Week in Review: Residents Picket, L.I. Celebrates Restaurant Week

During Picketing, PJSTA President Says High-Stakes Testing is "Child Abuse”

On Nov. 1 hundreds of parents, teachers, and community members lined the streets in front of State Sen. John Flanagan's office chanting that high-stakes testing needs to change.

Educators define high-stakes testing as an exam that has important consequences. Many teachers feel the amount of testing that is being done to children through the new standards is just unacceptable. 

Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association President, Beth Dimino, said what is happening right now is child abuse. "We are here because high-stakes testing and the common core hurt children, so it has to stop. The APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review, a new standard used to evaluate teachers) has to stop. [John] Flanagan, [Kenneth] LaValle, [John] King, and president Obama hurt public education. They have to go," said Dimino. 

Who's Hungry? Long Island Restaurant Week Starts Sunday

Some of the finest restaurants on Long Island and the East End will serve $27.95 prix fixe meals beginning Sunday when the annual Long Island Restaurant week kicks off.More than 150 restaurants are participating in the event, which runs until Nov. 10.

Included in the prix fixe menu prices is a three-course meal every night, with the exception of Saturdays when prix fixe dinners will only be served until 7 p.m. 

Restaurant week found its beginnings on the East End in 2003 and was organized by East Hampton-based public relations firm WordHampton.  Success out east prompted the creation of the Long Island-wide promotion, offering affordable meals from top chefs at some of the most expensive restaurants across the region.  

Students Loom Bracelets Give Cancer Patients Hope

Port Jefferson Middle School Students, specifically fourth and fifth graders, decided to put their skills to the test for Breast Cancer. After school, the students began making rainbow loom bracelets for local breast cancer patients as a gift of hope. 

Elementary school teachers Deanna Lilimpakis and Kristen Poulos worked together to organize the event and helped the students make over 70 bracelets.

Halloween Week Wrap-Up

Children from all over Long Island eagerly awaited the end of school so they could come home, get into costume, and go trick-or-treating. This year, there were events everywhere including: Miller Place High School, Benners Farm, Comsewogue High School, and the Harbor Square Mall down port.