
What do a German Shepherd, a German Wirehaired Pointer, a Bloodhound, and a Belgian Malinois all have in common? They all visited Latham Ridge on Friday! The group of K-9 dogs stopped by Latham Ridge, with their handlers from the New York State Park Police, New York State Police and Colonie Police Department, to teach students more about the training police K-9's go through. Students also learn about some of the work these dogs do to help the departments they work for and see live demonstrations of the dogs obedience and detection skills. Thanks for stopping by, officers and K-9's!






No party like a World Languages Block Party! Shaker High School's Upper J-Wing hosted the Block Party after school on Wednesday, April 2, in celebration of National World Languages Month. All language students were invited to use their "passport" to travel through various rooms and activities that included international dance, party games, crafts, international trivia, food and even "Gladiator School." As you can imagine, a fun time was had by all!

It's the Olympics of the Visual Arts! Hundreds of students from around New York State came together to compete in the OVA at the Saratoga City Center on Tuesday, April 1. There were 228 student teams, including four teams from Shaker High School that participated in a long-term design challenge in one of eight categories, which they brought with them to be displayed and judged. They also took part in an on-demand design prompt and produced a piece on the spot. Our student teams competed in Drawing, Painting, Architecture and Illustration.
UPDATE: Hana Kim and Rui Zheng won the Hyndman Creativity Award in the Drawing Category. Haein Park, Helen Huang and Shayla Mieu won second place in the Architecture Category.



The Magical Yet! Thank you to Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services, Mrs. Naté Turner-Hassell, for reading this wonderful book to Mrs. McMillen's kindergarten students at Forts Ferry on Monday, March 24. She was kind enough to come back on Tuesday to read to Mrs. O'Connor's second graders and Ms. Beach's fourth graders!




Shaker Middle School's 8th grade performance groups took their show on the road to the Empire State Plaza! 8th Grade Chorus, Band and Orchestra all performed on the concourse on Wednesday, March 26, as part of the New York State Music Association's Music in Our Schools Month performances. About 175 SMS students sang and played for family in attendance as well as some legislators and state workers!

What a showing by Shaker Robotics! Known as Team 2791, Shaker Robotics made a great run the New York Tech Valley Regional competition at MVP Arena. Team 2791 went 6-3 in qualifying matches on Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29, advancing to the playoffs. Team 2791 captained Alliance 7, choosing Team 1493 (Albany Falcons Robotics) and Team 3950 (Robo Gym Robotics) as teammates. Alliance 7 went 3-0 in semifinal matches, advancing to the finals where they unfortunately lost. Congratulations to Shaker Robotics on an incredibly successful competition! #FirstLikeAGirl

We'd like to congratulate our North Colonie Kids Care recipients for March, Pavithra Jayakumar and Gopika Sarvepalli!
The Shaker High School seniors were recognized at the Board of Education meeting for their willingness to help other students in the music department. Both students have played the violin since fourth grade and once they got to the high school, they wanted to help underclassmen thrive. Pavi and Gopika proposed a tutoring program to help others practice violin and presented the idea to Music Department Supervisor Mrs. Deb Keough. With the help of SMS Music Teacher Ms. Desiree Burke (who nominated them) they launched an after school practice buddy system with SMS students and it has been a huge success! They meet with students every Wednesday to practice note reading, advance skill sets, prepare for the NYSSMA Solo Festival or simply find joy in playing their instruments. Congratulations Pavi and Gopika! And thank you!



We have some budding architects on our hands! In Innovation Lab this week, Southgate kindergartners designed and created playground equipment they thought would be fun. Students generated materials lists and engineered plans. They then built the equipment in partners. Their creations are now on display in the school's lobby!






Tonight the Shaker boys basketball team faces Port Washington in the battle for the Class AAA Championship! The Bison are just one win away from the title! Tip-off at 7:45 p.m. at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena. Good luck team!


Congratulations to our SHS artists! The SHS Art Department stole the spotlight at the 26th Annual High School Regional Juried Exhibition. The prestigious exhibition, at Albany Center Gallery, displayed more than 130 works from more than 500 submissions from school districts around the Capital Region. Congratulations to all 13 SHS students who had their works chosen! Our students earned six of the 18 awards handed out!
Haein Park - Savoring
Izzy Dischiavo - I Felt a Funeral Inside My Brain
Dominic Corey - City of Lights
Vivian Yang - The Goofy Goobers
Hana Kim - Icky (Juror's Choice Award)
Ava Papaleo - Success Kills Creativity (Juror's Choice Award)


Winter Break will run from Feb. 17 to Feb. 21. See you again Monday, Feb. 24.


North Colonie Central School District is closed today (Thursday, February 6, 2025) due to inclement weather.
