Deer Park High School’s varsity boys basketball team was honored at the Suffolk Boys Basketball Coaches Association Brunch, held on April 14 at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook. The team won 14 games this season, made the playoffs for the 14th year in a row, reached their 13th Elite Eight since 2006 and reached their ninth Suffolk County Final Four since 2012.

At the awards ceremony, the SCBCA honored freshman Ethan Nelson, junior DiMaunt’e Gardner, senior Ryan Rose, and volunteer assistant Mike Chin. Nelson was voted All-League, All-Conference, Class AA All-Tournament team and League 3 Rookie of the Year; Gardner was named All-League and Academic All-County; Rose was named Class AA All-Tournament team; and Coach Chin received the Mackwich/Moran award for his service as a volunteer.

The Falcons have high aspirations again in 2024-2025, with 10 lettermen returning and reinforcements coming from a competitive JV and a Robert Frost Middle School team that went 8-2.

Date Added: 4/22/2024

Deer Park High School junior Gloria Min, a violinist in the school’s orchestra and chamber orchestra, recently performed at the New York International Artists Festival at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Min had participated in the American Protege competition last fall and had a winner’s recital.  

Date Added: 4/18/2024

Forty-six students from Deer Park High School’s DECA club competed in New York DECA’s 65th annual State Career Conference, earning three trophies. They were among nearly 3,000 high school business students from across the state in attendance at the annual contest, held March 6-8 at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester.  

Top five overall trophy winners, all finishing in second place, were Nora Elmoussaoui, earning fourth place in Food Marketing; Sidra Syed, earning fifth place in Food Marketing; and Luis Rodriguez, earning fifth place in Personal Financial Literacy. These three trophy winners earned the right to move on to compete in DECA’s International Career Development Conference from April 27-30 in Anaheim, California.

Top 10 overall winners were LaSheena Pottinger, finishing seventh in Principles of Business Management, Jaidyn Schab, finishing eighth in Personal Financial Literacy, Kimberly Cho and Nobin Nath, finishing ninth in Financial Services Team, Thomas Wesnofske, finishing 10th in Automotive Services.

Top 10 test winners were Shujana Aurin (Hotel & Lodging Management), Abigail Cullen (Hotel & Lodging Management), Max Ferguson (Automotive Services), Jade Griffin (Apparel & Accessories), Damon Ierulli (Hospitality Services Team), Gloria Min (Financial Consulting), Valerie Ponte (Human Resources Management) and Reza Zorakhsh (Principles of Finance).

Top 10 role play winners were Jade Griffin (Apparel & Accessories), Katia Papailler (Hospitality & Tourism Professional Selling), Sarina Saeed and Tonika Sikder (Business Law & Ethics Team) and Luciano Stallone (Accounting Applications).

Seniors Shujana Aurin, Nora Elmoussaoui, Jade Griffin, Calvin Nguyen and Katia Papailler were inducted into the New York DECA Honor Society; requirements for induction include three or four years of membership in the club, an 85 average in all classes, a 90 average in business classes and participation in at least one state conference.

Also, Deer Park High School’s school store received School-Based Enterprise Gold Certification thanks to a proposal written by Elmoussaoui and Griffin.

Finally, Deer Park DECA adviser Gregory Menig was presented with New York DECA’s Outstanding Service Award.

“Congratulations to all of our students on a job well done,” Menig said.

Date Added: 4/8/2024

The Deer Park School District has again been named a Best Community for Music Education by the NAMM Foundation. Now in its 25th year, the Best Communities designation recognizes outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders in making music education part of a well-rounded education. Only 975 districts nationwide were given this designation for 2024.

Date Added: 4/8/2024

Before presenting the evening’s student recognitions at the Deer Park School District’s March 26 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent James Cummings shared a recent donation of a plaque given by the Town of Babylon to the late May Moore in 1999, the namesake of the district’s May Moore Primary School.

Next, the Board honored the students in the Robert Frost Middle School peer tutoring program – including Sofia Flores, Paige Gomez, Manaal Irfan, Serah Jacob and Maya Romero – for their exemplary volunteer work in helping other middle school students with math.

“It’s a really great opportunity for our students,” Cummings said. “They get to share their skills with some students who might need some help.”

Finally, the Take a Look at Teaching Club at Deer Park High School was highlighted. In this extracurricular activity, participating students experience what it’s like to be a teacher. The club serves as a pipeline for creating new teachers and bringing greater diversity to the pool of teachers.

Date Added: 4/3/2024