Upcoming Meetings and Events
TBA

Events Schedule

Meetings Schedule

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
POSTED 1/1/21
     Our warmest thoughts and best wishes to our members and their families for a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year. We hope that 2021 will be a good year for all of us and look forward to when ROBS will be able to meet again.

---

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY
POSTED1/2/21
     On December 27th, Janiece Clarke, former Northeast Elementary school teacher, celebrated her 100th birthday. Her son, Dr. Elsburgh Clarke, said that his mother is doing fine, and when they talk on the phone "she is still as spry as ever".
     Our very best wishes to Janiece for a very Happy Birthday. We hope she enjoyed her special day.
     The following are photos taken of Janiece 3 years ago.

---

Check Out Member Benefits

Why did we do it?
     What was our purpose in taking on such an open ended “History Project”; for which we evolved a script of questions and got answers from over 150 subjects for two decades?
     We couldn’t answer the question in 1994 when people would ask “What are you going to do with the interviews?” All we could say was that for educational purposes we had to document our record now or lose the chance to preserve so many poignant accounts, funny stories and touching tales told by exemplary educators. We knew these dedicated public servants might shortly, for reasons yet unknown, be leaving Brentwood for good.
     So, we decided to let time sort out the details. We began scheduling appointments. We asked questions and listened saving for generations the essence of what it meant to have been an educator or employed, in this large public school system during the second half of the 20th century. Brentwood remains an exemplar to all others; a diverse microcosm of America reflecting 124 districts on Long Island while simultaneously resembling thousands across the U.S. We’ve accomplished something here to be proud of. Whether we were interviewed or not, ours is a claim of service that few professionals in the State of New York or elsewhere have positioned themselves to share in the way we have.
     INITIALLY the practice of sitting with a subject for an hour and giving them a hundred percent focused attention seemed somewhat daunting to a number of friends and colleagues. So much so in fact that many declined our repeated invitations to speak with us as they left careers or retired from full employment. Despite all assurances that we were not about investigative journalism or invading privacy, they deferred. Now, twenty years after we began, some are saying they may be ready. “Better late than never” we say. However, to all among you who were willing to share not only your classroom experiences and personal stories, but precious memories from your lives along with your fondest hopes for the future, we say “Thanks”. Thanks for allowing us to continue the process by paying it forward as we share these interviews with the Brentwood community and countless professionals and researchers near and far. Through an acceptance of ROBS offer of collaboration with Archivist Dr. Geri Solomon and The Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University our History Project lives on in academia as well as in the collection of the Brentwood Public Library, thanks to Director, Thomas A. Tarantowicz.
   You can enjoy unlimited visits to www.robsny.org where you can watch and listen to segments from featured Interviews in the ROBS History Project Section on our Announcements Page each month. Return here to listen and learn again and again.

---

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED    HISTORY PROJECT
INTERVIEW:
Grace DiRiggi
Guidance, Attendance, AIDP
March 11, 2005


Click on the image above to read Grace DiRiggi's Biography