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South Huntington board spotlights student programs, approves agreements and engineering proposal
Summary
At its Jan. 7 meeting, the South Huntington Union Free School District highlighted student presentations and performances and approved an agreement with Hofstra University, a lease for voting equipment with the Suffolk County Board of Elections and a professional engineering-services proposal for a traffic-signal design; vote tallies and motion text were not specified in the recap.
Board of Education President Nicholas Ciapeta provided a brief recap on Jan. 7 of the South Huntington Union Free School District’s meeting, saying the session featured school presentations, a student chorus performance and the approval of several business items.
The most visible part of the meeting was a Maplewood presentation titled "Working Together," presented by Maplewood principal Maria Colon and assistant principal Stephanie Villanueva. According to the recap, the presentation emphasized collaboration, shared responsibility and the importance of community within the district.
The Maplewood fifth-grade chorus performed (songs referenced in the recap as "Winter Bells" and mentions of students Ceecee and Morsha), illustrating the district's arts programming.
District leaders also heard about Project Excel, described in the recap as an ongoing program that supports student growth and academic enrichment. Later, high-school teachers Mr. Caravillas and Mr. Baraco summarized the district's science research program and introduced three students who shared research projects and internship opportunities available to students.
On routine business, the board "reviewed and approved several items," the recap said. Those approvals included an agreement between the district and Hofstra University (the recap did not specify the agreement's purpose or terms), a lease of voting equipment with the Suffolk County Board of Elections and a proposal for professional engineering services related to a traffic-signal design at West Hills Road and West Hills Court near the Bristol Senior Center access. The recap references "2 m" in connection with the engineering proposal; the Jan. 7 summary did not specify whether that denotes dollars, another unit or the exact amount, nor did it list funding sources.
The recap did not include formal motion text, the names of any mover or seconder, or vote tallies. "I'm Board of Education President Nicholas Ciapeta with a recap from our 01/07/2026 board of education meeting," Ciapeta said in the recorded summary, and he closed with, "Until then, be well South Huntington and Go Wildcats!"
The board noted its next meeting will be Jan. 21 at Walt Whitman High School in the Performing Arts Center, when the district will recognize its Teachers of the Year. The Jan. 7 recap provided meeting highlights but did not supply votes, full contract details or funding breakdowns for the approved items; those appear not to have been included in the summary provided by the board president.
