Here we go!

A Great Labor Day Weekend: I hope that each of you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. I had a great time (minus the traffic jam) being a part of the largest single day crowd of the New York State Fair in history! 

We almost had a brush with greatness right in Camillus as well. The popular country band, Florida Georgia Line, and CBS Sports were working with us to use our turf field to create a promotional commercial for the network before their state fair concert on Saturday. The band wasn't quite ready with the lyrics for the promotional song, so they had to cancel. Judging from the sound of the crowd at their concert, all of their other songs came across just fine!

Baldwinsville Superintendent will be Missed: On Friday night while sitting at the edge of my seat at the Syracuse football game, I received a text message that recently retired Baldwinsville superintendent, Jeanne Dangle, had passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was a colleague and friend. 

She worked tirelessly to provide students in her community with opportunities. Equally unfortunate was the timing. She had just retired, and she had plans to do some things in retirement. The lesson is to live every day to the fullest, no regrets, and to make a lasting impression as she did. She will be missed.

New School Year with a Changing Community: We are ready for business and could not be more excited to begin school tomorrow. Please remember that Tuesday is a half-day for students. Then we ramp right up to full-days for students for the rest of the week. 

On opening day I spoke about our changing community, and how we as a District need to adjust to our changing population. We have gotten more diverse (for over eighty of our children, English is their second language, if they speak English at all), more families are struggling financially, and there are more cases of drug use in our community. 

At the same time, there are families who have lived here for generations and they expect the same out of West Genesee academically as they did twenty years ago. We have to do a better job of accommodating ALL needs and are working to do so this year. We are excited to continue to remain at the top no matter what challenges and opportunities present themselves.

Our event schedule is heating up, and I hope to see you around.

Enjoy this first week of school-

Chris