LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

As you may know, our team that has been working on the capital project plans (architect, construction management, and financial advisors) made a visit recently to the State Education Department (SED) to discuss our thoughts and plans relative to the project. Unfortunately, the meeting did not go as well as anyone would have hoped for, in large part due to the SED representatives not being prepared. Despite the district working for several months to prepare to information and documents for them, and having delivered the information a month prior to the meeting; the SED staff had not taken the time to review the information that had been provided. While we were not able to receive the information from SED that we were hoping to obtain, we were able to learn a lot about the process, expectations, and determine a better strategy to maximize our needs. While the group at SED was understanding of the need to improve Staley, and agreed that most likely a new building was needed; they were

This week marks the annual anniversary of honoring and remembering one of our nation's greatest leaders and role models, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One of the most impressive things about Dr. King's leadership is that he was not an individual appointed to a leadership position, or elected, or managing a company like a CEO. He was an ordinary man who firmly believed that good could triumph over evil. He believed those words in our Declaration of Independence when our nation's creators wrote that, "All men are created equal." He believed that no matter what walk of life you came from, you were worthy of greatness, liberties, freedoms, and happiness. It was Dr. King's ideals, passion for advocating for others, and his positivity that built his legion of followers. That's what made him a leader. It was his vision and undying desire to make the world around him a better place. Fast forward all these years and our nation is still clouded in the veil of racis

As we move through the winter months, our students and teachers begin to gear for the traditionally dreaded State assessments. However, these assessments were not always traditionally dreaded. It was a very unfortunate event when the State connected them to teacher evaluation, made them longer, and placed significant constraints on them all in exchange for federal dollars to help solve a fairly large financial problem for New York. Prior to that event (roughly 10 years ago now), the State assessments were common place and had been occurring for decades without any concern or complaint. The entire narrative changed in that single moment when the assessments were connected to teacher evaluation, and rightfully so. However, since that moment, many things have changed regarding the assessments, but the narrative remains the same. They are no longer counted toward evaluation, they are untimed, and they are two days long instead of three. Also, they are written by New York State teachers

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2019!! January marks National Mentoring Month in our country. As you may know, Rome City Schools has one of New York State's strongest organized mentoring programs through the State government. Over the past 4 years of developing the program, we have evolved into a model program for the State and are mentioned consistently as a community that others should model. Why is this? It is due to the massive amount of individuals that give their time each week for our little ones. Beyond just the individuals that work with our kids through this program, our community is filled with individuals that give their time, money, and care for others within the community. More than ever, our children need mentors, idols, or heroes. Let's face it, when we are all growing up, the person we looked up to the most was considered a hero to us. The unfortunate part is that most of us have never met our hero because we chose someone famous from another part of