LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

A few years ago, we were fortunate enough to welcome a guest speaker to Rome who spoke about diversity and working to understand how it is important to recognize the background of your students when trying to educate them. This speaker was nationally renowned principal, Baruti Kafele. He regularly goes by "Principal Kafele" and is best known for his work as a principal in the inner city schools of New Jersey and his professional development programs centered on educating black students and social justice. Recently, I had an opportunity to listen to Principal Kafele speak again at as part of the district's joint-equity efforts with the Rome Teacher's Association and he spoke about the definition of social justice education, from his perspective. He defines social justice education as: "the ongoing student-centered exploration, examination, and assessment of the world upon which your students exist through their own lens . It's an interdisciplinary critical an...

The past week has brought much optimism for a return to normalcy for public schools throughout the nation and New York State. The CDC has made revisions to their guidance documents for the re-opening of schools, and New York State has taken a stance that they are supportive of students returning to in-person learning as much as possible. In the CDC guidance, they have metrics for community positivity rates on a 7-day average that will allow schools to re-open for full in-person learning if desired. Traditionally, New York State and the State Department of Health have required schools to "adopt" the CDC recommendations prior to being able to implement them; however, there appears to be a change, of course, this time around and the Governor is placing the responsibility for a full re-opening of schools on local governments. There are many reasons why this is a positive for our community and we have already begun talks with Oneida County and the State regarding full-time in-pers...

As most of you know, February marks Black History Month in our country and it is not a secret that our country has been through a lot over the last 12 months between the pandemic, issues of racial injustice, and differences bred from on of the most tense presidential elections in our history. Black history month is a time when we can all take a moment to learn about aspects of our nation's past that have been largely absent from text books of the past. Many people are well aware of the super famous throughout history, the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, and Barrack Obama. These names are easy to recognize and their accomplishments easy to know. For every individual that we may be aware of and may know their accomplishments, there are many more behind the scenes who have worked every day to make their lives and all lives better. Many Americans are well aware of the tragedies of our nation's past and the injustices that have existed. That's not...