogue on a variety of topics," Secaur said.

A great day and a great cause on Monday for the Smithtown Booster Club's annual golf outing at Stonebridge Golf and Country Club.

Amazing theatrical production on Friday at Accompsett Middle School as part of the Smithtown Summer Exploration Program. Great job by the production's director, Corinne Murphy, and the performers!

Jennifer Bradshaw and Elizabeth Stein collaborated eight years ago to launch the Summer Resiliency CAMP for middle-school students in the Smithtown Central School District. The annual summer program now has blossomed, with a wide array of available subjects, which on Wednesday included science-fiction writing, yoga, nutrition, art and music.

The free summer program, based at Accompsett Middle School, runs three hours a day, three days a week, for five weeks. It is open to students in the district entering the seventh, eighth and ninth grades in the fall. Transportation is provided.

The CAMP acronym in Summer Resiliency CAMP stands for Character, Academic, Mindfulness and Preparedness.

“We all learn together in an all-inclusive place,” said Stein, the camp’s coordinator and a 19-year staff member in the district specializing in special education.

When the program launched, the instructional support team — composed of principals, counselors, nurses, special education teachers, general education teachers and social workers — primarily referred middle-school students in need. Now, through word of mouth and the program’s popularity, parents can enroll students of any ability level.

The open enrollment aligns with Stein’s vision from the program’s outset.

“We’re all learners together,” Stein said. “The ultimate goal is to have kids who connect with themselves as learners. We teach them strategies. We expose them to different types of activities, so they tap into that side of themselves. And when the schoolyear starts, they can transfer some of those strategies and mindsets, so that they can push through challenges during the schoolyear.”

Bradshaw, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction and administration, led a science-fiction writing workshop on Wednesday morning. She long has been a fan of that genre, and used to teach the subject and advise a student magazine.

“I love to get them thinking about not just different genres, but using their imaginations to create ‘what-if’ scenarios and think outside the box,” Bradshaw said.

Stein is proud that some of the subjects taught now come directly from suggestions from the campers based on their interests. The attendees can pick which sessions they would like to join.

The camp idea was born from a think tank involving Smithtown administrators, including Bradshaw, nearly a decade ago. The group brainstormed ideas to assist children who were struggling in classes, but for no particularly identifiable reason. The administrators incorporated the studies of Carol Dweck, a professor and psychologist at Stanford University. Dweck espouses the “power of yet”— that learning is a road, not a dead end.

“That’s the real anchor of this,” Stein said. “We have kids who come in here and say, ‘I’m not good at science.’ Or, ‘I’m not good at math.’ And we say, ‘OK, add YET to the end of that sentence. … I’m not good at science YET.’ It just changes their mindset.”

For more information on the Summer Resiliency CAMP, contact Elizabeth Stein at estein@smithtown.k12.ny.us.