Raider Report November 2025
As we enter November, a month often centered on gratitude and giving, I am reminded every day of how deeply our Red Hook community demonstrates our Raider Profile by engaging in our community, caring for others, embracing diversity, and showing compassion.
This month’s stories across our schools truly reflect what it means to be part of a caring and connected community. Our students and staff are extending compassion in many ways, from organizing food drives and partnering with communities in Mexico, to giving voice to student perspectives during Board of Education meetings and exploring cultural exhibitions that broaden understanding and appreciation of others.
We continue to enhance our learning environments and programs so every student has the space and opportunity to thrive. Whether through our inclusive IB for All initiative, or through classrooms and common spaces designed to inspire collaboration and curiosity, our goal remains the same, to empower students to be the change.
This season of gratitude reminds us that caring for one another is at the heart of who we are. I am so proud of our students, staff, and families for continually demonstrating that compassion and community are not just words in our profile, they are the foundation of who we are.
Wishing everyone a wonderful November filled with connection, kindness, and appreciation!
A push to feed Red Hook’s hungry – and raise as much as $20,000 for them in the process – is underway inside each Red Hook Central School District building.
The annual Nourish Your Neighbor campaign kicked off Oct. 27, with each school building collecting non-perishable food items and personal care products to be donated to food banks and pantries around Red Hook. Bins are located in each building. The effort is a collaboration between the Red Hook Faculty Association and The Ascienzo Family Foundation.
As it did last year, the Ascienzo Foundation is pledging $2 per item donated, with a goal of giving $20,000. Last year, the foundation donated $11,924 through the nearly 6,000 items donated by Red Hook students, families and staff.
The drive runs through Dec. 5, helping feed those in need for both the Thanksgiving and December holidays. Each week, staff collects the donations from the bins and posts the totals on bulletin boards. Linden Avenue Middle School collected the highest number a year ago.
The items are ultimately given to five food banks operated by St. John’s Reformed Church, Red Hook United Methodist Church, St. Christopher’s Church, Red Hook Responds and Community Action Partnership for Dutchess County’s Red Hook location.
For several years, more than 30% of the food served to Red Hook Central School District students has come from suppliers in New York.
It’s not only satisfied a state initiative allowing Red Hook to obtain additional funding, it’s put healthy ingredients on trays across the district and embraced the farm to school movement.
But, reaching that mark is an annual challenge and simply giving students healthy food doesn’t teach them anything about it.
That’s why Red Hook officials joined dozens of school district representatives from across the region at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park for the Upper Hudson Valley Farm to School Gathering. The Oct. 15 event, which was organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension in association with the state Education and Agriculture and Markets departments, brought together food service directors, administrators and kitchen staff from many area school districts to explore growing the farm to school movement, share resources to help facilitate that growth, and spark discussion among the professionals who make it happen.
The Red Hook contingent included new Food Service Director Sam Pride, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Operations Dr. Erin Hayes, Red Hook High School Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher Carole Anne Miles and Frank McCann, the head of Linden Avenue Middle School’s kitchen.
“It’s great to network with other public schools to see how they’re doing the farm to school initiative, finding ways that they were able to increase that local share,” Hayes said. “But also, how we are teaching kids about nutrition and where their food comes from, and working on that wellness piece of it is equally as important. There are a lot of kids that just don’t know about nutrition at all, or don’t understand that a carrot comes from the ground, for example, and how much healthier it is to eat locally.”
Representatives from the state Education Department visited Red Hook High School and Linden Avenue Middle School to see how the district’s Effective School Solutions, or ESS, has been progressing, as well as other programs.
The district launched the ESS program in fall 2024 using a $786,400 New York State Recover from COVID School grant. The “RECOVS” grants were intended to help school districts counter the negative consequences of the pandemic on school-age children; the Red Hook allotment was intended to cover two years of the program.
SED representatives on Tuesday spoke with both former Director of Pupil Personnel Jack Costello and his successor, Amanda Allison, as well as other members of the high school staff involved in the district’s various support services and wellbeing initiatives. In addition to traditional programs offered to students, Costello discussed related efforts to aid the district’s entire population, such as the Freshman Focus class initiated at the high school last year intended to instill healthy work and wellness habits for managing the stress of pre-graduation life.
ESS bolstered Red Hook’s existing student supports by placing two full-time clinicians inside buildings – one each in the high and middle schools. They are providing mental and wellness care to roughly 20 of the district’s students who are most in need. By offering such support inside a student’s own school rather than at an outside program, they can more easily receive help through the course of a day and still attend classes with their classmates.
In addition, the RECOVS grant facilitated the training of four staff members to deliver the Teen Mental Health First Aid, or tMHFA, curriculum to all freshmen as part of the Freshman Focus class. It also allowed the district to double the amount of time with its behaviorist, who has primarily been working with the Mill Road Elementary staff and families on areas such as student behaviors and school avoidance, both in the school and in homes.
“It was a very positive visit,” Costello said. “The NYSED folks had many good things to say about the work.”
Students on Sept. 3 returned to Red Hook’s schools for the first time under New York’s bell to bell smart phone ban.
Eight days later, the Board of Education received a report on how the first week went from its two student liaisons, Marina Kregel and Maddie Clements.
“That’s something really big that I was really excited to be able to share with them,” Marina said, “since that’s such a large change.”
Student liaisons, or ex officio student members, have played an important role on Red Hook’s Board of Education for years by relaying the opinions and concerns of the school populations on important issues. The non-voting position is so vital that New York for the first time this academic year is requiring all school boards to give a seat at the table to a student member.
This year, Marina and Maddie have been eager to serve their classmates. Already, they’ve provided reports at both board meetings held in September and October, running down a list of updates on student clubs, sports and events.
“I think that student representation is really important when it comes to our own education,” Marina, a junior, said. “Often, students feel like they aren’t being heard, truly.”
Maddie, a senior, noted how important it is that she and Marina “get to represent everybody and just get to hear what everybody thinks.” To that extent, they said they not only engage with classmates regarding what topics to elevate to the board, but also have tapped others to speak with their friends and report back.
Maddie said recent student board members served as good role models to emulate. “Seeing that leadership and somebody representing all of us was really cool.”
Linden Avenue eighth grade Spanish students are receiving a lesson in service, culture and cooking. They also plan to raise money for a Yucatan peninsula community in need, with a little help from the community.
On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Liz Lowney’s students are holding a fundraiser at the middle school called Cooking for Change. The students from 5:30-7:30 p.m. will prepare and serve authentic Mexican cuisine.
The event is free and open to the public, though donations are encouraged. The money will support Comedor Zarigueyas, a community kitchen in Merida, Mexico, that feeds children and women. Lowney worked with the organization this past summer.
“We wanted to raise money for this community which needs it,” the teacher said. “But, behind that, I wanted the kids to learn what it feels like to do something for someone else, just because.”
Lowney described the south of Merida as “an area that has very scarce resources.” Zarigueyas was founded in 2020 by a group of mothers, she said, “that wanted to make sure their kids were able to eat every day.” The organization has grown to the point where it is able to feed 65 kids and 30 moms on just $35 American, per day.
“It’s really amazing,” she said. “I was inspired by that.”
Roughly 40 students are contributing to the effort, in addition to a couple of district parents of Mexican descent who will show the students how to cook the food. The students will be discussing the recipes and breaking up roles for the event on Friday and Monday. They plan to use the home and careers classroom to prepare the food before bringing it down to the cafeteria.
“That kitchen is made for kids to use it. There’s duplicates of everything, so we can work in groups more easily,” Lowney said.
Mill Road Elementary students enjoyed a seasonal black light art show courtesy of the school’s artists.
Maria Taylor’s fourth grade art students created a pumpkin patch of glowing sculptures in a classroom using black light paint, and second grade students contributed glow-in-the-dark dot artwork for the walls. Each class in the school was invited to come for an “indoor field trip” to the classroom and leave their comments on the art on a large sheet that also glowed.
The installation was inspired by a lesson on Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who utilizes polka dots in her work and creates “infinity rooms,’ in which she uses mirrors to make dot-filled spaces appear to extend out forever.
“She makes pumpkin lanterns and rooms that appear to go on for infinity,” Taylor said. “Our take is, we can’t make pumpkin lanterns but we can still make pumpkins that glow.”
Taylor said students used recycled newspaper and plaster to make the pumpkin sculptures before decorating them with fluorescent paint while working in the black light.
Taylor, a first-year teacher at the school, thinks it’s the first time Mill Road students have created an in-school black light art installation.
“We did it as a pop-up so the kids could take their pumpkins home on Halloween,” she said, “which they desperately want to.”
Mill Road Elementary School’s first grade and FLEX students visited Kesicke Farm in Rhinebeck for autumnal fun with a little bit a learning mixed in.
The students enjoyed wagon rides, fed animals, and explored the corn maze and other play areas. They also each picked a pumpkin, which played a key role in the day’s lesson.
Back in the classroom, the first graders examined their individual pumpkin’s size, measuring its height with unifix cubes and circumference with string, and counted its lines. They also each drew a picture of their pumpkin. Finally, using a tub of water, they tested whether their pumpkin would sink or float, surprising many in the class.
And, yes, to their delight, each student took their pumpkin with them home.
Linden Avenue Middle School eighth graders mid-month visited the Hessel Museum at Bard College to explore the gallery and library spaces at the Center for Curatorial Studies.
The museum’s featured exhibition, “All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group,” showcased Arab modern and contemporary artworks that have never been viewed before in the U.S. The exhibition closed Sunday.
The students received a tour of the exhibit and were treated to lunch on the campus. Students then walked through the Blithewood gardens before returning to school.
This is the third consecutive year the museum welcomed LAMS’ eighth grade students.
“Students and staff are so fortunate to have this as a free and accessible resource in the area,” art teacher Ana O’Keefe said. “The weather was beautiful, and the students were respectful and energized as they explored the campus grounds. I am extremely grateful for the support to take students on this trip again, and thankful to the staff at the Hessel Museum for coordinating such a special private tour for us.”
Nora Callaghan-Jurgens, Colton Roszko and Eleanor Solomon were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.
The not-for-profit program, now in its 71st year, honors individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
The trio of Red Hook seniors are among a list of roughly 16,000 nationally to be named semifinalists, all of whom ultimately are in the running for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships totaling nearly $26 million, which will be offered in the spring. They also would earn the title of a Merit Scholar.
In addition, four Red Hook students, Jillian Cerulo, Sarah Garvey, Miriam Link and Isabel Luzzi were named Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program, which encompasses a list of about 34,000 students nationally.
Pictured are Nora Callaghan-Jurgens and Eleanor Solomon. Congratulations to all our honored students!
Red Hook High School English Department Chairperson Christine Griffin was highlighted this month by the New York State English Council, the state’s affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English.
NYSEC chooses one teacher to highlight in each of its quarterly newsletters; Griffin is the subject of the fall newsletter’s edition of “Teacher Spotlight.”
The feature focuses on the high school’s “IB English For All” initiative, explaining the reasoning behind it, the steps taken to implement, and the positive results the school has thus far observed. The program has not only helped students become acclimated to rigorous coursework and thrive, but it has opened a path to increased participation in English electives for underclassmen. This year, the school began offering the IB English class as a dual enrollment option for students to receive college credit.
Griffin said she was “thrilled” the newsletter’s writer placed a spotlight on the program. The newsletter emphasizes professional development and Red Hook in the piece serves as a model for how “IB English For All” could work.
“I think what she was interested in was this new idea, new initiative,” she said. “It’s not something people everywhere in IB schools are doing, or have the option to do. It’s something I think she saw as cutting edge.”
Griffin has been at Red Hook for 30 years – serving as English Department chair for 27 of them. She said she explained to the interviewer how the IB curriculum “makes it more about the students than even the content. It’s about their interpretation of the content.”
Take a look at the newsletter on the NYSEC site, with the piece on Griffin and “IB English For All” beginning on page 18.
Red Hook High School’s cafeteria and kitchen areas underwent a transformation in October.
The space was repainted and redecorated with Red Hook logos and patterns. And, new furniture will be phased in through the coming months.
The facelift continues the district’s overall efforts of beautifying all district buildings with fresh paint, exterior work and interior renovation, such as the cafeteria floor resurfacing at Linden Avenue Middle School, the high school gymnasium renovation and other small projects.
