Carmel High School

Latest CHS Headlines

• Little Shop of Horror is Spring Musical

  The stage is set for an unforgettable evening as Carmel High School’s Music Production Workshop presents the spring musical, Little Shop of Horrors. After months of hard work and dedication, the production will come to life on Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22, with tickets available online at chsperform.booktix.com. 

  With nearly 75 students involved, from the talented cast and crew to the pit musicians, this musical promises to be a vibrant showcase of Carmel’s artistry. One of the standout features of the show is Audrey 2, the iconic man-eating plant. This incredible puppet requires both a crew member and an actor to bring it to life. 

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• Librarians Learn from One Another

  CHS librarian Karissa O'Reilly hosted school librarians and library support staff from Briarcliff, Chappaqua, Dover, Fox Lane, Hendrick Hudson, Ossining, and Somers.  The Library Intervisitation Series is organized by Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES’ School Library Systems.

  "Each of us who host have a theme to focus on for the visits," O'Reilly said. "Mine was 'Building Community through Collaborative Spaces' and I shared ideas for how we can design spaces and programs that establish our libraries as a thriving community hub for the school. After taking a tour of the library and seeing the ways the space encourages students to interact and use their voice, we tried an interactive message board of our own. "
  
  

  Carmel High School News

• Disabilities Awareness Month

  March is Disability Awareness Month and the Carmel Central School District has a lot of informative, helpful and interesting activities planned. Please take a look at the attached schedule. We look forward to seeing you.

  Disabilities Awareness Month Activities

  District News

• Tax Breaks for Volunteer First Responders

  Carmel Central School District residents who volunteer with fire departments or ambulance corps will see a 10 percent reduction in their school taxes in return for their service.  

  The Carmel Board of Education voted February 25 to give volunteers with at least two years of service a 10 percent cut in the property tax assessment of their primary residence. The vote was unanimous. 

  “For example, the impact in the Town of Kent would result in an $800 savings for each person receiving the exemption,” Assistant Superintendent of Business Ken Silver said.  

  The reduction would cost the remaining taxpayers 1.2 cents on every thousand dollars of assessment. 

   “If your home is assessed at $400,000, the property owner would be paying $4.80 in addition each year for the volunteers who are risking their lives,” Silver said. 

  More than 35 volunteers attended the board meeting and School Board President Melissa Orser thanked them for keeping the community safe.  

  “We are giving you a little bit back for giving us a lot,” she said. 

  The volunteer tax break will help the entire community in the long run.  

  “Anything we can do to assist with local fire companies’ recruitment and retention benefits the entire community,” said Trustee John C. Curzio II. “If we ever had to go to a paid fire service, town taxes would increase as much as 50 percent, which would result in a huge burden on our community.” 

  District News

• Art Student Wins Prestigious Award

  Carmel High School Senior Jasmine Hall won a Silver Key Award in Illustration for our region in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards competition. The nationwide arts competition is among the most prestigious recognition programs for creative teens. 

  Jasmine entered her drawing of “Fish of the United States,” which she drew in colored pencil on an actual map of the United States.   

  “It’s only 47 fish because three states don’t have state fish,” Jasmine said. “I did a lot of research, and I spent a lot of time on it, but I didn’t expect to win anything. I hadn’t yet checked my email that day, so it was a complete surprise. My teacher put the digital version of the certificate on the screen, and I saw it when I came to class.” 

  Jasmine started drawing in 7th grade and got more serious when she entered high school. She has taken seven art classes at Carmel High School. She’s currently in Advanced Placement Drawing and Portfolio Preparation, a class that is for students who intend to pursue careers in art.  

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• P.A.C.E. Students Help Animals

  Students in the P.A.C.E. (Personal Academic and Community Experience) Program at Carmel High School have been busy making healthy dog biscuits and collecting items for the Putnam Humane Society.

  Speech-Language Pathologist Laura Blaha said teaching pre-vocational skills helps P.A.C.E. students prepare for life after high school.

  “We are always looking for ways for our students to learn vocational skills,” Blaha said. “Making dog biscuits teaches skills like following a recipe and directions, identifying items in a kitchen, working with others and vital communication skills.”

  Occupational Therapist April DeFrancesco also pitched in and helped the students learn rolling, measuring, pouring and cutting skills.

  The students rolled out the biscuit dough and cut it into shapes like bowties and hearts using cookie cutters. Unlike cookie dough, however, the dog biscuit dough was kind of tough.

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• Media Literacy, Then and Now

  In studying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Carmel High School Media Literacy Class looked at the ways the Civil Rights leader communicated his message in the 1960s and how he might effectively communicate today.  

  “King was a powerful writer and speaker,” Library Media Specialist Karissa O’Reilly said. “His books, letters, essays, sermons, and speeches were a big part of how he was able to spread his message and mobilize people. In class, we talked about how people spread messages in the Civil Rights Era and compared them to how we communicate today.”  

  The class, which is an elective open to students in grades ten to 12, looked closely at King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. In the 60s, it was published in many different magazines and newspapers.  

  "It would be a lot easier to share this letter today," said Kiersten Motta, who talked about how it could be posted and shared online.  

  The letter is around 7,000 words, and the class also discussed how it might be presented in today's media — with visual pull quotes and other ways to drawing attention to it in the sea of information we see when we scroll.  

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• College Course Sparks Discussion

  Carmel High School students got some insight into what it’s like to be a woman in leadership when two Carmel Central School District administrators visited their class last month.  

  Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Lauren Santabarbara and CHS Assistant Principal Allison Golan spoke to students in the college-level Racism, Classism and Sexism course about the impact that hidden biases can have on women at work. 

  First, Santabarbara showed how symbols for companies like Mercedes, Amazon, Baskin Robbins and McDonald’s can trigger recognition and emotions related to a brand.  

  “Every child knows what McDonald’s is,” she said. “From early on, those images are burned in our brain. We don’t even have to talk about them to know what they mean.” 

  This led to the kind of high-level discussion often found in college classrooms.   

  Students at Carmel High School have many opportunities to earn college credit. The school offers 36 Advanced Placement or dual enrollment college classes for which they can get credit at SUNY and several other colleges and universities. 

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• A Great Start for Carmel's New Universal Pre-Kindergarten

  One group of four-year-olds served their teacher a make-believe breakfast while another played with building blocks and a third practiced cutting out pictures.

  It was a busy day in Carmel Central School District’s first Universal Pre-Kindergarten program, which started on Monday, January 6. 

  “We want to teach them everything they need to know before kindergarten, but we do it in a fun way,” said Theresa McCaffrey, Executive Director of Little Leaf preschool in Carmel.   

  Little Leaf is one of three preschool programs chosen to provide services to the 75 students who enrolled in Carmel’s first semester of universal pre-kindergarten. Creative Kids and Kids Cottage preschools are also hosting the program.

  School Superintendent Erin Meehan-Fairben made starting Universal Pre-Kindergarten one of her first goals for the district. The program, which is funded through state and federal grants, is provided at no cost to district families.

  “The benefits of early childhood education are clear, and include improved school readiness, better academic performance and a reduced achievement gap,” said Dr. Fairben, who took over as Carmel’s School Superintendent in July and got to work right away to ensure that all of Carmel’s students would have access to good preschool education. “It is an investment that lasts a lifetime.”

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• CHS Musicians Play for Elementary Schools

  Musicians from Carmel High School returned to their roots on Friday and performed for students in the elementary schools they once attended.  

  Band Teacher Meghan Cabral introduced the musicians and gave the youngsters a hint of the kinds of instruments they can learn to play as they move up in the grades. Orchestra Teacher Peter Ballantoni wore a fitting Santa hat as he led the string instruments in playing holiday favorites.   

  The Kent Elementary students, wearing their coziest winter pajamas, gathered in the cafeteria for the show. They sang, swayed and clapped along to the music.  

  “We opened for the Rockettes on Tuesday at Radio City Hall in New York City,” Chorus Teacher Bryan Lynch told the Kent Elementary students. “You are now going to get to hear the songs we sang for the Rockettes.” 

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