Down to Business

For some school districts a Strategic Plan is a document that sits in a desk drawer and comes out when someone asks if they have a Strategic Plan. At West Genesee, the Strategic Plan and the process surrounding creation of the plan, are two of the most important things that the District does each year. Our plan takes shape for the 2012-13 school year this Thursday and Friday. The Strategic Planning committee consists of administrators, staff, students, and Board of Education members.

Focus areas are prescribed as well as the beginning of action plans on how to achieve the goals established in each Focus Area. Items and cross-cutting themes that make their way to the Strategic Plan are also funded through the budget process so that they have a chance of being successfully completed. Some areas that point directly back to the Strategic Plan are our graduation rates, completion rates, strides in technology, assistance for students with special needs and students at-risk for other reasons, and our anti-bullying efforts.

A complete list of what we have been working on can be found on our website by clicking here. Our new plan will be posted by the end of February.  A big thank you goes out to Debbie Geiss, Brian Kesel, Sharon Seeley, Bonnie Russell, Bill Roberge, Deb Chynoweth and all others who make the strategic planning process work as smoothly as it does.

In other news, at the rate that we are selling tickets our winter musical, The Sound of Music, is looking to be sold out for each performance. The musical will be held on February 9-11, and 500 tickets were sold the first day they went on sale. Please remember that we have reserved seating and you can get your tickets by clicking here or go to the etix.com web site where you can select any open seat in the house.  After you select the show day and time you want, check the "View Seating Chart" link in the upper right hand part of the next page to see the actual auditorium layout. Choose the section where you would like to sit on the actual chart on the "BUY" page. Each seat that is open will come up as an orange dot. You can then print your tickets at home for free or have them mailed to you for a fee from etix. 

I would also like to thank all of the people currently following me on Twitter for their quick response in helping to spread the word about our snow day last Friday. People who have been around for a while know that I like to call snow days as early as possible, and Friday's weather crept up on us MUCH more quickly than anticipated and just as high school students were making their way to bus stops to be picked up for the morning run.

When I first made the announcement on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/cbrownwgcsd) I asked everyone to spread the word and everyone did by the hundreds. In fact, News Channel 9 responded to my Tweet before we were able to get a call into them. This is the exact use of social media that I was hoping for as it really showed that people come together when they need to. Thank you. My apologies also to those who made it out to their bus stop or out onto the roads already. Again, it was a very unusual day.

Tonight (Tuesday) is the Dialogue with the Superintendent. I am not talking about myself in the third person, this is the title of the event!  It is sponsored and supported by all of the Parent Teacher/Student Organizations and Associations in the District. It will be held at the high school in the large group instruction room from 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Attendees get a chance to hear what is happening in the District and then anonymously have questions submitted to me to answer. This is always a great time to interact, and I always look forward to this opportunity to meet with the community.

Lastly, the minutes from the redistricting meeting are located on our website by clicking here. The next meeting will be held at West Genesee Middle School (please note the location change) on February 2 at 6:30 p.m..

Have a great week-

Chris