Mid-Summer Update

I hope that you have been able to enjoy some of the weather so far this summer. I know we have had a hot stretch recently but on the positive side I have not had to mow the lawn for four weeks! I will try to do a better job at hiding my excitement about that next time.

We are plugging away here at work on several different things. To keep all of you in the loop I have included all of our projects below with all of the information that I have about them as of today. As we enter August I will be getting back into my normal blog schedule of at least one post per week, so stay tuned and see you around town.

Student Dignity Task Force

Our group last met right before the end of the school year to begin to develop a policy to be used as part of the Dignity For All Students Legislation. We also confirmed that we will be using the Olweus Anti-Bullying Program K-12. This summer Mr. Burns and I have been drafting the sample policy so that the committee can make final edits via e-mail and we can move forward quickly with the policy adoption process when everyone returns this fall. 

Mr. Burns and I are also meeting with Penny Williams who is going to coordinate our training and implementation efforts for the Olweus program. The training process will take this school year to complete and the program will be rolled out for the beginning of the 2012 school year. While this sounds like a long way off, it really isn't considering the state has not fully defined exactly what the program has to contain to meet their mandates.

Modified Sports

As you know, part of our $5.63M in budget reductions for the 2011-2012 school year was $75K in modified sports. The middle schools were scheduled to have one modified team for both middle schools instead of one team for each school. A group of parents, led by John Petosa, is working to raise the $75K necessary to have the full modified slate for this school year and their active efforts have been paying off (no pun intended). They are very hopeful to have enough money raised to save the modified sports teams for the 2011-2012 school year and are fully aware that this will have to continue through at LEAST the 2012-2013 school year because of the tax cap that Governor Cuomo recently put into place.  Actor Alec Baldwin has pledged $25K for the effort as well. People looking to donate to the cause can head to http://www.savemodifiedsportsatwg.com/ for more information.

Tax Cap

The tax cap for the 2012-2013 school year means that we can raise school taxes by 2% or the cost of inflation; which ever is LESS. Right now the cost of inflation is 1.6%. This will mean that we will need to cut AT LEAST another $1M from the 2012-2013 budget (believe it or not we are already working on that budget) in order to stay within the cap. We have been nationally recognized for our innovative cost saving efforts, and we are going to have to continue to make difficult but economy adjusting decisions moving forward. We are working on some ideas that I will share with you, once I am able, that will help to make a significant dent in closing the gap but unfortunately there will be tougher decisions ahead.

Board Candidates

The Board of Education is seeking applicants for an open position with a term that expires at the end of next school year. A letter of interest and/or resume needs to be into Paul Pelton (300 Sanderson Drive, Camillus, NY 13031 or ppelton@westgenesee.org, or 487-4563) by August 12 to be considered for an interview by the Board of Education at their meeting on August 17.

Transportation

As you might remember, the New York State Education Department charged each school with the task of placing more students on buses, making transportation more efficient, and reducing the number of bus runs.  Jerry Williams in our Transportation Department has been working with his staff to accommodate this directive. We will be using a shuttle system to help transport students attending private and parochial schools, and we also had to change the length of some of our bus runs as well as drop off and pick up points. We are very appreciative for all of you who turned in your transportation request form (we had over 90% of the forms returned) because it really helped us to create bus runs that are reasonable and reliable. 

The transportation staff will be sending a letter home to private and parochial school families shortly inviting them to participate in a "test run" day so that they can see how their children will be transported each day. This "test run" day will be held later in August and we are hopeful that parents participate because we are in a position where we will have limited flexibility to make changes because the New York State Education Department is mandating this rearrangement of transportation services.

School Calendar

Bonnie Russell has done a wonderful job once again on our annual school Events Calendar and Information Guide.  Since we are using our technology resources more and more, this calendar will be one of the very few pieces of paper correspondence that we will be sending out (the online version of the calendar is now available from the home page of the web site or directly at www.calendarwiz.com/westgenesee).  Be on the lookout for the Events Calendar and Information Guide to come home the first day of school with your child and thanks again to Bonnie!

Chris

Position Available for Board of Education

The West Genesee Central School District is seeking interested candidates to fill a current vacancy on the Board of Education. The Board of Education will be interviewing interested candidates in late August and making an appointment in September. 


For more information please contact Paul E. Pelton at (315) 487-4563, or ppelton@westgenesee.org,  or submit a resume and/or letter of interest to West Genesee Central District, Attention District Clerk, 300 Sanderson Drive, Camillus, New York 13031.

Early Summer Check-In

I hope that all of you are getting some time to relax so far this summer.  I have been able to take a couple of much needed days off to recharge and now I am ready to work straight through until the start of the school year to make sure that everything is in good shape to start the year. 

We ended the year on a very positive note in spite of the budget challenges that we faced. Our initial high school graduation results are very favorable with a few students completing some summer school work that will be factored into the overall results at the end of August. I would project our Regents graduation rate to be in the neighborhood of 98% or a little higher and our completion rate to be at 90% or greater (State averages for both are in the 60% range).

Summer School looks different for us this year. To save money we have decided to share Summer School with our local BOCES and invite Onondaga Central, Westhill, Solvay, and Marcellus to join West Genesee Students at West Genesee Middle School for Summer School courses.  Admittedly, BOCES is still working on a traffic flow pattern that works most efficiently but that should be ironed out by the end of the week.  Classes in general are running smoothly as well as the many town camps that use our facilities.

Community member John Petosa is actively leading a group of citizens to try to raise the money necessary to restore the athletic cuts that were made for next year. The group needs to raise approximately $70,000 and they have been working through e-mail campaigns, flyers, and a website (http://http://www.savemodifiedsportsatwg.com/), where donations can be made.  This is not in any way affiliated with the school as New York State Law strictly prohibits soliciting by or in school districts. My personal opinion is that the State better begin to think about and discuss fundraising supplements to fine arts and athletic programs statewide as this new tax cap comes into play.

Speaking about the tax cap, as you may have heard Governor Cuomo has passed a tax cap for schools and governments. The cap allows a school or municipality the opportunity to raise property taxes by the cost of inflation or 2%; whichever is less. In my opinion and to the Governor's credit, he finally stood up and said that schools will have to cut to accommodate this change just like private businesses have had to do. At least he is telling it like it is. If you remember earlier in the year the Governor was telling people that schools could just use reserves, which just doesn't and cannot work long term. 

For West Genesee, and as an initial look at the impact of the tax cap, we will have to make reductions in excess of $1M for the 2012-2013 school year. Not as much as the $5.63M that we just cut for the 2011-2012 but substantial when considering that we have already cut 15% of our workforce over the past three years. The rough ride continues and what schools will be able to offer moving forward will be drastically different than what we had available as kids ourselves.

As always, we will fight the good fight and continue to make West Genesee one of the most desirable school districts in the area. Enjoy these warm summer days and I will post again soon!

What a Year!

As the dust settles on another successful school year we should all pause to reflect on what happened during the past 180 days. We have ridden on a roller coaster of emotions and at times we certainly had to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves what we are made of. Through the high points and the low points of the year one thing stayed constant and that was pride in our school and our community. What other local District was making national headlines for their academic, athletic, and fine art achievements while also leading a national discussion about fiscal problem solving during challenging times?

All of this said, we MUST stay strong as a community and recognize that while we will face even more adversity next year, we are equipped to handle it. We will need to make changes to how we run our school, what programs we offer, and how we deliver services and some of those decisions will not be popular (even in my own house) but they will need to be made nonetheless. It will be very important for you as parents to stay connected to the school through this blog, our new e-newsletter, Twitter, or open meetings that we will hold so that you can have the most up-to-date and factual information. We will need to support each other so that our community continues to be the desireable place to live that it has become.

I am going to take a couple of weeks off from posting and tweeting but that does not mean that I will not be at work. Feel free to e-mail or call if you have questions or comments, and I would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support.

Please accept my best wishes for a safe and happy Summer!

Chris

Gear Down and Time for Landing

We are six days away from high school graduation and as I reflected over the past school year it is difficult not to notice that we just went through something pretty special. Pick a topic and we handled it with grace and professionalism. Our students were able to shine in every situation they were placed into and our staff did some unprecedented things to help us keep as many opportunities for students as possible.

I think it would be nearly impossible to agree with every decision we made this year because we had to make so many of them, but I am grateful for the respect everyone has shown during the many discussions that we have had. Trust is a very powerful thing, and I am equally thankful that we have mutual trust and open communication. We will face many other significant challenges in the days and months ahead and it is very important for all of us to stay focused on what is most important; the students.

This week will be a blur. We have assemblies, graduation rehearsal, the athletics banquet, all kinds of paperwork, finals, and more paperwork.  Getting into classrooms will also be fun and I can't wait to visit.

Have a great Summer....

Chris

Changes To Student Transportation For Next Year

If you have ever wondered why some of our buses have so few students on them, the answer is that the State Education Department has required us to "provide a seat" for each child whether they ride the school bus or not. With the current condition of the economy in New York State, the State Education released a memo which can be found here: http://www.nyssba.org/index.php?src=news&submenu=on_board&srctype=detail&category=Advocacy%20Alert&refno=1758 that clarifies their new stance on pupil transportation. In summary, it indicates that schools should be doing everything in their power to maximize the number of students on school buses as well as efficiency of school bus routes.

With this information we are changing our transportation practices and procedures for next year.  You will be receiving a letter home over the next few days that outlines these changes, but in a nutshell here they are:

1.  Parents will need to return the letter being sent home if they would like transportation to be provided for their children.

2.  Bus stops (especially in housing developments and other areas of lighter traffic flow) will be spread out over slightly longer distances.

3.  Private and parochial students will ride to school with West Genesee students and will then shuttle to the various private and parochial schools in the area.

4.  Students who have requested a bus for them but then do not ride for ten consecutive days without a medical or other approved reason will be dropped from the route.

It will take most of the summer to organize bus routes using this new methodology but the result will be more students on school buses and more efficient bus routing. Your only homework as a parent is to make sure that you RETURN the transportation request letter AS SOON AS POSSIBLE but no later than June 27th.

If you have questions please contact Jerry Williams, our Director of Transportation at 315-487-4576 jwilliams@westgenesee.org or Paul Pelton, our Assistant Superintendent for Management Services at 315-487-4563 ppelton@westgenesee.org.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Chris

A "Rock/Hill"ing Good Time

This past weekend was quite busy. First Rachel, Ben, Sam, and I participated in the first and hopefully annual Rock/Hill Triathlon. This was a mini-triathlon created by the physical education teachers at both Split Rock and East Hill for fifth-grade students to promote wellness. The first leg was to do eight "laps" in the pool then bike three miles and then finish with a half mile run. Needless to say, I probably finished last in every category but it was great to see so many students and staff participating. The hope was (and now is) to expand this to other buildings and grade levels and also to involve parents in the activities as well. I very much appreciate all of the time that the adults put into this event, and I am already looking forward to next year.

We then went downtown and enjoyed the Taste of Syracuse. We really enjoy the many downtown events that are held each year and I truly believe that a vibrant downtown is one of the keys to a vibrant city and surrounding areas. There were big crowds and parking was a challenge, but it was nice to see thousands of people out and about considering it feels like we have just been through eight months of winter. I also enjoy good food and music and there were plenty of both to go around!

This week will be very busy as well. We have the high school senior awards night, the last concert for my middle-schooler who will be in the high school next year, and the state semi-finals for girls lacrosse to name a very few of the things that I will be in attendance at during the week. We are also finishing up classes at the high school, reconfiguring Stonehedge Elementary, and continuing to work on our budget plans for next year.

I hope to be able to write again during the week so that I can better keep track and keep you updated on all that is happening this week.

Take care and I will write again soon-

Chris