A Great Long Weekend

I hope that you had a chance to enjoy the great weather we had over the long weekend. 

West Genesee Girls Tennis Dominates Section III Doubles Tournament: At the Section III girls tennis doubles events held on Monday, it was an all West Genesee final. The Wildcats held both championship slots when Samantha Heyn and Marisa Joyce took home the title. Congratulations girls! For more about the event, check out this article on syracuse.com by clicking here.

Marching Band Wins US Bands Competition: Our Marching Band had a great weekend. They traveled to the US Bands Competition in Virginia Beach, VA and won first place. They also received awards for best visual, color guard, percussion, music, and overall effect. Our band director, Michael Stachnik, received the award for favorite band director. Not sure how much more they could have done. They certainly capitalized on the opportunity they were given to compete!

Christmas Lights and Fire Safety: I did a ton of things over the weekend, but one of the highlights was getting my Christmas lights hung. Why would this be a highlight?  Hanging Christmas lights is terrifying for me. 

When I was a volunteer firefighter years ago, we rolled up to a colonial home that had smoke pouring from the windows. Four of my teammates took a hose and went inside the home to search for occupants and to start to apply water at the source of the fire. Another firefighter and I went to the roof of the garage to cut a hole in the side of the house to provide a vent for the heat and hopefully allow us to save the house. As I completed the cut, the hole that I made blew open and fire, heat, and steam billowed out. I was immediately burned beneath my nomex hood, and I became disoriented and needed to get off the roof in a hurry. With the house being more involved than we originally thought absolute panic set in, but somehow my partner and I made it back to the ladder and down to the ground. 

Every year when I have to go back on the roof to hang lights (leaders can NEVER back down to fear), all I think about is that night so when I get them done, I feel very relieved! If you are a neighbor don’t worry, I won’t turn them on for quite a while.
(As October is Fire Prevention Month, CMS students at left had the opportunity to listen to Jordan Davie from the Camillus Fire Department talk about fire safety during Fire Safety Week.) 

What Students are Talking About: During my building travels I try to get a handle on what students are thinking about, worrying about, and talking about so that I can make sure I am up to speed. Periodically, I try to relay those things to you so you can stay “hip” like me (or so we think)!

• Elementary students are still into the movie Frozen, and I could not be happier about that.  
• Middle school students are into a series on the FX channel called American Horror Story.  I was not aware of this series so I had to check it out.  It reminded me of the 1980’s remakes of The Twilight Zone series. Quirky stories with interesting characters and scenes.  
• Middle school students are also into anything Taylor Swift (kids really like her music or they really don’t and have no problem telling you so).

High School students are into some interesting things right now, and I have enjoyed my recent visits. 

• They are concerned about Ebola (I think we all are), and ISIS (I think we all are).  
• They are moving away from Facebook and more into Instagram and Twitter (look up the term sub-tweet and spring that on them at dinner and see your teenager “cred” rise).  
• They love Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, and more and more of them are into county music (I am starting to warm up to a few country songs). 

Because communication is so important with our children, feel free to use a few of these topics if you are looking to fill up some dead space while driving them to the mall!

This is getting to be book like and that goes against blog rules! I do want to give a Capital Project update as well as some other information, so I will probably send something else out later in the week.

Thanks and let’s have a great week!

Chris