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UNIONDALE _____________
HERALD BEACON
Running toward community
Honoring gun violence victims
l.I.’s earliest aviators
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Vol. 76 No. 29
JUlY 16 - 22, 2026
School district looks ahead to next year
A powerful throw leads SHA student to success By JUSTIN HABERMAN For Freeport resident Natalia Taylor, 17, her path to being considered one of the state’s top high school throwers began with a volleyball serve. Taylor, a rising senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead, quickly mastered the track and field’s throwing events of the shot put, discus and hammer and weight throws for 149 feet, nine inches, gaining notoriety on the New York stage. Angela Mongitore, a track and field coach at Sacred Heart, first noticed Taylor’s throwing potential during her freshman year, while teaching physical education class. “I had her in ninth grade, and she was playing volleyball, and I saw her serve,” Mongitore said. “The amount of power and strength that she had behind the volleyball was crazy. Knowing that I coach track, I pulled her aside and recommended shot put and discus, and she finally joined the track team.” That decision launched Taylor into recognition as one of the state’s most accomplished field athletes in the throwing events. Taylor’s mother, Tanya, also said it was during her freshman year, while watching her compete at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, that she recognized her daughter’s throwing skills. “I watched her throw at ContinUed on PAge 12
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grams and services without the increase. During the annual reorganiThe Uniondale Board of zation meeting, Nassau Family Education began the school Court Judge Darlene Harris, year with its annual reorgani- also a Uniondale alumna zation meeting and an action administered the oath of office session on July 7, re-electing to superintendent Monique Mary Bediako as Darrisaw-Akil, board president board trustee for a three-year Yvette Janniere term. and deputy treaBediako, who surer Leonore won 770 tallies Pringle. The board from voters in also appointed May, said she’s Sandra Edwards looking forward to as district clerk the 2026-27 school and Anthony Teleyear. sa as temporary “We are now treasurer until beginning a new Aug. 30. Board school year, 26-27,” vice president B e d i a k o s a i d . MoNIqUE Addie Blanko Har“Whatever hapvey, who could not pened last year, we DARRISAW-AKIl attend the meetdon’t look to the Uniondale School ing due to a family back, we look to District superintendent emergency, will be the front. We look sworn in during ahead and do the right thing.” the next board meeting. The meeting followed the Randdy Acosta, a rising Uniondale voters’ approval of senior and a five-course AP the district’s $296 million bud- scholar at Uniondale High get for the 2026-27 school year School, who just finished a on May 19. The spending plan semester at Hofstra University required a tax-cap override gaining credits before graduaafter district officials said limit- tion, was sworn in as the new ed state aid and rising costs student trustee, replacing would have forced roughly $2.7 recent graduate Valentina million in cuts to staff, pro-
By STACY DRIKS
sdriks@liherald.com
W
hile others are on the beach, our building and staff are working really hard to upgrade our facilities.
Stacy Driks/Herald photos
Jack Banham, 100, with one of his paper-art creations, featuring a tree made with a real branch for its trunk and branches with layers of green paper leaves. More than 50 of his other pieces are on display at the Uniondale Public Library until Aug. 31.
Paper art keeps him going By STACY DRIKS sdriks@liherald.com
Just months before Jack Banham will turn 101 on Dec. 14, he is still doing what has occupied him for the past 16 years: cutting pieces of paper, fitting them together and creating worlds entirely from his imagination. Banham, of Rockville Centre, has brought his latest exhibit, “My World of Paper Art,” to the Uniondale Public Library, where
it will remain on display through Aug. 31. The collection gives visitors a look at landscapes, houses, flowers and figures fashioned from pieces of paper layered and glued together. For Banham, seeing his art displayed remains difficult to believe. “I love it,” he said of the exhibit. “I just can’t believe it — I never thought anything like this would occur.” Banham began creating paper ContinUed on PAge 9
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