Happy New Year...

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Welcome to 2017 everyone!! I wish everyone out there a very happy and wonderful New Year!! Hopefully the past 10 days have provided many memories, enjoyment, rest, and time with family. As we look forward to the remainder of the school year, we have Regents exams upcoming for our high school students, musical season, the remainder of the winter athletics seasons, and of course the development of the 2017-2018 budget. None of that even involves the myriad of outstanding events and activities that occur in the Spring. As we enter into the second half of the school year, I look forward to continued collaboration with the community and our stakeholders, as well as the continued growth within our individual buildings. One of the greatest concern for every parent and student within today's society is the amount of testing that our students face during the course of their schooling. I'm not so sure that there is more testing than when we were all students and that the testing phenomenon isn't just a bunch of 'media hype', but it is a concern and I will continue to urge our teachers to find alternate methods of assessment and checking for understanding. After all, more than 95% of all testing time is school district imposed; not due to standardized testing. I challenged our faculty in September to think outside the box and become New York's leader in innovative educational practices, and I stand by that today. Our kids deserve our best effort every day, let's give it to them in the second half!! Have a safe, happy, and healthy 2017 everyone!!

Dialogue Events 

The Dialogue with the Superintendent events will be wrapping up in the coming week with 2 more events scheduled (Wednesday, January 4 @ Early Childhood and Monday, January 9 @ Ridge Mills). These events are district wide events so if you missed any of the previous sessions, please do not hesitate to attend one of these final two evenings. Or, if you have attended before and want to attend again to ask more questions, please feel free. Both evenings will begin at 6:00 p.m. For more information, please contact the district office.


Continued Communication


 During my first 6 months on the job, one of the things that I have enjoyed has been the level of communication coming from the community to the district office. Most of the communication is in regard to concerns or issues, but that is good. We cannot address things that are not reported. Beyond just the fact that the community is bringing concerns forward, those same individuals have been extremely helpful in reaching positive resolutions in each situation. The level of collaboration that we have seen has been great. Please continue to communicate with us as we want to continue to move forward with all initiatives. 


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