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Live from Primrose
If you have not yet heard of MJ Productions, chances are you will one day. Second graders Molly Miale and Jameson Klepadlo are the "M" and "J" of the talk show duo that get all the big interviews in the Somers Central School District. They have interviewed Matt Carr, SCSD director of human resources and student services, Emmy Award-winning singer/songer writer Kevin Briody, Primrose phys ed teacher Kevin Mallon, and Somers Intermediate School Principal Liz Turner and Assistant Principal Linda Belger, and Superintendent Ray Blanch. "I think it's really interesting to learn about them," says Molly Miale. "If I didn’t interview them I wouldn’t know lots of things, like their pets' names, and who is in their family. We know one side of them, because they work here. But we don’t know the other side, like what they do for fun." The talk show evolved from an assignment given by teacher Cherie Stietzel, who suggested that the students interview their parents. Jameson loved the process so much, he continued with staff at Primrose.
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Another First Day of Class
Some students at Primrose Elementary and Somers Intermediate School had another first day of school in early June. “It felt like Christmas morning!” says a second-grade student. Since the start of the school year, all classes in the elementary schools were divided into two rooms. Each room had 10 to 12 students, and the teacher and teaching assistant used Zoom to communicate with the whole class, while walking back and forth between the rooms. That changed recently for a few classes that moved back into their original classrooms. “I feel happy,” says eight-year-old Charlotte Mitchell. “Today is the first day since the first day of second grade that our class is all together. We used to see the kids from the other side only sometimes, if we went out for snack and recess. Now we can see them in the same classroom all day.”
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Getting Oriented in Person
Moving from one school to the next can be intimidating, but many of the second-grade students at Primrose Elementary School are feeling more secure after in person orientation visits to Somers Intermediate School, where they will begin third grade in the September. “It is not so scary, now that I have been here and walked around,” says Anchit Shankar. Last year’s third grade orientation was done entirely online after the buildings were closed to do COVID-19. “It was a shame we couldn’t do this last year,” says Liz Turner, the intermediate school principal. “There is value in getting familiar with the school building, with our routines, and understanding that there are so many similarities to Primrose. It helps to alleviate a lot of the nerves.”
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Flora Finds Smiles
“Look, she found one!” exclaims a first-grade student on the playground at Primrose Elementary School. The children are watching as Flora, an explosives detection dog, goes to work to find the objects placed around the playground by her handler, Sergeant Frank Pagliuca of the Westchester County Police Department. The visit and demonstration at Primrose is part of the police department’s community outreach program. “One of the things I love about the job is showing what Flora can do. It thrills the children, and they relate her to their dogs at home,” says Pagliuca. ”When they see a dog that actually works and they understand that a dog can do things that are beyond what a human can do, it’s a thrill to me.”
