The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 228
A dissent, some historic photos, and some recent photos.
Welcome to The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 228
The Wheatley School Alumni Association 2025 New York City Luncheon - Friday, 10/3/2025 - 12:30-3:30 PM - Rosie O’Grady’s - 148 West 51st Street - ALL CLASSES WELCOME!!!
The food was chosen by acclimation and will be delicious. The private room holds forty, and 27 people have signed up and paid. Suggested Price - $125 pp. Wildcat Angel Price - $150. If you can’t pay that, pay less, or pay nothing. Pay via Zelle to ARTENGORON@GMAIL.COM or mail check made out to Arthur Engoron to 117 Plandome Road, Manhasset, New York 11030.
Material Wanted
The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter is always happy to receive biographies, memories, and photos of Wheatley administrators, faculty, staff and students. Think about your teachers, your classmates, your friends, or even yourself.
The East Williston School District - Reprinted from Last Issue
The East Williston Union Free School District, located in affluent Old Westbury on Long Island, was named the second most expensive school district in America.
It came in fourth place on the Niche.com list of “2025 Best School Districts in America,” but was determined to be the second most expensive by GOBankingRates, with a pre-tax income of $513,459 required to live there without any financial discomfort.
In Old Westbury, annual necessities expenditures for a family come out to $256,730, including a property tax bill of $42,048.
Richard Jalonack (1966) Responds - Back in the day, my family’s annual income was approximately $124,000. WOW, have times changed!
Mark Berger (1977) Responds - Hi Art, I found this rating of the second most expensive school district in the country offensive. It looks like GoBankingRates was only looking at Old Westbury housing/income and not the entire school district including Mineola, East Williston, Albertson, and Roslyn Heights families, and not per capita based upon school budget. It's a very deceiving statement. That type of claim can put off families searching for a great school district that has much to offer the students and can be more affordable by income. We need new young families to continue to make this community thrive! I live in the RCC, and although the neighborhood has changed greatly, rarely does a house get sold without it being knocked down. That takes a year per house. Change is good, but deception is not.
Graduates
1963 - Joan Hennessy Syms - “Hi Art, Keith, and all Wheatley folks……this is my first time commenting here. I’ve been living in St. Petersburg, Florida for the past 13 years, still teaching now and then, after being an art and language arts teacher in Boston Public Schools for 35 years. I noticed that Pam Panzarino Hyde, a 1970 Wheatley grad who is an artist, also lives here in St. Pete. She has described her most extraordinary life, much as we all have in our own ways. Let's keep making this world more closely connected. joansyms@gmail.com
1967 - Kathryn Sterritte Brown - “Hi Art, I hope that you won't faint now that I'm sending in my first-ever post, but I have a few specific reasons for doing so:
I read the hilarious 2008 reunion blog submission written by Bruce Clark in Newsletter # 217.
I didn't know Bruce, and I know that he's now deceased. I realize that this was a submission for a particular class reunion, but I had to send in my own reactions to his writing.
It’s hilarious…..but also moving. It brought back a few of my own memories triggered by his wonderful writing. A few examples come to mind that made me laugh out loud, such as:
>the 'disappearing ink' on Mrs Batchelder's white blouse;
>the chicken feet placed around the 7th-grade wing at Wheatley that ultimately caused pandemonium! (I loved the fact that Laurel Davis (1958) was completely unfazed by finding one in her desk. She was one of our favorite babysitters……as well as our next door neighbor and the older sister of my good friend, still to this day, Melissa Davis.) In yet another class with chicken feet, Bruce bravely took the blame for planting one of the chicken legs because he just couldn't wait to get back to diagramming sentences.
>his recollection of seeing the Broadway musical My Fair Lady with a friend who had a box of Dots candy that made a noise.when he tried to extract a piece. This so annoyed the woman in front of him that she ordered him to stop and when it happened again, she promptly slugged him! Hilarious and so relatable!
>attending an opera and inadvertently choosing not only the most boring opera but also choosing the worst seats.
> While teaching about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Mr. Warren Loring asking Bruce if he was related to Meriwether Clark. Of course, there was NO Meriwether Clark!
>And finally……recounting a driver's education story with just the right amount of exaggerated humor!
What a treasure this recounting of Bruce's memories is! I'm sure it would have been even funnier to have heard Bruce tell these stories live. I'm so glad that it was submitted to the Newsletter. People, if you haven't already read this in its entirety, I highly recommend you do so!
Below are six photos of the front side of note cards of scenes of East Williston. The cards were found in my Mom's desk, which we cleared out after her 2014 death. Newsletter readers might enjoy seeing them, especially since there have been occasional discussions of East Williston and its history in the Newsletter. Some of the photos are dated and all are labeled. I really enjoyed seeing the original Northside School which, unfortunately, is undated.
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Here is the author, Kathryn (Kathy Sterritte) Brown, Class of '67
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Asoka Bandarage (1968) -
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Existential Crisis, Mindfulness and the
Middle Path to Social Action
by Asoka Bandarage
Dr Bandarage will deliver
a public lecture for The Buddhist Society on Wednesday 17th September 6:30pm
online through Zoom about the Buddhist Middle Way approach to the social
issues and challenges in contemporary life.
Join the online talk through Zoom Wednesday 17th September at 6.30pm
https://thebuddhistsociety.zoom.us/j/81005223686
Meeting ID: 810 0522 3686
Scholar and practitioner Asoka Bandarage has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad. Her research interests include social philosophy and consciousness; environmental sustainability, human well-being and health, global political-economy, ethnicity, gender, population, social movements and South Asia.
Prof. Bandarage is the author many books including: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy; Women, Population and Global Crisis: A Political-Economic Analysis and other publications on political-economy, ecology as well as mindfulness and social action.
She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Critical Asian Studies, and Interfaith Moral Action on Climate.
Dr. Bandarage has been a student of vipassana meditation teacher S.N. Goenka and a hatha yoga practitioner and currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Critical Asian Studies and Interfaith Moral Action on Climate. www.bandarage.com
Connect With Us:
Contact Info:
Phone: 020 7834 5858
Email: info@thebuddhistsociety.org
Website: www.thebuddhistsociety.org
The Buddhist Society, 58
Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PH
Company No: 5730715
Charity No: 1113705
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1973 - Kevin Shumelda - “Good Morning, Art, On April 4, 2025, I met Emily Compagno, a legal analyst and television host at a book signing event in Vero Beach, FL . She published a book, ‘Under his Wings,’ and I was in the general Florida area at the time.
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1976 - Charles Cassely - Dboysh at Rick Volpe’s House - 9/6/25 - Yearly Gathering
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Middle row: Seth Rosenberg (red shirt), Ed Biancavilla (pattern shirt), Warren Kosel (light blue-green shirt and wearing glasses), Tom Lonegan (also light blue-green shirt)
Front Row: Tom Fritz, Tom Flynn, Tom Romeo
Up Front Alone - John Cullon (smiling; navy blue shirt)
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Fan Mail
1967 (Cindy Shapiro Chadderdon) - “Your dedication to all things Wheatley never ceases to amaze me! Thank you so much 😊”
1967 (Amy Pastarnack Hughes) - “Thanks, Art, for all that you do to keep us connected!”
1970 (Pam Panzarino Hyde) - “Thanks for doing the Newsletter.”
The Official Notices
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The Usual Words of Wisdom
Thanks to our fabulous Webmaster, Keith Aufhauser (Class of 1963), you can regale yourself with the first 227 Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletters (and much other Wheatley data and arcana) at
The Wheatley School Alumni Association Website
Also thanks to Keith is our search engine, prominently displayed on our home page: type in a word or phrase and, wow!, you’ll find every place it exists in all previous Newsletters and other on-site material.
I edit all submissions, even material in quotes, for clarity and concision, without any indication thereof. I cannot and do not vouch for the accuracy of what people tell me, as TWSAA does not have a New Yorker type fact-checking department.
We welcome any and all text and photos relevant to The Wheatley School, 11 Bacon Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568, and the people who administered, taught, worked, and/or studied there. Art Engoron, Class of 1967
Closing
That’s it for The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 228. Please send me your autobiography before someone else sends me your obituary.
Art
Arthur Fredericks Engoron, Class of 1967