Councilman Mark Mayoka and his fellow Board Members at the March 22, 2011 Town Board Meeting celebrated Cold Spring Harbor High School's record setting status for the largest number of students to receive the National Merit Scholarship commendation in over 10 years.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is a prestigious academic scholarship competition for recognition that began in the United States in 1955 and committed to maintaining the highest standards earning a reputation for quality and integrity.  The National Merit Scholarship's goals have remained constant since its inception, which are to identity and honor academically talented United States High School students, to stimulate increased support for their education and to provide efficient and effective scholarship program management for organizations that wish to sponsor college undergraduate scholarships.

Cold Spring Harbor High School, out of 1.5 million students nationally and 2,800 students from New York State sent Letters of Commendation, 14 students from Cold Spring Harbor received Letters of Commendation, 6 received National Merit Finalist recognition and 1 was the recipient of the College Board National Hispanic Recognition Program 2010-2011 Scholar. Each of these recipients took anywhere between three and seven Advanced Placement classes and were involved in a minimum of four activities, including sports or extracurricular clubs.