City School District of New Rochelle
News & updates
November 20, 2020
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Soccer Star Teresa Deda
Signs with Bucknell U.
On the day New Rochelle High School girls’ varsity soccer co-captain Teresa Deda signed up to play for Bucknell University, Coach Francesco Notaristefano had this to say about her:

“Her play speaks for itself.”
 
How eloquently it speaks. Well enough to place her on the All-League and All-Section teams for Section One; boldly enough to earn her the league Player of the Year honor for the second consecutive year; and powerfully enough for her to lead Section One’s Class AA in scoring with 16 goals.

Now it has led her to achieve her next goal, playing for Division I soccer on the collegiate level.

“I’m really excited and thankful,” said Deda, a forward. “It’s been my dream to play D-one soccer.”
 
She signed her letter of intent to play at the Lewisburg, Pennsylvania college on Monday. She did so surrounded by her teammates on NRHS’s McKenna Field, the patch of green where she was a standout for three years, playing a sport she’s loved since the age of six.

“To see her growth through the years is tremendous,” Notaristefano said. “She’s become a real team-type player. You would think her celebrating personal goals would be her highlights, but she’s always the first person to run over and give her team high-fives.”
Deda credits her success to NRHS’s coaches and her teammates. “They really helped me out a lot,” she said.
For Notaristefano, a 13-year veteran of coaching at NRHS, Deda is the first female player to sign with a Division I school.

“It’s a very competitive environment,” Deda said. “It’ll help me improve the most.”
Girls' varsity soccer co-captain Teresa Deda signs to play at Bucknell University surrounded by teammates.
Winter Sports Season Postponed Until January
The winter sports season has been pushed back again because of the growing presence of COVID-19, the Section One Executive Committee ruled today.

Low- to moderate-risk sports – bowling, indoor track, boys' swimming and skiing – will now begin on Jan. 4, 2021. High-risk sports – basketball, ice hockey, wrestling and competitive cheerleading – are also scheduled to begin that day, pending approval from Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Winter modified sports – middle school basketball, wrestling and cheerleading – are scheduled to begin Jan. 19, 2021, also pending the governor’s authorization.
The committee will re-evaluate the date as it approaches.

The City School District of New Rochelle’s FamilyID sports registration page will be temporarily suspended as it cannot open more than 30 days prior to the start of the season.
District Students
Gain Direct Access
To Library System's
10,000s of Online Books
Every City School District of New Rochelle student now has a direct access to thousands of age-appropriate online eBooks and audiobooks through the Westchester Library System.

This new service offers access to the library’s online system to anyone with an email address that ends nredlearn.org, which the District issues to every student. (It is available to District employees as well.) No need to remember a library card number. No library card needed at all.

“Using the systems that they already have in place, our students can now access thousands of age-appropriate titles for free in one location for leisure reading,” said Ryan Paulsen, one of two New Rochelle High School librarians. “Their teachers can also rely on this system for independent reading assignments and reading circles.”

Paulsen and his partner at the NRHS library, Suzanne Tecza, were instrumental in spearheading the arrangement. They connected with the Westchester Library System with assistance from the New Rochelle Public Library and the Southern Westchester BOCES School Library System.

Access the system at SORAAPP.com/library/nredny. Look for the world “Explore” in the upper left. Click on the down arrow next to “New Rochelle Public Schools,” then on “Add a library.” Enter “Westchester Library System.”

When accessing the Westchester collection for the first time, students will have to select “New Rochelle City Schools” from the drop-down menu in order to log in using their NREDLearn accounts. After that, they can return as often as they’d like to take out books from the system without having to log in again.

The access was possible because the District’s SORA system for online titles is the education-oriented iteration of Overdrive, the larger system’s vendor for online books.

While the Westchester Library Collection boasts some 43,000 volumes, the District arrangement is designed to filter books for age groups. Elementary school students will be able to access children’s books; middle school students can access those, plus young adult titles. High school students will be able to access most of the adult content, with “mature” content excluded, plus those for younger readers.
“Extra, Extra!”
Students Rip Headlines from Literature
New Rochelle High School students are making headlines (that is, making up headlines) in a new project undertaken by ENL teacher Barbara Gillingham.

Students wrote newspaper articles based on their classic literature readings. The project was focused on character traits, and offered students a creative way to demonstrate their comprehension of the stories.

“This is an amazing tool for students to creatively take hold of the lessons they’ve learned through classic stories, while retelling their plots in unique ways to show that they understood the content,” said Tiara Reyes-Vega, Director of Instructional Support for the City School District of New Rochelle.

In one instance, students, grouped into teams of two or three, created a prologue or an epilogue for one of the characters in Tennesee William’s play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

The project required them to carry through the same traits and language demonstrated by the characters in the original text.

Students German Flores and Daniela Escobar wrote an epilogue on Blanche Dubois with headlines “BREAKING NEWS: Terrible Murder in the City!” and “The truth or just lies? The killer Blanche Dubois talks about her secrets.”
Natalia McMorris and Ella Harshman
Science Students Study
Placenta Imaging,
COVID-PTSD Connection
The students in New Rochelle High School’s Science Research Program explore a dazzling range of topics under the mentorship of professional scientists from some of the top institutions of learning and exploration. Each week in this column, we’ll learn about two students’ activities. In January, researchers in grades 4 through 8, many of them mentored by the high school students, will present their research in the second annual Research Fair.

Natalia McMorris, Junior
Mentor: Jeff Wuebber, New Rochelle High School Science Teacher

Natalia McMorris spent the summer conducting a global study on the novel coronavirus and its impacts on mental health, specifically on the correlation between COVID-19 and a later diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She studied the signs and symptoms of PTSD as well as the rise of COVID-19 cases across the globe. She also researched the elevated cases in mental health issues in hard-hit countries such as China, Italy and France following the COVID-19 outbreaks earlier this year. From there, she developed a survey that focused on participants’ emotions and personal experiences during quarantine.

“Through this process, I have learned about how this pandemic has taken a toll on the world as a whole not only in terms of mental health but economically, socially and politically,” McMorris said. “I have also learned that this pandemic will impact the majority of individuals mentally because of all of the changes it has caused in day-to-day life.”

Sharing the survey on various social media platforms, McMorris received more than 1,200 responses. She is analyzing the data and finalizing a research paper summarizing her findings, which will be submitted as part of the Westchester Science & Engineering Fair.

“This study is important for future research in the scientific field because it gives a rough estimate of how many individuals in the next few years will be greatly impacted by this mentally, and outlines possible symptoms that may be strong indicators of mental illness,” she said.

Ella Harshman, Junior
Mentor: Dr. Carolyn M. Salafia, Board-Certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology

Ella Harshman spent much of the past few months working alongside her mentor on an innovation in placental pathology that could have a significant positive impact on pregnant women and their fetuses.

Dr. Salafia is one of a few pathologists nationally who specialize in reproductive pathology. Currently, her work - which Harshman has provided assistance with - is focused on a new placental measure, obtained by collecting and aligning images of the whole placenta into a three-dimensional mesh.

Harshman analyzed approximately 300 3-D ultrasound scans and oriented them using a program called MeshLab. The goal was to determine how much variability in birthweight could be predicted by placental features captured by these 3D meshes, and how much additional insight they could give into placenta structure and function.

“My research found that placenta features captured by the 3D placental meshes do, in fact, provide much more predictive value for variability in birthweight as well as increased information regarding placental structure than past research,” Harshman said. ”These findings are extremely exciting; they could eventually allow doctors to monitor placental and fetal growth and intervene during pregnancy to help the placenta without causing harm to the fetus.”
While Harshman is completing a research paper on her work, her findings have already been used by Dr. Salafia’s lab and research groups.
Will Smith shows New Rochelle Special Olympians his bronze medal.
'Athlete of the Year' Wows
Special Olympics Team With Zoom Visit
A group of New Rochelle High School Special Olympics team members was thrilled this week when a celebrated athlete joined them for a Zoom call.

Will Smith, the 2019 New York State Special Olympics Athlete of the Year, told team members about what it has meant to him to be a part of the family of athletes for more than two decades.

“In high school, it helped me overcome my shyness and meet people,” he said.
It also has meant travel to distant locations. He traveled to Nagano, Japan, in 2005 for the Special Olympics World Winter Games, where the floor hockey team won gold. Two years later, he traveled to Shanghai, China, where the softball team earned a bronze medal. (Smith showed his bronze to the New Rochelle team.)

He spoke to 10 New Rochelle athletes plus two recent graduates who returned to visit the Zoom-based meeting.

“He competed in the world games – I think that’s awesome!” said Jacob Kuligowski, one of the recent graduates.

Smith told them he was a Special Olympian for 22 years.

“That’s a lot!” said student Takuto Igarashi.

Smith now works with Special Olympics New York as a Program/Development Specialist. He has represented the organization as a guest speaker at numerous events throughout the year.

“The best part was the many people that I had to awesome pleasure to meet across the world,” he said.
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