Shelter Island Reporter editorials
The 2014 Suffolk County Class D Volleyball champs with Assistant Coach Jim Theinert and Coach Cindy Belt celebrating
the school’s 11th consecutive title.
Champions
Something remarkable happened here recently, when a group of young people, skillfully taught and brilliantly led, achieved a measure of greatness.
The varsity volleyball team, coached by Cindy Belt and assisted by Jim Theinert, went undefeated in league play this year to take their division’s title.
A fine accomplishment, worthy of mention and praise.
What makes it remarkable, however, is that it was the sixth straight time Shelter Island girls took the title without a loss in the regular season and brought home a county championship for the 11th — yes, 11th — year in a row.
Coach Belt said at the beginning of the season that this would be a rebuilding year because graduation had taken many of the team’s best athletes.
But her dedication to her athletes, her constant example of hard work, poise, focus and taking joy in the sport, produced a phenomenal season.
More importantly, beyond wins and losses and championships, is that the team has an achievement that will stay with these girls and be a base of confidence for them for the rest of their lives.
We salute the girls of this great team and their leader. They gained the respect of their opponents every time they took the floor, and they have inspired Shelter Islanders with their displays of skill, character and spirit.
Straight A’s
The Shelter Island Board of Education got an A+ this week, from important judges — the people who examine the dollars and cents . A team from the Melville-based Nawrocki Smith accounting firm went over the school district’s books and came away giving the highest classification possible to the Shelter Island School District.
Another gold star was handed out for one of the most significant line items on the district’s ledger, what’s called in accountant-speak as “instruction related expenses.” This translates to exactly how much money was spent teaching children, and not clearing snow, landscaping and the 100 or more other expenses a school has to lay out to keep operating. More than three quarters of the total budget went into educating Island students.
For being fiscally responsible and for knowing where the best place to put taxpayers’ dollars is, the community owes a debt of gratitude to the Board of Education.
