After woman learns of rare diagnosis, her cousins rally
At their Oct. 10 meeting, Board of Education members examined equity in North Haven schools, looked closely at the district’s student growth data and talked about a wage increase for teachers in North Haven High School’s Preschool Program.
When times are at their hardest, it’s good to know you’ve got family to rely on. Tara Merola and Crystal Thomas embody that statement.
“It’s going to be a long road for her because it’s difficult to manage your expectations around the prognosis because it’s so rare they don’t have a lot to benchmark against,” Merola said. “For example, Yale has only seen 10 of these cases.” According to the National Cancer Institute “for every one million people, one to two are diagnosed with synovial sarcoma per year in the U.S.”
BOE puts focus on student equity By Everett Bishop The Citizen
By Everett Bishop The Citizen
The women are working on organizing a benefit for their cousin, Brooke RoykaCiecierski, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer only about a month ago.
Friday, October 18, 2019
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Volume 12, Number 30
Brooke Royka-Ciecierski pictured with her husband, Dennis Royka, and their children Evan and Karlee. Photo courtesy of Crystal Thomas
Synovial sarcoma, the cancer Royka-Ciecierski was diagnosed with, is more common among young adults and can grow for years before it’s discovered by doctors. “We do think she had it for about eight years,” Thomas said. Thomas and Merola said that Royka-Ciecierski, who is 31, struggled with ankle
problems for several years before her diagnosis. However, these problems were attributed to sports and Royka-Ciecierski’s active lifestyle. “They always thought ‘you probably tweaked it.’ They did multiple tests and didn’t really see anything,” Merola said. “It wasn’t until after she had her second See Rally, A4
In a discussion of unfinished business from the August board meeting, board member Jennifer Cecarelli broached the subject of the student equity information that had been supplied to the board by Superintendent Patrick Stirk. Cecarelli had pushed for this information at the August board meeting saying that she wanted to make sure there was “a proportional number of kids in our classes” particularly when it comes to “racial balance.”
At the Oct. 10 meeting, Cecarelli shared some of the student equity information in regards to English Language Arts classes at NHHS. “79 percent of our student body is white yet 85 percent of those students are AP,” she said. “But if we look at African American, there’s 3.84 percent … but only 2.2 percent are AP. So just sort of see if we can figure out what’s preventing equalization of that proportionality would be terrific, especially among Latinx.” Cecarelli also asked about “what sort of discussions were planned” around this equity information in order to improve racial balance in classrooms. “It’s something that we’re just venturing into as well, so meeting with the high school administration and discussing that is really in the infancy stages at this See BOE, A4
Fife & drum corps marches into Ridge Road school By Everett Bishop The Citizen
to hear a sample of the genre.
Students at Ridge Road Elementary School recently learned about the history of military music when the Lancraft Fife & Drum Corps came to their school. The corps’ Oct. 10 presentation also was an opportunity to discuss the importance of fife and drum playing during the Revolutionary War and
Corps Treasurer Danny O’Mara explained to the kids that music was used as a According to O’Mara, fifes form of communication on and drums could tell troops the battlefield. when to retreat, when to prepare for battle and could “Drums were always used in even signal danger. communication and in the 1300s the Swiss started using The Lancraft Fife & Drum piccolos and fifes in the mil- Corps included the history itary,” he said, explaining of events leading up to the that the fife makes a very
shrill sound that can be heard for two miles even over cannon fire and gun fire.
See Corps, A7
Ridge Road students with the Lancraft Fife & Drum Corps. Photo by Everett Bishop, The Citizen