Kellenberg Memorial High School

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Kellenberg Memorial High School
One Heart, One Mind
Established 1987
School type Private
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
President Fr. Phillip Eichner, S.M.
Location Uniondale, NY, USA
Color(s) Blue and Gold
Mascot Firebird
Homepage Kellenberg HS

Kellenberg Memorial High School is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic high school in Uniondale, Long Island. To make Catholic education accessible for more students, Kellenberg includes, in addition to the high school proper, the Bro. Joseph C. Fox Latin School Division, which offers a traditional Catholic education to sixth, seventh and eighth graders who have previously attended public schools. [1]Kellenberg adheres to the Marianist tradition of high academic standards and active involvement in the Catholic faith. The school has been critical of Long Island's surburban culture, and it achieved national notoriety by cancelling its prom in 2005.

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[edit] History

Named after the Most Reverend Walter P. Kellenberg, the first bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, the high school was founded by Fr. Phillip Eichner and the Marianists in 1987.The Diocese of Rockville Centre had recently consolidated St. Agnes Cathedral High School and Maria Regina Diocesan High School, but was still having financial difficulties. Therefore, the diocese asked Father Eichner, then president of Chaminade High School in Mineola, if the Marianists could assume responsibility for a second Long Island high school. The Marianists agreed and took over the the building where Maria Regina was originally housed.

[edit] Campus

The north entrance of the school features a mural of the Holy Family, including an unusual depiction of Jesus as a teenager, painted by artist Yan Rieger in 1997 in honor of the school's tenth anniverary. Students and Marianists assisted the artist and his wife with the execution of the mural. [2] Kellenberg is known for its courtyard and its gardens, which are maintained in part by the Brothers themselves and were profiled on the cover of Newsday Part Two.[citation needed]

[edit] Students and Faculty

As of January 2007, Kellenberg students numbered almost 2500, including the middle schoolers in the Latin School. Sixteen percent were students of color. [3]

The school's faculty includes almost 120 members [4], including about 13 Marianists. [5] Kellenberg faculty members have come under scrutiny in two separate criminal incidents:

English and Chorus teacher Matthew Maiello was arrested in the parking lot of the school on April 4th, 2003; he was charged with with sexually abusing teenagers, whom he met through directing the youth ministry at St. Raphael's Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow between 1999 and 2001. [6] The teenagers were not students at Kellenberg Memorial. Maiello was later convicted and found guilty of raping and sodomizing two 15-year-old girls, one 16-year-old girl and one 16-year-old boy. He served two years in a state prison and was released on March 29, 2005.[7]
On January 26th, 2007, Spanish teacher Miriam Crujeiras was arrested and charged with grand larceny, identity theft and possession of stolen property after a Kellenberg student reported a charge card stolen on December 21st, 2006. Nassau County Detective Sgt. Michael Williams said Crujeiras used the student's MasterCard to buy more than $450 worth of shirts and a jacket at Macy's in Roosevelt Field Mall. Crujerias had no prior criminal record. [8]

[edit] Academics

The high school's curriculum includes three tracks, in descending order of acceleration: Honors, Academic I and Academic II. Students on all three tracks take four years of courses in English, Math, Religion, Social Studies, and Science. Students on the Honors and Academic I tracks take four years of a foreign language, while Academic II students take English Skills courses instead. Music, art and physical education are also part of the curriculum. Students in the Latin School take Latin along with other liberal arts subjects. [9]

The high school is a CHSAA member and belongs to the the New York State Association of Independent Schools. It is also registered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. [[10]]

[edit] Co-Curricular and Extracurricular Activities

In the Marianist tradition, many students join sodality groups to mutually reinforce their Catholic faith. The groups meet weekly and participate in various religious activities. The school also operates Emmanuel, the Marianist Retreat House, a facility devoted to students' spiritual formation. Students attend a series of retreats during their time at the school. [11]

A major cocurricular focus is music; activities in this area include Band (four levels), Chorus (four levels), Fiddle Club, Jazz Band, the Firebird Swing Jazz Choir, Orchestra, Pit Band, and Jubilee Choir. Publication are the yearbook (Blue and Gold), literary magazine (Renaissance), newspaper (Phoenix), and freshman newspaper. [12]

Kellenberg also boasts a nationally ranked Academic Quiz Bowl Team as well as a prestigious Science Olympiad team.

While valuing student involvement, Kellenberg administrators have twice eliminated activities that they considered "no longer commensurate with the goals of a Christian education" [13]. First, in 2003, they abolished the school's hockey team, finding that hockey "kept degenerating into physical mayhem." Then, in 2005, the school received national attention when the principal, Brother Kenneth Hoagland, cancelled the prom dance. In a letter from late March 2005, he cited booze cruises sponsored by parents, cocktail parties, and the film American Pie as examples of "adolescent culture being formed and led by the media." This received national coverage on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, CNN, Fox News, Good Morning America, MTV, and VH1, as well as in The New York Times. Chaminade High School later cancelled its prom for similar reasons. [14] The prom was later replaced with a boat trip around New York City.[15]

[edit] External links

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