In a stoney-faced display before a packed meeting room ringing from strains of “We Shall Overcome,” East Ramapo Board of Education President Yehuda Weissmandl announced that the district would “disassociate itself” and “transition” from the controversial law firm Minerva & D’Agostino. Continue Reading

This afternoon the Sloatsburg Public Library summer season officially kicks into gear with the start of the Summer Reading Program. Continue Reading

Area high school students are hunkered down this week studying for the always ominous New York Regents tests, which begin Tuesday. Meanwhile, this past week saw a small uprising to the teach-to-the-test mentality. Continue Reading

As the school year winds down, students are stepping up for awards and inductions.

The Suffern High School chapter of the National Art Honor Society held its awards ceremony last week, inducting almost 40 new members into the honor society — which, next to the National Honor Society itself, is the only Suffern High School honor society. Continue Reading

The Ramapo Central School Board of Education met Tuesday evening to a standing room only audience. With people once again lining the halls, walls and meeting room itself, the BOE was set to make its final proposed budget presentation to the public and then take a vote on the item. Continue Reading

With the Asia Pacific rim a popular tourist destination these days, especially Vietnam, it’s hard to imagine the emotions and sheer fear that that far off land conjured for a whole generation. American students once rioted in the streets to end the Vietnam War.

It was a particularly nasty war, fought in tropical jungle-like terrain, with experimental chemical weapons and artillery against an often ghostly enemy — the difference between friend and foe was often indistinguishable. Continue Reading

The meeting room in Hillburn Thursday evening was less full than the last few budget workshops, both of people and hope. The Ramapo Central School Board met in another special Budget Workshop to discuss how to bridge a prospective revenue shortfall in total of 10 million dollars. Continue Reading

Take the way back machine to the beginning of March. The Suffern Mounties hockey team were reigning state hockey champions and in the thick of another playoff run. Against rival Mamaroneck, Suffern mounted an epic comeback in the last seconds of the game to cap the team’s fourth consecutive Section 1 championship.

But then the Mountie magic tank went dry. The defending state champs got dethroned 3-2 in a bang-the-boards game against the Saratoga Blue Streak in a Division 1 state quarterfinal at Monsey’s Sport-O-Rama. It was the first time since 2009 that Suffern didn’t make the trip to Utica for the state tournament. Continue Reading

The auditorium at Suffern High School was packed with parents and students and even contingents from a competing North Rockland High School cast. This spring’s musical was West Side Story, and it showcased Suffern’s musical talent in a multi-colored display to nearly sold out perfomances. Continue Reading

The Jets and the Sharks are rumbling Friday and Saturday night. Are you going to be there?

Suffern High School presents West Side Story, the iconic romance adapted from the Bard’s own Romeo and Juliet. The action is enough to make you shake Maria or tell all the hot heads to just chill: Bernardo the bad, Tony the lovelorn and Chino the blind. As with Shakespeare’s play itself, the young players in West Side Story allow emotions to reign supreme. Isn’t that youth’s way? Continue Reading