Thank You and Heads Up!

Budget Vote: On behalf of the Board of Education and all of our staff, I would like to personally thank our community for their overwhelming support of our 2013-2014 school budget. We do not take your support for granted, and we will continue to provide the excellence that you have come to expect at West Genesee.

Upcoming Road Project: On another note this is a heads up to let you know that Onondaga County has a very large road project that is about to begin on West Genesee Street between Parsons Drive and Route 173. We met with their engineers who were very friendly and informative. They also did not pull any punches.

This project is going to cause major inconveniences along West Genesee Street, particularly at the High School entrance and Vanida Drive, which is the main roadway to West Genesee Middle School, Stonehedge Elementary School, and the District Office.

As the construction begins, there will be lane closures and flag people. My suggestion is to prepare an alternative route to our facilities and plan for the possibility of additional driving time. We must keep in mind that this construction is the "price of progress" with the results being:

• additional sidewalks, 
• improved and safer driving lanes, traffic lights, crosswalks, and 
• drainage 

The construction is set to begin any day now with the high school and Vanida Drive areas affected first. The project could go deep into the fall and work will include Saturdays.

I hope to see all of you at Kaleidoscope tomorrow night at the Civic Center or at many of our sporting events today through Friday. If not, have a wonderful Memorial weekend and I will write again next week.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Chris

A Great Week to be a Wildcat!

I hope that you all enjoyed the beautiful weekend. Last week many great things happened.

Olympics are Special: First, many of our students attended the Special Olympics that were held at North Syracuse High School. My thanks go out to all of the organizers and to the host of this awesome event. If you haven't had the chance to attend the Special Olympics, you should take some time to attend if even for a half hour. Students compete in many different activities throughout the late morning and early afternoon. (Click here to view a short video of the event.)

I like to watch the students try their best, overcome obstacles, and then see their smiles as they show how very proud they are of their accomplishments. I like to think that I am pretty "tough" because of all that I have to deal with every day, but I have yet to leave with a dry eye and this was fourteen years and counting. I am proud of all who participated. Thanks for trying your best!

Seniors have a "Diamond Studded Affair": The Senior Ball was this weekend along with the After-the-Ball Party. The Ball itself was a very enjoyable affair. The students were great. It was like a big dinner party with some dancing afterwards.

Who was crowned King and Queen you ask? This class has been so enjoyable for all of the staff that ALL of the students were crowned King and Queen. This is the first time that I have seen this happen in all of my years in education. The after party was extremely well attended, as well.  I want to thank all of the organizers  for pulling it all together AND giving up their evening to help keep our students safe.

West Genesee CSD Phone App: Yes, there is an "App" for that.  If you have a smart phone and are interested in all things West Genesee, then you need to go to your App store and download the "West Genesee" App (Blackberry and Windows phone compatible coming soon).  The App allows you to completely customize what you receive from the school.  

• Twitter feeds, Facebook and blog posts, sports scores, calendars, SchoolTool, MySchoolBucks, Edmodo, and Blackboard among other things are available to users. (You can customize each section by clicking change/gear/icon in the top right of that page and selecting the appropriate category/school.)
• The APP is free. 
• To use it on an iPAD, download it from the App store as an iphone App, then use it on the iPAD in 1X (stays the size of the iphone screen) or 2X mode (to expand to the entire screen). Check it out!

Annual Budget Vote: Tuesday is a very important day for West Genesee. Voters will be considering our spending plan for the next school year and will also be electing Board of Education members. Please remember to take the time to vote from 6:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. at the high school auditorium. Your continued support is greatly appreciated!

Kaleidoscope/Days Off: Remember that Kaleidoscope is this Thursday night at the Civic Center downtown. Also, school is closed on Friday as well as the following Monday and Tuesday.

Have a wonderful week! Thanks!
Chris

Do You Believe in Miracles?

If you are well connected to our school community, you know that we lost one of our own late last week. Susan "Suzie" Wolfram, a volunteer and teacher aide at Stonehedge Elementary School, passed away from breast cancer. Sue was certainly an amazing person. She worked in the Stonehedge Blue Cafeteria, always wore a smile, had a funny story to share, and was heavily involved in the girls lacrosse program and Stonehedge PTA.

Last Thursday at the girl's JV and Varsity lacrosse games, a fundraiser was held for Sue. In between the two games, we received word that she had passed away. Within a minute of hearing the news, a double rainbow appeared over our turf field. Simply amazing! She will be truly missed in our community.

In my opinion, Charlie Miller from the Post Standard wrote the best piece about her life... click here to read it. Suzie would want us to celebrate the things we have and try to help those who need help. A true class act.

We experienced another miracle a week before in our high school. A 40 year old teacher went into full cardiac arrest at the end of the day on a Friday. He was found by a past graduate who stopped by to see this teacher. He summoned a nearby teacher and the nurse who immediately started CPR. Soon Camillus Police, Fairmount Fire, and WAVES Ambulance appeared to administer the AED on him. He was transported to the hospital where he is recovering. If that former student didn't stop to see him, we would be working through another loss. Simply incredible. A huge thank you to our school nurse, Camillus Police, Fairmount Fire Department, and WAVES Ambulance.

I have seen a lot in my fourteen years as Superintendent, but one thing that never gets old is the POWER of COMMUNITY. Our community can do some amazing things when the going gets tough and people need help. I am very proud to live and work here. Take some time this week to thank people who have helped you. Take some time this week to help someone else. Surprise someone with a random act of kindness!

I will get back to writing about testing, bus runs, graduation, awards nights, and concerts next week. There are other things to think about this week.

See you soon!

Chris

Creative Problem Solving

I hope that all of you had a chance to enjoy the fantastic weather over the weekend. It was a beautiful day for the Mountain Goat Run downtown, and I got to see so many of our community members that we probably could have had the run right in Camillus! Thanks to all who organized the event and also a special thanks to all of the emergency personnel who kept us safe. Very much appreciated.

Sporting Event Update: I had the opportunity to get to all of our sporting events last week including a stint in the varsity baseball dugout that caused my suit pants to go to the dry cleaner. Well worth it. I love baseball chatter, softball chants, and was happy I got to watch both my boys score in a track meet. Lacrosse is nearing the peak of the season, so if you want to see some of the best male and female players in New York State, check out the schedule from the link on the athletics page and get yourself to a game!

Students Excel: We also had an awesome Art Show at the high school for junior and senior artists. Much of the art was showroom quality and several parents want to purchase pieces from the students even though I don't believe they are for sale. Outstanding work!

Congratulations to Amelia Ryan from CMS who placed first to win the New York/New England District Optimist Oratorical Contest! Mark Kopp from WGMS also competed at that level and was a runner up. Both speeches were outstanding in a very tough competition. Great job to both of them.... They are pictured at left with their teachers, Erin Stepowany and Susan Marshall who coached them throughout the process.

Questions: Since I arrived in 2008 there have been two questions that I consistently receive from parents and staff:

1. Why do our buses have so few students on them?
2. How can additional time be created for middle school students who need extra help? 

These are both great questions and they have been taking up space in my brain for five years. I think we have found a great solution for both.

Transportation: First the transportation piece. We have 87 school buses covering about 90 square miles of the District each day. Our buses travel about 1,000,000 miles per year. We are required to transport students to private, charter, and parochial schools in the surrounding area, but for students traveling in-district, we try to keep the bus ride to 50 minutes or less.  Our elementary buses are generally full each day, but our middle school and high school buses have not been. If we try to consolidate bus runs, the travel time increases in-district to over an hour and in some cases up to an hour and a half.  This is not acceptable.

Interaction Time: Students in our high school have been able to receive extra help from teachers on an as needed basis for many years. This extra time has been very beneficial for the high school students and is officially called "Interaction Time".  We have been looking at a way to provide this exact same model at the middle schools.  Thanks to some very crafty work by our Director of Transportation Jerry Williams, we will be able to bring middle school and high school students to school and back home on the same buses each day.

This allows us to schedule an "Interaction Time" for our middle school students. A true win/win. Our buses will be full, and our middle school students will be able to receive additional help if they need it. As a bonus, middle school students will also have access to our computer labs, library, and Learning Centers if they need to use those resources as well.

Because middle school and high school students will be riding together, we are also able to adjust the start time for middle schools for next year.  Middle schools next year will begin at 7:30 a.m. and the regular day will end at 2:10 p.m..  "Interaction Time" will begin at 2:15 and will end at 2:50 p.m.. 

The high school and elementary school start times will remain unchanged for the 2013-2014 school year. We will evaluate this new initiative throughout the year and decide if we can make any changes to the elementary day for 2015. It will depend on exactly how long it takes each day to transport our middle school and high school students home.

We are very excited to accomplish these goals. Thanks to everyone in transportation, our administrators, our Shared Decision Making groups, and Parent/Teacher Organizations/Associations at the middle schools for helping us to work through these concepts. Middle school parents will be receiving more information from their building principals in the coming weeks.

A very busy but exciting week ahead. I hope to see you at the many upcoming events.

Take care-

Chris

Prom!

Great Weather is Finally Here...What an awesome weekend. Nice weather, the final Mountain Goat training run, driveway basketball,  yard cleanup, mowing and the Junior Prom. I even had a few minutes to swing my new golf clubs for the first time (I bought my last set in 1988 when I was 17!). I even used my trusty yellow pad to record my new yardages in my older age!

Prom and Senior Ball...As my wife and I rolled up to the Junior Prom on Saturday night, she reminded me that this was the 27th Junior Prom or Senior Ball that we have chaperoned together. Add in ALL of the other dances, events, and festivities that we have chaperoned together, I think we would qualify as professionals!

I always have it easy... I just put on a suit and tie and show up. My wife has had to find 27 (and soon 28 in a few weeks at the Senior Ball) different things to wear! We have had a blast chaperoning all of these events and Saturday night was no different. We had over 425 students in attendance and there was a variety of tuxes and dresses on our students. Not much has changed in this area over the years, but one thing that has changed is the music. I have a really open mind for music and enjoy most of what the students listen to. Where I struggle is how they dance. I have no moves. At all!

I get jealous when someone has taught the kids how to "Dougie", "Gangnam Style", or the "Wobble Dance", and all I can do is stand there and bob my head a little. Yes, I can Foxtrot, two-step, and even do the Harlem Shake. Those do not cut it today. I think I see some "professional development" in my future.

You should be proud at how our students represent themselves at our dances. They are polite, respectful, and have an appropriate good time. Next stop is the OnCenter for the Senior Ball! Thank you to all of the Junior Prom organizers and chaperones for another great time.

Now and Going Forward...Spring sports are winding down, and we are creeping ever closer to our Fine Arts event Kaleidoscope 38. This means that we are even closer to final exams and graduation.  Wow.

This week is fairly quiet.  Assessments are over, and I will be able to get back on my regular school visit schedule.

Have a great week!

Chris

Some GREAT Questions

Spring Sporting Events: Well, we had a pretty good week weather wise, and we were able to finally get some games in! On Wednesday we had every sport playing on our grounds except for JV baseball and Varsity track who were away. You should take an opportunity to come and watch our student athletes. Our facilities rival junior colleges, and our athletes are playing incredibly well. In fact, our girls lacrosse team is currently ranked number one in the state for Class A schools. Nice work!

Helping Others is Important: Over the weekend I attended another OUTSTANDING fundraiser for a student in one of our schools with some medical needs.  It is always amazing to see how quickly our community comes together to help some of our youngsters when they really need it.  I am very appreciative as well of all the volunteers that I saw working for a good cause. Thank you.

Q & A about Subjects from Previous Blogs: I have had some very good conversations and feedback from parents near and far regarding the two blogs that I recently posted about standardized testing, Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), and the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).  I would like to share a couple of the questions that were received and also clarify a couple of points.

Question: Can a child fail a grade if they do not perform well on a state standardized test?
Answer:  A child will not fail or advance a grade based on their standardized test score.

Question: Do students with disabilities have to take the NYS standardized tests? 
Answer: All students, including those with disabilities, are given the NYS standardized tests. If a student is profoundly disabled, they can be identified as testing exempt. That number is normally 2% or less of the ENTIRE student population. A student could be given support on the exam based on the level of disability and conditions that are prescribed in the child's Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

Question: How do you treat a child who just had a "bad test day"? 
Answer: This is a great question. West Genesee has a K-8 Response to Intervention Plan (RTI) for Math, English, Reading, and Writing. New York State requires that schools have to provide a Response to Intervention Plan (RTI Plan) for grades K-4 in English ONLY.  We chose to exceed this requirement two years ago so that we can better service ALL students.

If your West Genesee K-8 student has a "bad test day" on a NYS Assessment (otherwise known as test), we go to the other internal data points that we have collected throughout the years to make a very quick decision as to how much support that child needs moving forward.

The beauty of the K-8 RTI plan is that if a child needs help, they get it quickly and appropriately. If they do not need the help, they do not receive it. I often forget that thousands of people read these posts each week and many are from other schools and other states. I would recommend that you check with your particular school to see how extensive their RTI plans are. In my opinion, the comprehensive coverage that our plan provides gives students and teachers the most flexibility.

Flags at Half-Staff: Changing the subject, I also got a great question from a student regarding our flags. They wanted to know who can direct our flags to be flown at half-staff. This is an awesome question and made me realize that our flags seem to be at half-staff nearly as often as full-staff these days, and that our younger students do not know anything different.

ONLY the President of the United States, the Governor, and the Mayor of Washington D.C. (because D.C. does not have a Governor) can order flags to be flown at half-staff.  Anyone that flies a flag at half-staff on their own without receiving a direct order to do so, is in violation of the "Flag Code".  There are no "Flag Code" police, but most organizations try to be as respectful to the "Flag Code" as possible. Great question and learning opportunity for the students!

The weather is looking up again for this week. I should have all the diplomas signed, and we should be well into our graduation planning by the end of the week. We are almost to the end.

Have a great week!

Chris

Boston Marathon

Good Evening-

It goes without saying that the news coming out of Boston challenges our belief system. Our belief in our safety, our belief in what people are capable of, and our belief in where we go from here. On the other hand, many marathon runners crossed the finish line and immediately went to give blood, many race volunteers and emergency personnel ran TO the dangers that existed to help victims, and many race spectators and participants stayed in the restricted area to help those who were injured. Our Nation responds strongly and in a unified way when confronted. It is this confrontation that causes people, especially middle and high school students, to ask questions, feel uncomfortable, and wonder if we are indeed safe.

This is natural. If I learned one thing from being a superintendent on 9-11-2001, there will be a lot of information learned in the next 12-24 hours that will provide clarity to the situation (it is 8:20 p.m. on Monday evening as I write this blog). There will also be a lot of rumors and false story lines as well. Our staff will not add to that. We will listen to the students as this situation unfolds and answer questions that they might have. If they are having difficulty, we will make sure that they are referred to a counselor as we do with other situations that arise.

The Boston Marathon is a very popular and very well attended race. I am sure that a parent, student, or staff member was in attendance, so we just want to make sure that anyone who needs it gets the proper support that they need.

Thank you and let's hope for swift justice.

Chris