Displaying items by tag: students

SARATOGA SPRINGS — June Regents Exams are fast approaching, and for the second year in a row there are new exemption requirements that students and parents should be aware of. 

In 2020, New York State received a waiver from the federal government that allowed them to cancel all standardized tests, including the Regents Examinations. The United States Department of Education (USDE) has announced that it will not grant a blanket waiver for 2021 state examinations. 

Therefore, the NYS Board of Regents has reduced the June Regents Examination period to include only the four core exams that are required by federal standardized testing law. These exams are: English Language Arts, Living Environment (Biology), Algebra I, and Physical Setting/Earth Science. Regents Exams that were cancelled include: Global History & Geography, U.S. History & Government, Geometry, Algebra II, Chemistry, and Physics. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) will not be administering any Regents Exams in August 2021. 

However, students are not required to take any of these four Regents if they are passing the corresponding course; they will receive the “C19EX” designation/exemption on their transcript for that Regents Exam. As per NYSED guidelines, grades on any of the four exams will not factor into a student’s course average, and the tests will not affect graduation requirements. Saratoga Springs City School District stated the following about the new requirements: 

“We feel it is important for students to obtain a measure of their learning from their school year and we encourage students to take these exams if they are enrolled in the course. Students will not be penalized for not taking the Regents examination, nor will not taking an exam have an adverse impact on graduation requirements or diploma types.”

Although these specific exemptions are due to current circumstance, New York State had begun an assessment of graduation requirements last year, before the pandemic put it on hold. The discussion is planned to resume this summer. 

Exam dates and times are set by the NYSED for all students and there is no online option. The exam schedule for the Saratoga Springs City School District is as follows:

June 17: English Language Arts @ 8 a.m.

June 22:  Living Environment (Biology) @ 8 a.m. 

June 23: Algebra I @ 8 a.m. 

June 24: Physical Setting/Earth Science @ 8 a.m. 

Saratoga Springs students who chose to take the exam will have a choice whether to include the score on their transcript. The request for having the numeric Regents score shown on their transcript must be placed in writing to Kathy Hopper at SSHS, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by July 9, 2021.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — With calls to take action to address climate change sweeping the globe, a group of students from Saratoga Springs decided to take part in the revolution themselves. 

After students reached out suggesting that their school organize a protest centered around sustainability and climate change, Lily Rosen, President of the Young Democrats club, jumped on board with the idea. On September 20, three days before the United Nations Climate Summit, many students and adults across the nation took part in what was known as a Climate Strike. The strike was a call to action regarding the issue of climate change. 

Rosen said that The Saratoga Springs High School administration did not approve of organizing a protest, or striking during school hours, in an effort keep the school nonpartisan on the issue and to avoid disrupting the school day. Weeks later, the students devised another plan. 

“So we decided to do something that didn’t involve the school, so that they didn’t have to worry about any backlash and we could still have the freedom to organize the way we originally planned to,” said Rosen “We settled on the idea of doing a protest downtown outside of the school.”

Primarily through word of mouth, the students recruited more and more peers to drive the protest. Additionally, they created a Facebook page, and Instagram account to further publicize their events. 

Though the students have managed to remain the driving force behind their protest, due to being minors, they did need a bit of parental assistance when a permit from the city was needed. 

“My parents are very supportive. My parents have both said that they’ll be able to drive me cause, I can’t drive. They’ve been helpful,” said Rosen. “My father helped me with the permit from the city because they - since I’m under 18 - they needed an adult to sign the declaration to demonstrate and the city clean up agreements.”

As Rosen and some of her peers are minors, they were unable to vote this past election day, but are aware that many of their classmates will be able to vote in the upcoming election. This climate strike, and the advertising leading up to it will allow fellow students, and community members alike to keep the environment in mind while making political decisions. 

“We also really want to get the attention of law makers and politicians because there’s a lot of feeling that because a lot of people can’t vote, that we don’t necessarily care and we want to show that we really care a lot and we’re paying a lot of attention to what our representatives are going to do about the climate crisis.”

While political change does take some time, Rosen and her peers are working on making immediate changes within their school and how their fellow classmates can work to reduce their “carbon footprint.

“If there’s a way that we can, sort of maybe change something about the school’s energy use or carbon footprint to make it more sustainable and possibly then be cheaper for the school.”

The Climate Change strike will take place Friday, Nov. 22 at Saratoga Springs’ Congress Park at 8:30 a.m. To stay in the loop with these students and their upcoming protest, updates can be found on the Saratoga Students for Klimatet social media facebook.com/events/481805089086367/?ti=icl and instagram.com/studentsforklimatet.

MALTA — Around the year 2008, a group of Saratoga Springs residents banded together in an effort to convince New York State legislators to plant a botanical garden in Spa State Park, but to no avail as it was ultimately denied inclusion into the state park’s master plan. Though many still had interest in forming a botanical garden somewhere in Saratoga County, the group’s steam was lost and the effort faded away.