Capital Project Menu...

-
On Wednesday, September 18, our district's capital improvement project team will be presenting an update on possible capital project ideas for this year in Rome Free Academy's small auditorium. While many of the things that will be presented/discussed, there are some adjustments from the presentation that was held for the Board of Education in August. Most notably, since that time, the State Education Department (SED) Office of Facilities Planning has once again shifted course on the district. After directing us last year that they would no longer aid repairs for our current stadium facility, they have changed course and informed us that they will continue to aid this facility, meaning there is no need to move it from a financial perspective. With this news, the team has edited this item of the project to maintain the stadium, track, and field at the current sight. This adjustment alone will save our community a tremendous amount of money and we are hopeful that SED will continue to have this opinion of aiding our projects well into the future. A second major difference to be presented this week is a new proposal to add 4 classrooms, enlarge the gymnasium, library, and cafeteria at both Ridge Mills and Stokes schools. The project was already in the planning phases to be brought forward in a few years, however after discussions with the Board of Education, it became obvious that we should at least investigate the cost and possibility of this project moving forward now. The remaining concepts that will be presented are similar to the previous presentation: addition of space at Clough school to replace the current Staley, improvement to all elementary school entrances to make them more secure, general building condition survey items at RFA, and athletic complex improvements at the current RFA sight. At this point, the district still has not received potential aid figures from SED, which will make most of the discussion this coming Wednesday somewhat superficial if we don't have the ability to provide concrete financial figures. However, it's still important to discuss what could be done and what the worst case scenario financial impact could be. During the presentation, the goal is not for anyone to make decisions, but simply to hear what needs to be done district wide and begin to prioritize what can be done in the immediate future. The process is truly one of presenting a menu of options, and determining which ones need to be done, can be done, and/or should be done. We also anticipate that the referendum vote will also be conducted in a similar format. Finally, one of the largest differences between this project proposal and projects of the past is that our new team is attempting to start the cycle where each project provides something of improvement to every building in the district for maintenance purposes. Instead of waiting 20 years to do maintenance and then needing to renovate an entire building, we are trying to get into a cycle where general maintenance is done on every building on a more frequent schedule, ultimately over time consuming less resources for the district to keep state of the art resources. 

Foster Parenting

Did you know, that more than 500,000 children nationwide are living without their birthparents? Foster parenting is a growing need in our country and if you are interested in learning more, there is an opportunity to do so locally. The Rome Family YMCA, in conjunction with Fostering Futures, will be hosting an information session on becoming a foster parent on Tuesday, October 1, from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. More information is also available by visiting www.nnychildrenshome.com

Food Pantries


Bellamy Elementary, and now Gansevoort Elementary, both have a community marketplace for families to receive goods that they may be in need of. Both marketplaces contain food, clothing, and other household items that may be needed. Each marketplace is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m., and are available to any family in the community. In order to enter the building, please make sure you have photo identification, and someone will assist you with accessing the marketplace. 


After School Bowling

King Pin Lanes, located on East Dominick Street, will be providing after school bowling opportunities for students and families throughout the fall. The program will run from October 3 through December 5 and entails bowling on Thursdays from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. The cost is $7.00 per bowler and the pricing includes two games and shoes per week, a pizza party on the last week, and participation medals for all who participate. For more information, you can check out King Pin on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/kingpinlanesrome or via email (kingpinl@twcny.rr.com) 

Popular posts from this blog

It Takes A Village...

-
Image
 We all know the old phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child." One can reflect on the phrase and find a few different ways to interpret its meaning, however, it cannot be argued that when groups of people work together to help their children grow, success is more likely. To me, I view this phrase as referencing that there is someone within every community that a child can connect with to help them feel a part of their school and/or community. It may not be their classroom teacher or their principal. It may be a bus driver, a coach, a teaching assistant, secretary, custodian, food service worker, music teacher, art teacher, computer specialist, monitor, etc. The list can go on and on. Why mention this? Well, currently, one of the largest and most important educational research projects in our nation's history is occurring with some of the leading educational experts researching what education needs to be by the year 2025. Education 2025 is producing information that m
Read more

Finish Strong...

-
Image
It is that time of year where many schools, teachers, and students want to "coast" to the finish line. A lot like that NFL team that has their playoff birth locked up weeks before the end of the season so they start resting players to avoid potential injury as the regular season comes to an end; some schools have traditionally modeled this mentality. Difference being is that we are in a race, not a season. In a race, if you let up at the end, your final outcome/product will suffer. Even if you are in first place in the race, you don't slow down as you approach the finish line do you? You don't see the jockey on the thoroughbred pulling on the reins so that the team doesn't set a time record. Those thoughts would be unthinkable. So why do we pull up the flaps at the end of the school year on our kids' learning opportunities. Yes, the weather is nice. Yes, it's been a long year. Yes, we've just made it through State testing and AP testing. But, we only
Read more

I Had A Dream...

-
Image
Once upon a time, when we all began our careers or started a new position/school, we had dreams. Dreams of what we wanted to accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our students accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our school communities achieve. Throughout my travels though, I have seen more adults tell students that should lower their expectations and downsize their dreams. Unfortunately, I would say that the ratio of adults encouraging students and adults discouraging students is close to 1:1 in my career. I ask, would you be where you are today without someone throughout your educational life encouraging you to pursue your dreams? As with many things in our schools, we need to focus on the positives that are happening and capitalize on them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country, and while his dream was related to equal rights and oppression, his intended message of having a dream and working tirelessly to achieve it can be applied universally in society. Recently,
Read more