Back to School: New Literacy, Agriculture Programs at Half Hollow Hills

The new school year opens Sept. 3  in the Half Hollow Hills district.

The district has made several improvements to facilities, including:

• Track resurfacing and re-striping at Candlewood Middle School.
• Full refinish of the gym floor and replacement of the bleachers at Candlewood Middle School.
• Full renovation of a boys’ and girls’ bathroom at Candlewood.
• Upgrades to HVAC for cafeteria, main office complex, and various instructional places at Sunquam Elementary School.

Two new principals were named this summer, Matthew Mayo at Candlewood Middle School, and Steven Vitolano at Paumanok Elementary School.

Mayo has been the assistant principal of Candlewood Middle School since 2017. He has spent his entire career in Half Hollow Hills, working as a science teacher at Half Hollow Hills High School East for 13 years before coming to Candlewood. Mayo completed his administrative internship at High School East before making the transition from teacher to assistant principal. His wide range of experience as an assistant principal at Candlewood included developing the master schedule and overseeing building health and safety protocols.

Vitolano became Paumanok Elementary School’s  assistant principal in 2018. He was also the summer school principal for the grades 3-6 intermediate program in 2022 and 2023. Before coming to Half Hollow Hills, he had 12 years of teaching service in Queens within the New York City Department of Education, spending three years at P.S. 38 and nine years at P.S. 176 in District 29. During his time at P.S. 176, Vitolano completed his school leadership internship and served on the Principal’s Instructional Cabinet. He also helped launch a new specialized math instruction initiative called Algebra for All and oversaw the school’s departmentalized 5th grade.

Administrators in Half Hollow Hills have been busy getting ready for the 2024-2025 school year by participating in professional development sessions at their Leadership Retreat that included training on how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children and adolescents, as well as learning about the indicators of abuse and how to promote resilience.

Focus on Agriculture

The Half Hollow Hills CSD is preparing to launch a program that will include creating space designed for middle and high school students to expand their programming, engineering, and research skills through engagement in controlled environment agriculture technologies.

Vertical hydroponic systems along with high-tech research modules will be installed in a
new biological learning space at High School East, allowing students the opportunity
to engage in indoor farming techniques.  The space will challenge students to design and program automation systems to ensure optimal growing conditions of various edible cultivars.  Students will be able to harvest dozens of data points from state-of-the-art environmental sensors embedded throughout the lab. Leafy greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers are just a few of the types of food that will be grown year-round.  Through the district’s partnership with Island Harvest, grown food will be donated in an effort to help combat food insecurity on Long Island.

Literacy Program

Students in grades 3-5 will begin to use a new literacy program designed to strengthen critical reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.

The myView Literacy program will be used to enhance cross-curricular connections between ELA, Science, Social Studies and Technology, helping students see the interconnectedness of knowledge and to gain deeper insight in content areas. The program offers a wide range of texts, engaging multimedia resources, and differentiated instruction to help meet the needs of all of our students.

Schools: Top Students at Half Hollow Hills; New Performance Center