Raider Report October 2025

Sybil Bell would get a frequent question from her students as a Mill Road fourth-grade teacher in recent years:

“When are we doing STEAM?”

Since 2023, Mill Road’s grades 3-5 students have had access to a STEAM Innovation Center outfitted with a wide array of blocks, art supplies, technology and other creative resources for hands-on learning. Teachers could schedule time in the brightly lit double classroom to punctuate a lesson with a more tactile approach. But, the experience and instruction varied from class to class.

“It was up to the comfort-level of teachers, who determined how they wanted to use it,” Bell recalled.

This year, Mill Road has formalized their use of the unique resource by making Bell the school’s first dedicated STEAM instructor.

Principal Dr. Brian Boyd said the school is “fortunate” to have Bell in place, as the position takes the lab “to the next level.” Bell has been at Mill Road for 27 years, teaching on both the primary and intermediate sides.

“Now we have something that’s consistent, week-by-week,” he said. “In terms of, expanded opportunities, new opportunities for our kids, and the rigor and relevance around the worked that they’re doing now – it’s incredible.”

Bell has created a standardized lesson-plan and approach for the students, which she said will not only support the existing curriculum in each grade but gives the students “some new ideas and concepts that they may not get into in the classroom.” The sessions are a regularly scheduled special class, like art or music, and each class’ teacher assists Bell in the execution. Students can also sign up for the STEAM “lunch club,” a program the school is initiating for each of its special areas this year, in which they can take part in specialized instruction.

Bell said STEAM is important as “It gives them an opportunity to not only problem-solve, but work together and collaborate. They need that for the changing world.” She noted, teachers have witnessed students flourish in a setting and learning style that differs from the traditional classroom. While students can work independently, most projects involve students working in pairs or small groups."

Read more about STEAM and Bell's dedicated classes in the Innovation Center here.

It has been inspiring to see how engaged our students are across all our schools. The energy and enthusiasm in our classrooms remind us every day why our work matters. Our commitment to our mission, vision, and Raider Profile is reflected not only in the pages of this newsletter but also in the remarkable learning and growth happening across the district.

Our staff came together for a Superintendent’s Conference Day on October 3rd, focusing on professional learning in the science of reading, artificial intelligence and personalized learning, and the social-emotional well-being of our students. These opportunities allow us to grow together as educators and keep our attention on what students need most, both now and in the years ahead. As New York State moves forward with its New York Inspires initiative, schools across the state are preparing for a new vision of teaching and learning grounded in the New York Portrait of a Graduate.

This framework emphasizes the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions students need for success beyond high school. Because the NYS Portrait of a Graduate closely aligns with our Raider Profile, which is already embedded in our school culture, Red Hook is well positioned to stay ahead of these shifts. The initiative calls for deeper learning, flexibility in how students demonstrate proficiency, and a move toward a single diploma that no longer relies solely on Regents exams. These changes represent an exciting opportunity to redefine what it means to be ready for college, career, and life.

Our dedication to the Rigor-Relevance-Resilience (R³) Learning Model™ ensures we are prepared for this future. By promoting critical thinking, real-world application, and adaptability, the R³ model helps our classrooms and our students thrive under the new expectations outlined by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Graduation Measures. With this approach, we are equipping our students with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to succeed, not only in school but in whatever challenges come next.

I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress as we embrace these shifts in teaching and learning. Wishing everyone a wonderful and beautiful fall season.

Linden Avenue Middle School students have some new toys to play with – the kind that may open the doors to career opportunities.

The school last month set up two new flight simulators in its technology education classroom, which will be used in the sixth grade flight and space class and the newly created Future Flyers club for seventh and eighth grade students. The club’s first meetings, which will be held during rotating lunch periods, were Sept. 24.

“We want to get kids excited about something new that could possibly lead into a career or a hobby,” technology education teacher Jen Melitski said. “We know that there’s a pilot shortage right now. The more people we can get interested in this industry is great.”

Several Red Hook graduates, Melitski said, have gone on to complete the aviation programs at Dutchess Community College at Hudson Valley Regional Airport and are pursuing careers in the field. In addition to the flight and space class, last year for the first time she took the sixth grade to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, a field trip she plans to continue this year. The simulators will take those aviation exposure efforts to another, more tangible level.

“We talk in sixth grade about all the vocabulary that’s associated with flight – the lift, the thrust, the weight, the drag – and trying to get all those different pieces and parts,” Melitski said, “but it’s different when you’re actually sitting and using a real plane.

“It might pique an interest and make them think, ‘Maybe I could do that,’” she said. “They’re young. This is the time to figure out what those passions are.”

Melitski obtained a grant from The SIA Foundation, which stands for Students In Aviation, to purchase one simulator and the district purchased another. The nonprofit SIA Foundation, founded in 2016, has donated more than 100 simulators to schools across the country to fulfill its mission to “ignite a passion for aviation and aerospace” and introduce “students to the world of aviation. In addition to the grant, SIA helped Melitski set the equipment up and showed her the basics of how to fly.

Read more about the club and how the simulators will benefit students here.

As Larry Anthony prepares to retire after more than a decade running Red Hook’s food service department, his successor this fall has become a familiar face around cafeterias and lunch lines.

Sam Pride has been shadowing Anthony in preparation of taking the reins fully as food service director. Pride comes to Red Hook with more than two decades of experience ranging from cooking in summer camps to running kitchens for nursing homes.

For seven years, he served as the executive chef for weight-loss platform Noom’s headquarters, as the once-small startup company grew into a household name. It was a position that – largely due to the unexpected circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic – saw his responsibilities expand from simply cooking for corporate staff to conducting virtual events with celebrity chefs and famous musicians.

More recently, Pride sought a role where he could engage with young minds and create an impact. The resources already in place at Red Hook, such as its student gardens, immediately piqued his imagination for educational opportunities.

“We need to show these kids that they’re capable of growing foods in their hydroponic garden or their raised bed in the backyard – the classes and the clubs are already doing that and the kitchens here are already utilizing these products and showing the real effect of growing their food – now let’s give kids agency,” he said. “Let’s give them the ability to conceptualize with ingredients and finish food.”

Anthony in his tenure has revolutionized the district’s approach to food service, with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and a farm-to-school approach enabled by bonds formed with local producers. It’s an emphasis aligned with Pride’s approach.

“We were seeking a candidate who would not only carry on the initiatives Larry started but expand upon them,” Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Operations Dr. Erin Hayes said. "He’s deeply passionate about food and the farm-to-table movement, and he's eager to develop educational programs that actively engage students in the process."

Pride, who grew up in the Augusta, Georgia area, has spent time living in Texas and New York City. He moved just north of Red Hook while working remotely during the pandemic and ultimately decided to stay.

An experience after college working in an assisted living facility for those with Alzheimer’s disease helped shape perspectives on service through food and the importance of mealtimes that continue to this day.

“When you’re in a situation like that, you lose a lot of the basic controls you have in life. … Food and meals are a place where you retain a lot of that control,” Pride said. “You can refuse to eat and say it was delicious. You can lick your plate clean and say it was disgusting. You can throw it against the wall or you can revel in eating it and you can always get an ice cream afterwards.

“I realized that, for these people, the meal is a focal point. It’s very closely mirrored here,” he said. “Kids either love it, or hate it, but either way mealtime is a time they get to socialize, they get to scope out other classes, they get to try out a new joke.”

Pride praised Anthony and remarked, noticed no matter what cafeteria they visit, the students all greet him warmly.

“They all love this guy, and it’s because they’re interacting with him around mealtimes,” Pride said. “If you ask any kid ‘What was your favorite part of school today?’ more often than not you’re going to hear recess or lunch.”

Red Hook under Anthony has regularly cleared by a large margin the New York State 30% initiative incentivizing districts that obtain 30% of their ingredients from in-state sources. In fact, last November Anthony produced a menu that virtually only used New York products for the entire month, a feat the school is poised to replicate this year.

Anthony said Pride’s philosophy “resonates with our district, with our goals and our aspirations for the food service to keep carrying on the New York 30% and (treating) food as medicine.”

Pride said meals can serve as a connection that nourishes each other.

“When you cook for somebody, when you feed somebody, it’s an act of service,” he said. “An act of service is something that, even if you take it for granted, you still feel it.”

The Pupil Personnel Services Department is launching a new family engagement initiative called Parents as Partners.

The idea, Director of Pupil Personnel Services Amanda Allison said, is to build a strong home-school partnership by offering workshops and conversations that reflect the needs and interests of our community.

Designed for families of students of all ages, the monthly Parents as Partners group meetings will provide opportunities for parent empowerment and education, with topics driven by parent interests. It is intended to offer support in the areas of mental health, parenting strategies, technology and others, in addition to discussions relating to special education.

The first Parents as Partners workshop, led by Taconic Resources’ Josh Garay, will be Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Red Hook High School Performing Arts Center. The topic will be “Determining Eligibility for Special Education Services.”

To help guide the areas covered by the group, families are asked to take the bilingual Parents as Partners survey available here.

A Sept. 18 volleyball match between Red Hook and Marlboro marked the debut of the newly renovated high school gymnasium.

Fans, including several dozen in the new area for Red Zone student section, located where formerly there was a knee-wall and stage, filled the repainted and redesigned space to watch the Raiders compete on a new, gleaming hardwood floor.

The project was the product of more than two months of work over the summer, enabled when residents approved a proposition last fall. The floor and bleachers, original to the school’s 1963 opening, were removed to improve the safety and accessibility of the space. The removed stage space had been rendered redundant and closed off when the Performing Arts Center was constructed.

Red bleachers are scheduled to arrive and be installed late this month, completing the project.

Tom Cassata left the year’s first Section 9 Athletic Council Meeting with a pair of mementos recognizing his service to Red Hook and surrounding schools.

The Raiders’ athletic director on Sept. 4 was given the Dr. William F. Moran Service Award, an honor Cassata said was “unexpected, but appreciated.”

Section 9 has given the honor each year since 2000. Moran was Section 9’s first executive director, serving from 1983-1999, after two decades as superintendent of schools for the Valley Central School District.

The award has never been given to the same person twice. It is presented to “an educator in Section 9 who has been universally recognized as representing the highest educational standards as established by Dr. Moran during his entire career.” Former Red Hook Athletic Director Andy Seidel, who Cassata succeeded in 2005, won the award in 2007.

In addition to his own personal award, a plaque bearing the names of each winner now sits in Cassata’s office. It will be passed to the next winner next fall.

Cassata, who was also named Athletic Administrator of the Year for Section 9 by the New York State Athletic Administrators Association for the second time in March 2024, prefers to shine the spotlight on his student athletes and coaches. Still, he said, “I do appreciate being noticed.”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Warden said the district is lucky to have Cassata at the helm, noting his contributions to the district’s recent capital improvement projects renovating the high school gymnasium and replacing outdoor fields.

“He’s an exceptional administrator who places an equal emphasis on education as athletics,” she said. “He cares about every student and every program, and it’s evident each day.”

In addition to his contributions to Red Hook, Cassata serves roles within the section and helps with New York State Public High School Athletic Association events. He’s chairperson of the section’s eligibility committee and second vice president of the athletic council, and has in the past served chairperson roles for a variety of sports and other committees.

“I’ve been tapped to do a lot of things over the years, which is also fun work,” he said. “It’s fun to work with all the other schools and with my colleagues at other schools.”

While the Moran award, in particular, recognizes educational standards as well as athletic contributions, Cassata said it’s simply part of the job. The athletic department recently received its plaque recognizing Red Hook as a NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete School of Excellence for the third consecutive year in 2024-25.

“We look at athletics as the extension of the educational day. The overall goal of athletics is part of the educational process of everybody’s school,” Cassata said. “It’s not just, the school day ends at 2:20 and we play sports. It’s still part of the school community and educational process.”

In the last 10 years, about 60 Red Hook High School students have completed summer abroad programs through the CIEE, spending roughly a month studying in such locations as Tokyo, Ghana, Madrid, and others.

Students had the opportunity to learn more about the academic programs, destination options, costs and scholarship possibilities as CIEE representatives held assemblies and visited classrooms throughout the day Sept. 25.

While CIEE offers a slew of programs, the three-to-four-week High School Summer Abroad program was the main focus of the day. It’s one of several travel opportunities available through the high school; visit https://www.redhookcentralschools.org/international-study to see them all.

Different from a class trip in which an entire group of students from the high school go to one destination with district chaperones, the summer abroad program is more akin to a collegiate semester abroad program. Students stay with host families and pursue a specific field of study tied to that geographic area with the opportunity to earn up to four college credits. Red Hook students can earn the Global Seal of Biliteracy by completing language programs with CIEE. They may also earn credits towards earning the New York State Seal of Biliteracy, a new initiative at the school.

Linden Avenue Middle School Spanish teacher Liz Lowney and CIEE representatives led informational sessions for each the ninth, 10th and 11th grades, which included testimonials from some current students who have already taken part. They also operated a table during lunch periods for anyone who wanted to come by and learn more. Everyone who attended received a QR code to waive the application fee for the program.

“It’s so much fun to get to explore a new city, a new country, with students from all over the United States,” said CIEE’s Skylar Jeffries. “You get to make those friendships. And then, it’s really great when you start to think ahead to your future.”

Both merit and financial aid scholarships are available. Since 2016, Red Hook students have received just under $160,000 in total scholarships.

Twyla Aloi, a junior, took the Paris Language and Culture program for French last summer. She spoke at one of the assemblies, as well, calling it “the best experience of her entire life,” noting her home placement was the best part.

“My host mom was a really lovely person,” she said. “I made amazing friends and I got a lot better in French.”

Lowney, a CIEE participant during her time at Red Hook High School, told the 10th grade students, “you’re at the perfect age, in my opinion, to go on one of these trips … but I’m a little bit biased, since that’s exactly when I went. If you’ve ever thought about it before, now’s the time to do it.”

Nicole Fiore's Flex class on Oct. 1 spent time working with Ali Roland on Red Hook High School’s continuing Healing Garden beautification efforts.

The school in the last year has been updating the longstanding space outside the front entrance by creating and installing a new mural and cleaning up the sitting area.

The Flex students planted new plants and bulbs in the garden before returning to the classroom to paint birdhouses, rocks, planters and Tibetan Prayer flags.

The garden includes several benches. It’s intended as a calming outdoor space where students can take a break, though it hasn’t in recent years been maintained and students consequently largely stopped using it as a resource.

The mural was created by more than 70 Red Hook High School students under the direction of Roland and muralist Ramiro Davaro-Comas and installed in May.

Visitors to Mill Road Elementary School in late September were greeted by a shiny new sight – new signs installed outside the school.

Mill Road primary and intermediate schools were united into one last year, and the new signs installed Sept. 24 not only reflect that but clearly denote for visitors which entrance should be used for which age groups.

The new signs are among several improvements being made around the property currently – including a new play area for our youngest students – and more will be shared in the coming days.

The Red Hook Central School District is partnering with Dutchess County and the Office of state Sen. Michelle Hinchey to host a free informational skilled trades fair at Red Hook High School’s newly renovated gymnasium on Thursday, Oct. 23 from 6-8 p.m.

Representatives from various trades will be on hand to give students and young adults the opportunity to learn more about different career paths available in the Hudson Valley region, ask questions and learn more about future opportunities.

The event is open to the public, including students from surrounding school districts, and no RSVP is required to attend.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Warden said the district is delighted to co-sponsor this initiative, which will undoubtedly benefit our Red Hook community and the broader northern Dutchess County area.

Red Hook last school year held a career exposure fair during the school day, in which representatives of dozens of professions were available to discuss their career paths and their job responsibilities. The skilled trades fair is a separate event, which Dutchess County and Hinchey hosted at two other high schools last spring and fall.

Red Hook has placed an emphasis on providing students opportunities to receive training in trades fields. In addition to more-than-doubling the number of Red Hook students enrolled in Dutchess BOCES’s Career and Technical Institute programs in the last five years, Red Hook High School’s Automotive Technology, Residential Construction, Materials Processing Wood and Materials Processing Metals have all seen significant increases in enrollment in 2025-26. The school this year also launched an Advanced Wood course, in which 16 students are enrolled.

“We are excited to give students the invaluable opportunity to learn more about apprenticeship programs, educational pathways, and potential career opportunities, while also supporting local businesses searching for the next generation of skilled employees,” Warden said. “We encourage everyone to come out and learn more about the opportunities available in the skilled trades."

Local trade organizations and businesses interested in having a free vendor table at the event, can register online at dutchessny.gov/RHTradesFair.

“There’s no one-size fits all approach when it comes to deciding your future, and ensuring students have the chance to explore all the career options out there remains one of our top priorities,” said Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino. “The Hudson Valley offers so many unique career opportunities, including those in the trades, and this event aims to equip our students and young adults with information so they can be as prepared as possible.”

For questions or more information, contact the Dutchess County Executive’s Office at 845-486-2000 or CountyExecutive@dutchesssny.gov. Red Hook High School is located at 103 W. Market St.