The Jan. 9 Port Washington Board of Education meeting served as an informative session on the school’s Family And Consumer Science (FACS) classes as teachers Robyn Block and Margaret Rizzo detailed the curriculum’s for each class offered at the high school level. Courses discussed included Clothing and Textiles, Housing and Environment, Food and Nutrition, Culture and Foods, Bake Shop, Human Development and FACS Senior Experience to help students get ready for life after high school.
“Our department offers students a wide variety of areas that all focus on hands-on learning, practicing vital skills necessary for managing a home as well as succeeding in school and the workplace,” said Block. “We inspire students to discover how to use their strengths and passions to pursue a self-sufficient lifestyle after graduation including to hopefully find a pathway to a successful career.”
Ninth-grade students can pick from two FACS classes including Clothing and Textiles and Housing and Environment to receive required fine arts credits. In the Clothing and Textiles class, students explore trends in fashion and design and later transition to clothing construction and sewing through basic hand-sewing stitches and utilization of the sewing machine. In Housing and Environment, students learn about architecture, explore housing trends, practice personal budgeting and create their own tiny houses utilizing interior design.
Students in grades 10 through 12 have the option to choose from a variety of classes from cooking to child development. For those students interested in cooking, they have the opportunity to take three courses including Food and Nutrition, Culture and Foods and Bake Shop in kitchens with state of the art appliances thanks to retired home economics teacher Sally Reinhardt. In Food and Nutrition, students learn about how to incorporate healthy nutrients into everyday life and cook food from each food group. The Culture and Foods course allows students to prepare a variety of meals from cultures around the world with the Food Truck Challenge as their final project, in which a group of students will pick a culture to research, create a food truck menu based on their findings and cook one item to prepare. The newest course to the FACS department, Bake Shop allows students to learn how to bake and decorate dessert goods.
The Human Development class allows Schreiber students to learn about child development from conception through age 10 while completing an internship at the Port Washington Pre-K and/or Daly Elementary School. The final class offered is FACS Senior Experience, an internship program for students in grade 12 that advises students on resume creation, interview skills and personal financing while students complete an internship.
The board of education also gave out a Certificate of Excellence to recognize Benjamin Schiff for earning first place in the American Mathematics competition at Weber Middle School. After applause was given for Schiff, Mooney announced that Schreiber High School senior Caitlin Maley was named a Regeneron Science Talent Search 2018 Scholar. Out of 1,818 entrants, Maley is one of approximately 300 students nationwide honored with this distinction.
Approved at the meeting was more than $1 million for combined locker room, toilet, vestibule and auditorium work at Weber Middle School. The reorganization meeting set for July 3 was also changed to July 10.
The next board of education meeting will be held Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. in the Schreiber High School library.
