MAY 9, 2023

Please Remember to Vote 

The 2023-24 School Budget Vote and Board of Education Election will be held on Tuesday, May 16. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Pleasantville Middle School Multipurpose Room.  

The start time for voting was incorrect in an earlier edition of the Pville Press. Polls open at 6:30 a.m.

The 1966-67 Varsity Cross Country Team State Championship was a victory that Jerry Mimnaugh, Pleasantville High School class of 1969, never forgot. 

The team was the school’s first New York State Championship winner, and its triumph not only gave Pleasantville sports bragging rights, but also turned around the lives of many of its young runners.  

Mimnaugh, who lives in San Diego, organized a reunion of Pleasantville Cross Country and Track and Field Team alumni this week. About a dozen men who graduated from 1964 through 1974 came home to Pleasantville from as far away as Alaska, South Carolina and Manhattan. They attended the Track and Field League Championship at Valhalla on Monday, May 1, toured Pleasantville High School on Tuesday and then gathered for dinner, testimonials and reminiscing at a local restaurant.  

“Sports teach you to budget your time,” Mimnaugh said. “I was not a particularly good student when I started high school, but with running, I had to focus and budget my time and that made me a much better student. At the beginning of high school, I was a struggling student, and I ended up going to Cornell University.”  

Mimnaugh and the others credited their coach, Bill Girard, and the 1966-67 yearbook had this to say: “Aside from the skill and determination of the members, the major factor in the team’s success was Coach William Girard. He not only had the boys run 15 miles a day, six days a week, morning, noon and night, in all weather, but also had the whole school out cheering them on.” 

Dan Rosenberg, class of 1969, returned from Anchorage, Alaska for the reunion. A retired wildlife biologist, Rosenberg said team spirit and family ties brought him back to Pleasantville for the reunion.  

“My family has been in Pleasantville since 1910,” Rosenberg said. “My father, Mel, was in the Pleasantville High School class of 1933, which was the first class to graduate from the new building. The high school building opened in 1929. Before then, it was on Bedford Road.”  

Assistant Principal Gregg Fonde gave the alumni a tour of the building, which had additions added over the years and is far larger than the high school they recalled. The men expressed surprise at the changes.  

“Look at the auditorium seats, they are so plush,” one said. “They used to be hard wood that would give you splinters.” 

“What, no chalk?” another said, when shown the smart boards that have replaced classroom blackboards. “What do you throw when the teacher’s not looking?” 

They were equally surprised by the opportunities that Pleasantville students have today – 19 Advanced Placement classes open to all, extensive training in music, art and theater, internships that give seniors real-world experience, job training programs for students with special needs, a high-tech television studio where students present the news and – new to most of these alumni – girls in sports. 

Title IX, the federal law ensuring equity in education, was not passed until 1972 and Pleasantville’s first Girls Cross Country Team was started the following year. 



Today’s track coach, Tim Dirgins, who joined the group along with past coaches Bob Geddes and Tom Patterson, said the alumni made a generous contribution to the booster fund.  

"We are incredibly grateful for the alumni who made the trip back to Pleasantville from near and far,” Dirgins said. “It was great for our athletes to see the love these alumni still hold in their hearts for track and cross country." 

Young Pleasantville artists competed in the Middle and High School Olympics of the Visual Arts (OVA) on April 27. Teams from Pleasantville Middle School and Pleasantville High School traveled to Saratoga Springs where they competed against school districts from across the state.  

Several Pleasantville Middle School students won awards at the competition. Olivia Johnson won third place in Middle School Illustration. Simran Singh and Owen Doyle won third place in Middle School Photography, Edith Mancini won second place in Middle School Industrial Design and Gemma Cascardo and Sabrina Busch won Most Creative Overall for Architecture!  

“We could not be prouder of all of our students who competed in the Olympics of the Visual Arts,” Emily Weiss, middle school art teacher, said. “We’re also excited to share projects in our Middle School Art Show coming up in June.” 

The competition was more like an Olympics than a quiet art show.  

“The event consisted of a long-term project that students brought with them to OVA, as well as a one-day spontaneous challenge that they all completed,” high school Art Teacher Gregory Nemec said. “They all had a lot of fun.” 

After setting up all student projects and having a big opening ceremony, the groups got working on an on-demand design challenge to create a galactic garden.  

“While everyone else was working on their design challenge, our middle school fashion group (Kate Morton and Prerna Gupta) owned the runway with their amazing roller derby outfit, entirely made of paper,” Weiss said. “Afterwards we enjoyed some lunch at a nearby park, enjoying a bit of sunshine before returning for the award ceremony.”

Not every high schooler would be comfortable arguing the pros and cons of international affairs, but for students on Pleasantville High School’s Speech and Debate Team, the State Tournament on April 29 and 30 was a chance to display their high-level thinking. 

Pleasantville’s team took 5th place in the state for Student Congressional Debate.  

“Only one member of the States team is a senior, so Speech and Debate has a bright future ahead,” Advisor Vickie Neilson said. 

Six students – Luqmaan Thein, Joshua Lyons, Clara Neilson-Papish, Zachary Neilson-Papish, Camilla Zabikhodjaeva, and Colin Rubsamen – faced tough competition in the semifinals on Saturday at Bronx High School of Science, where they gave speeches and debated from early morning until the evening.  

“Speech and Debate covers a lot of wide-ranging issues,” said Luqmaan, a senior and team co-captain. “From immigration to energy usage to where we stand on the foreign stage, we touch every modern problem.”  

Four of the Pleasantville students advanced to compete in the finals Sunday at Scarsdale High School. Josh advanced to the Quarter Finals of JV Extemporaneous Speaking and Luqmaan, Colin, and Zack advanced to Congressional Debate semifinals. Josh won his first round and made it to the Extemporaneous Debate semifinals. Luqmaan and Colin both made it to the Congressional Debate finals. These three competitors all had top-ten finishes in New York State. 

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