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vOl. 76 NO. 8
FeBRUARY 19 - 25, 2026
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Easing their way into college “AP is a college-level course — it’s not a college course — but you get the experience of Uniondale High School has working on college-level materiearned a bronze designation on al,” David Hollander, Uniondale the Advanced Placement School School District’s social studies Honor Roll from the College director and one of the AP coorBoard, a recognition that dinators said. You’re with a high school reflects a sharp increase in stuteacher who is building the dent participation capacity in you to and performance self-advocate, to be in AP coursework. independent, to The AP Honor build your stamiRoll distinction is na,” he continued. awarded to schools “You work indethat meet specific pendently on your benchmarks in own, coming into expanding access class with work to AP coursework done, which and improving stuincreases your dent outcomes. To writing and readqualify, at least 40 ing skills.” percent of a Over the past school’s graduatfive years, there ing class must take was 295 students at least one AP enrolled at least exam, 25 perone AP class, in cent must score the 2021-22 acaa three or highdemic year and it er on at least one DAvID HOllANDeR has nearly douexam, and at District social studies bled in 2025-26 least 2 perdirector, AP coordinator with 631 students. cent must take five Hollander said. or more AP courses, including one in the ninth or School leaders adopted an openenrollment approach, encourag10th grade. The College Board, founded ing students to challenge themmore than 120 years ago, is a selves while also providing acanon-profit that helps student demic and social-emotional supnavigate from high school to port to help them succeed. The number of male stucollege and career. The organization has pioneered programs Continued on page 10 like SAT and AP exams.
By STACY DRIKS
sdriks@liherald.com
W
Courtesy Kianna Rojas
Med school sweethearts Kianna Rojas and Ben James, both 24, are second-year students at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. The couple, from Cypress, Calif., moved to Uniondale in July 2024 after a long-distance relationship during their undergrad years. This semester they are attending lectures and studying together, and also taking part in clinical sessions once a week at Zucker Hillside Hospital for Psychiatry, in Queens. Story, Page 3.
Lawrence Road Middle School uses Read-A-Thon to help the homeless By ABBY GIBSON Intern
Nearly 200 students from Uniondale’s Lawrence Road Middle School took part in the school’s second annual Read-A-Thon, which ran from Nov. 3 through Jan. 23. The participants raised money based on the time they spent reading, in support of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, which helps combat homelessness across the region. Lawrence Road students in sixth and seventh grade raised $1,775 by reading for over 164,000 minutes, and celebrated with a pizza party for the top five fundraisers and readers. The school
also created an escape room challenge for the students with the most minutes. The children recruited sponsors who paid them for every minute they read. The Read-A-Thon kicked off with an assembly in November, when students heard from representatives of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless. “They came in last year, and the response that we saw from our then sixth-graders was utterly amazing,” Lawrence Road reading and literacy teacher Sara DiRusso said of the 2025-26 school year’s Read-A-Thon. “We had them come back again and go a little bit deeper, to really explore the crisis of homelessness that Continued on page 16
e’re never going to prevent a student from taking that challenge. We’d rather see a student take a challenging course that they really have to work hard at.