I hope that all of you were able to enjoy the one nice day of the weekend. Fortunately, that day was the day of our oldest son's college graduation party (I still cannot believe that I am old enough to be the parent of a college graduate).
STEM and Rockets: It was also a great day to do some physics, build, and launch rockets for a group of West Genesee Middle School and Stonehedge Elementary students! The MOST and Syracuse University sponsored a very cool Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Day at Skytop near Manley Field House called the CNY Rocket Team Challenge.
Lead by fifth-grade teacher Brian Ramsden who "coached" all five of our teams, the kids had a blast (pun intended) and learned something. Let's hope for more days in the near future when we can launch rockets instead of wearing raincoats!
National Spelling Bee Update: West Genesee Middle School eighth grader Ava Propper finished 41st out of 148 spellers from across the country in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I really appreciate all of the recognition she has received from you, local businesses, and our school community. She represented us, and most importantly herself, very well, and we wish her the best as she finishes up the school year.
Athletics Update: We still have athletes in competition this late in the year. The following West Genesee Girls/Boy Track and Field athletes are going on to the state championships beginning Friday at Union-Endicott: Evan Tuthill in discus; the Wildcats Girls 4x400 relay team; Meg Delia in 400 hurdles; and Emily Young in 800 meter.
West Genesee Golfers Dylan Plis and Joe Morgan finish up round two of the NYS Championship today at Cornell. Fantastic dedication and effort by these student athletes!
Fine Arts Recognitions: Congratulations to all students who participate in our Fine Arts programs. We held our Fine Arts awards Reception last week and Julia Musengo and Nick Cantello each received the "Outstanding Musician Award". Knowing the competition, being recognized for this honor is a "big deal" at West Genesee. Congratulations as well to all of the other award winners!
Operating More Efficiently: You may have heard or read that Onondaga County has been assembling groups of Town Supervisors and Mayors to look at ways to operate more efficiently. Soon, you are going to see a similar meeting promoted (being on the committee is by invitation only) for school districts. Paul Pelton (Assistant Superintendent for Management Services) and I will be representing West Genesee at the table. We do feel that we are running very efficiently, but if there is power in a larger group to be even more efficient through sharing more services than we already do; I am all ears.
Special Messages: As students and staff entered the high school this morning, they were greeted with individualized "post-it" notes with different messages for each and every student. This has been a tradition that has gone on for a few years here and credit goes to our Respect and Responsibility Club, and our administrator in charge, Ms. Coholan. What is always remarkable to me is the dedication (students wrote these notes for months and then hung them over the weekend), how personalized they are, and how long they remain hanging on lockers and classroom doors. This is a super positive project, and my hat goes off to all involved.
A busy Week: This week is incredibly busy. Not only is it the last week of classes for the high school, we have the senior academic awards tonight, the Corporate Challenge on Tuesday night (we have almost one hundred fifty employees participating, and we won a $1,500 scholarship for a graduating senior), board meeting on Wednesday night, and the Athletics Reception on Thursday night. Quite a week ahead, but it is all positive.
Thanks, stay dry, and enjoy the week.
Chris
STEM and Rockets: It was also a great day to do some physics, build, and launch rockets for a group of West Genesee Middle School and Stonehedge Elementary students! The MOST and Syracuse University sponsored a very cool Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Day at Skytop near Manley Field House called the CNY Rocket Team Challenge.
