Week in Review: Parents Blast School's Plan to Swap Principals

A Hero's Welcome Home for Stony Brook Navy Reservist

U.S. Navy Let. David Fink received a hero's welcome home Thursday morning as he returned from a nearly six-month tour in Afghanistan. 

Friends, family, Hometown Heroes and Patriot Guard Riders saluted Fink, a Stony Brook resident, as he arrived at Islip MacArthur Airport on a 10:45 a.m. flight. He carried his five-month old son, reunited with his wife, Jackie, and older son. 

Parents Blast School Officials' Plan to Swap Principals

Tempers flared at Tuesday's school board meeting as parents packed the room to protest the Three Village school administration's plan to re-assign the principals at Mount Elementary and Setauket Elementary beginning July 1.

"Personally I don’t think this is a good idea," said Sean Lynch, a Mount Elementary parent. "... I take it to heart when you want to remove our principal. I don’t see where the structure is for my children. ... Now my kids have to learn somebody else. I personally do not see any reason for this change at all."

PHOTOS: Ward Melville Celebrates its Class of 2013

The approximately 660 graduates of Ward Melville's Class of 2013 may have had different experiences throughout high school, but they came together on Sunday as one class taking their next steps together.

That's what Kathryn Barnitt, class valedictorian, observed in her remarks to her peers. She attributed that to the ability of each student to "customize" their high school careers.

Momentum Fades for Revamp of Downtown Stony Brook

Nearly a year after leaders heralded an idea to revamp downtown Stony Brook into a bustling hub for small business and community attractions, the energy behind the project has all but faded with the exit of former town Supervisor Mark Lesko.

“There didn’t seem to be alignment for the Chamber [of Commerce] and the supervisor,” town councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld said in a recent interview with Patch. “Until there is some sort of good will to move ahead with the planning process, it’s been dead in the water.”