How Sweet It Is!

The year was 1994 and "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)" by James Taylor was playing at my wedding, The Lion King and Forrest Gump were released, and Justin Bieber was born. In Camillus, New York, the Girls Varsity Basketball team was in the New York State Final Four, and the Camillus Mall was still around.

The Final Four: It is very sweet to be celebrating the Varsity Girls Basketball team as they advanced to the New York State Final Four with a win over Colonie on Saturday morning. None of the players were alive the last time this happened, but they are determined to make their mark in the history of West Genesee Central School District; and why not? The team is solid, top to bottom and has Coach of the Year Stafford Spreter at the helm, and a great supporting cast of assistants.

They play their semi-final championship game this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at Hudson Valley Community College, and the championship game is next Sunday at 10:00 a.m. To wish them well on their quest to make West Genesee history, I would ask everyone to wear their West Genesee gear on Friday (if your boss needs a special note, let me know)!

Music in our Schools: March is Music in our Schools month and it hasn't disappointed. Our musicians and teachers hosted the 50th Festival of Bands, as well as the 7-12 Choral Festival over the past two weeks. Those two concerts alone featured nearly 800 of our students with more concerts and recitals on the way!

One West Genesee senior, Joanna Maressa, was featured recently on Carrie Lazarus's special titled Extraordinary Talent. She plays the violin and fiddle and will be attending Johns Hopkins University on a full scholarship to study engineering. She is passionate about her craft. How passionate? When we were going through the recession years ago, third grade Joanna came to my office and played her violin to try and change my mind about having to reduce the third-grade strings program. I was not able to accommodate her request, unfortunately, but even at a young age she was determined, and I certainly appreciate that!  Congratulations to Joanna! Click here to view a video or her appearance on Extraordinary Talent: http://www.localsyr.com/news/extraordinary-talent-of-the-week/extraordinary-talent-of-the-week-joanna-maressa/1014560673.

School Safety Task Force: District Attorney William Fitzpatrick tapped me to lead a countywide subcommittee for teachers, students, and parents as a part of the larger countywide School Safety Task Force. The goal of the task force, in general, is to create some guidelines for schools around the county for teacher and student training with regards to safety, better-securing schools, and figuring out how to get funding for schools to accomplish all of these tasks. We have held our own forum about safety, but I will likely try to offer one for parents, staff, and students around the county to attend if I can find a big enough venue. The committee hopes to be wrapped up by the end of the school year.

Students Stand Strong: This Wednesday is the "National Student Walkout Day". Students from around the country are scheduled to walk out of school at 10:00 a.m. to hopefully encourage Congress to help not to have another school shooting. The walkout is scheduled to last 17 minutes.

I met with elected members of our student body to ask them their thoughts and they wanted to organize something non-political by holding a remembrance for the 17 people killed in Parkland, Florida on February 14.

The Supreme Court Case Tinker vs. Des Moines case in the 1960's established that while students have a right to organize around a cause, school districts have a right to establish a time and place. The students were mature beyond their years and I am satisfied with their plan; so we are giving them a time and place.

I am most concerned about student safety, so we sent a letter home to high school parents only, have asked the media to stay away from school grounds until 10:30 a.m., and have worked with the Camillus Police to provide assistance. Students can voluntarily participate or not, and our staff are volunteering to be with the students who choose to participate while other will be with the students who choose not to. I think it will go well and I will write about it next week. There will be no additional information shared publicly at this time.

Thanks and have a wonderful week!

Chris