Craig Schneider

Several Long Island schools are starting the new academic year with tight restrictions if not bans on cellphone use, as educators grapple with the worsening problem of students' inability to unplug from their digital devices.

The combination punch of bad news also led some parents to talk to their kids about staying safe in school.

If approved, the two bond proposals would add new school buildings and athletic facilities and improve others.

The East Quogue school system serves about 400 students in grades K-6 in a single schoolhouse. The move happened Sept. 3, at the start of the academic year.

Controversy has erupted after Half Hollow Hills school officials removed the painting that a high school senior did on her school parking spot, saying it was politically controversial.

Ronen Neutra was glued to the TV news Tuesday afternoon, watching with a father's worry as Iran launched missile after missile at Israel.

Half Hollow Hills Superintendent Patrick Harrigan will leave his job at the end of October to become the executive director of curriculum and instruction at the Oyster Bay-East Norwich school district, officials said.

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Many see the plan as a move to strip away local control. State education officials see it differently.

The ninth-graders in Jennifer Wolfe's class at Oceanside High School were itching to talk about the presidential election.