Purpose, Movement, Color

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated three years before I was born. As I was growing up and had to research influential people, the life and work of Dr. King was always a choice. I certainly learned about the civil rights movement, and how influential his work was to the lives of wrongfully oppressed people. However, as I got older, I began to realize even more how his leadership style allowed his movement to be so powerful.

For starters he was a man with a purpose. His purpose was to allow people of color to have the same freedoms that everyone else had. All too often in modern politics we see pulpit pounding blowhards who use their voices to threaten, intimidate, and influence to try to move their agendas forward. Dr. King used his voice to communicate his purpose. People heard the purpose and helped to turn the purpose into a movement (probably one of the earliest forms of crowd-sourcing I can think of).

This movement was powerful and has benefited ALL people today, not just African-Americans. In my humble opinion, a day off of school is the LEAST that should be done to recognize one of the most influential people in history.

An Eventful Week: Last week was had another great week.

• A well attended career fair at West Genesee Middle School, 
• MANY of our students won awards at the 2015 Scholastic Art competition held at Onondaga Community College,  
• we confirmed our date and time for graduation this spring (June 20 at 1:00 p.m. in case you were wondering), and 
• we also had a very successful community forum where people were able to ask me questions about topics that they were interested in. A special thank you to the West Genesee PTA/PTO District Council for hosting the event.

A Busy Time with Academics: Right now we are headed into mid-term and Regents week at the high school as well as creating the master schedules for all of our buildings. These tasks and events signify that we are already at the half way point of the school year already!

Budget Season is Here: As we enter the budget season, I want to familiarize you with a few things that you will be hearing about in the media regarding both state and local politics. If you would like any additional information about these topics please feel free to contact me.

• Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) - Schools are fighting to have their state funding restored to pre-recession levels. The amount of money that was deducted from the state to schools was called the "GEA" so that the amount could be easily seen and accounted for. Fast forward to today and the state is sitting on a large surplus of monies. School proponents feel that the "GEA" should go away, restoring money to schools. We will see.

• Veteran's Exemption -West Genesee Central School District recently passed a special tax exemption for veterans. If you are or know a veteran make sure that they register to receive the benefit BEFORE March 1, 2015.

• Tax Cap and Tax Rebates - The governor has established a maximum amount, by formula, that schools can raise their tax levy's. West Genesee has remained and will create a budget that will remain below this tax cap. Because of this, our residents will be eligible for any tax cap related tax rebates that the governor may make available.

Thanks for reading, continue to stay warm, and have a great week!

Chris