Schools

School bus drivers are a hot commodity. There's a nationwide shortage and the Riverhead school district has been struggling to recruit enough drivers to handle its transportation needs, Deputy Superintendent Sam Schneider told the Board of Education Tuesday night.

School board member Chris Dorr asked board members to write a letter of support for two Nassau County school districts suing to overturn the state's mask mandate in schools. Former schol board candidate Monique Parsons, on behalf of a new group called Save Our Schools-Riverhead, demanded the district become a plaintiff in the suit.

Kenneth Coard, Riverhead's first dean of students, is an East End native. He grew up on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton and has previously taught and coached in Riverhead.

Some Riverhead Central School District residents continue to speak out against mask mandates, despite an indoor mask mandate being adopted by the Board of Education and mandated by Governor Kathy Hochul. 

The Riverhead Central School District has a high school Latin teacher after a year without a Latin teacher on staff.

Students return to Riverhead classrooms for in-person learning Thursday morning, as cases and hospitalizations rise amid a local surge of the delta variant.

The reopening plan follows the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics for universal masking indoors and social distancing requirements.

A split board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to approve a school reopening plan recommended by the superintendent of schools that requires students, teachers and staff to wear masks when they return to school in September,

All students, teachers, staff and visitors in K-12 schools should follow the Centers for Disease Control guidance, which urges universal mask wearing and social distancing due to the circulating and highly contagious delta variant, the Suffolk County health department has advised school officials. Riverhead School Superintendent Dr. Augustine Tornatore says he hopes the district will have its plan in place by the end of this week.

What began as a pandemic hobby has turned 16-year old Andrew MacGray into a powerlifting record holder — and an opportunity to compete on an international stage this year.