State of the What?

Last week was BUSY!  Aside from the cold weather day, we had several rescheduled athletic events, concerts, professional development opportunities, and meetings. This week should be more of a "normal" week as far as those things are concerned, and I am really happy for that!

Students Organize a 'Pink Out': It goes without saying that we have compassionate students. One example came last week during a home boys basketball game when two of the players organized a fundraiser for the family of a staff member who passed away last year. They organized a "pink out", recognized the family, and raised some money for a great cause. They also went on to win the game. Great kids! This is not to minimize all of the other fundraising efforts for the community that happens throughout the District each and every day. This was another new effort that deserved some recognition!

Learn Ways to Advocate:  There are a few things happening outside of our school district that you might find interesting. First, the Central New York School Boards Association has organized an event called Our Kids, Our Schools, Our Future (http://origin.library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1107312969070-211/Final+FLYER2014-1.pdf) that is being held on February 5 from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at North Syracuse Junior High School. This forum is for all people interested in the future of public education to organize and learn about ways to lobby for continued resources for schools.

OCM BOCES Vote: The OCM BOCES is also in the process of trying to get away from leasing buildings to house their programs and are investigating the purchase of a building that will house the programs many of our students take. This is a cost neutral effort but would give BOCES more overall control. The vote day is January 23. Plenty of information about voting locations and the actual referendum can be found here: http://ocmbocesnews.blogspot.com/2013/12/ocm-boces-facilities-referendum-january.html.

The Governor Speaks: Last week was the State of the State address by Governor Cuomo. In relation to education he mentioned: 

• "merit" pay for highly effective teachers in poor or chosen school districts;
• a commitment to borrow money to provide more technology (again mostly to poor or chosen schools);
• initiatives for teachers to use more technology to deliver instruction and for students to be able to learn at their own pace; and 
• resources for universal pre-kindergarten.  

There were not many details given about these initiatives, but I will be sure to provide details and my thoughts as soon as more information becomes available. 

Talk with the Superintendent: Lastly, please remember that our Dialogue with the Superintendent is going to be held this Wednesday, January 15 from 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. in the high school large group instruction room.  The first hour will be for regular questions and the second hour will be a discussion on the common core learning standards and all that surrounds them. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Have a great week!

Chris

When a G.O.A.T. Is Not A Goat

How about that Weather? How many times have you heard that?  Being born and raised in Syracuse, I am certainly used to the type of weather that we can get. Being a superintendent adds another dimension however. I have closed schools for a variety of reasons for the past fourteen years. I have only closed school due to temperature twice in my career.  

The decision to close school due to temperature is not a shot in the dark. We generally use -6 regular temperature and -25 windchill as benchmarks to make the decision to delay or close. These recommended temperatures come from a very useful guiding document published by the New York Statewide School Health Services Center (http://www.schoolhealthservicesny.com/a-zindex.cfm?subpage=29).  I have used it for years and it proved helpful again.  

There are going to be plenty of very cold days coming up when we WILL have school, so make sure to dress your children for the conditions!

When a G.O.A.T. is not a Goat: Through my travels I always pick up new lingo from the students. Over break I kept hearing about goats. I even saw a shirt with a picture of a goat on it. It was pretty common to hear about goats and see goats when I was superintendent in the southern tier, but the only goats that I see or hear about here have been at the fair.

I finally asked a student wearing a goat shirt if he was wearing it because of a cool new movie, singer, rapper, or video game. He looked at me perplexed and said, "I am the Greatest of ALL Time, you know…G.O.A.T!".  Got it!  I was standing next to the greatest of all time, not a kid wearing a goat shirt. I am always learning. I should have asked for his autograph!

Upcoming Events: I am really excited for the upcoming weeks. Boys and girls hockey (our girls have been the backbone of the Skaneateles combined girls hockey team) are playing really well; boys and girls basketball are promising; and I now understand wrestling better, so I am not clueless when I attend a meet. Swimmers show me how it is done, and I will also see how real runners, jumpers, and vaulters run, vault, and jump!  Our musicians are also getting into mid-year form, and I plan to start visiting the high school musical rehearsals. All good stuff!

The annual Dialogue with the Superintendent is on Wednesday, January 15 in the high school large group instruction room. Please note that the time has been changed to 6:00 p.m. so we can spend the first hour talking about all kinds of things. Then the second hour will be dedicated to talking about the Common Core Learning Standards implementation, assessments, and data collection.  Hope to see you there.

Enjoy the week and I hope to see you at one of our events!

Chris

A New Year!

Well, we haven't started off the New Year with a snow day in quite a few years, so today's school closing should make some people very happy campers! Time certainly has flown by as we move on to the end of the school year, and we are ready to tackle what the coming months have in store.

West Genny Athletes are All-Stars: Prior to the break, Section III girls swimming and diving, boys golf, girls tennis, girls volleyball, girls and boys soccer, football and girls and boys cross country all announced their Central New York all-star and league first second team and honorable mention designations. West Genesee was VERY well represented. For a complete list of recognized athletes please head over to our athletics web page. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Also our boys soccer team, in partnership with the Westhill boys soccer team, raised and donated $2,700 to help fund the Craig Rienhardt Scholarship. Craig was a varsity soccer player for West Genesee who passed away in 2012. It was great to see the two coaches and team captains working together to donate to a worthy cause. Thank you!

Congratulations to our Ice Hockey team for being voted #1 in NYS in Division 1! (Click here to see the rankings.)

Healthy Snacks are Important: We have been working through a pilot After School Snack Program at our high school. Once interaction time begins, we are providing healthy choice snacks so students can get a snack right on campus before an after school activity. The choices include: yogurt, fresh fruit, sunchips, baked lays, pretzels, cheese/cracker w/peanut butter, special K snack bar/power bars, rice krispies, granola bar, belvita, oatmeal cookies, trail mix, zero powerade, vitamin water, water, and milk.  Students can pay cash or use their student identification number to make purchases from their MySchoolBucks account. If this continues to be successful, we will look to expand to the middle schools.

Investigating Personal Electronics Pilot: We are also about half-way through the investigation process related to another pilot program allowing high school students to use their own electronic devices in school during instructional and non-instructional times. There has been classroom demand by teachers for students to be able to use their own devices to receive instruction. We are also looking at students using their devices during passing times, lunch, etc.

While we are usually the first to the table in the area with most initiatives, we are one of the few schools remaining that does NOT allow devices to be used during school hours. There are plenty of models for us to emulate and plenty of feedback to be received from other schools who have been allowing devices for quite some time. We will send something more formal out when we are ready to begin an actual pilot. 

Governor's State of the State: I am anxiously awaiting Governor Cuomo's State of the State address on January 8. I have read pieces from his budget commission and many of the items they have suggested to the Governor could have some major implications on schools and how we operate. Once he has spoken and we have a chance to digest everything, I will be sure to outline how any changes will impact how we do business at West Genesee.

Come Talk to the Superintendent:  Lastly, I will be holding the annual Dialogue with the Superintendent on January 15.  Details will be forthcoming in a future blog, but this is an opportunity for community members to ask me questions in an open format.  I think you know that I am very available to talk, but if you want to join other community members in one place and ask questions this is the event for you!

I am excited for the rest of this school year and look forward to your continued support.

Chris

Peace

There are plenty of educational items for me to blog about, but they can wait. The next week is about family, friends, giving, and finding peace. There are those who celebrate Christmas (like my family), and those who do not. Merry Christmas to those who do, and happy holidays to those who do not. Either way, we are all one giant school community, and I hope that we are all able to enjoy some peace during this special time of the year.

I will be at work during break, but will not post again until after we return to school on January 2, 2014. Please accept my best wishes during the holiday season.

Peace.
Chris

The Stretch

Believe it or not there will be teaching and learning taking place as we inch closer to winter break. I can remember how I felt as a kid around this time of the year, and I can also remember how I felt as a teacher. Sometimes those feelings didn’t match! I always enjoy my time in the buildings and this week will be no different as I am sure to hear many stories of excitement from our youngest students.

Transportation: While we did not have exceptionally poor weather last week (Saturday night into Sunday was a completely different story by the way), it is a good time to remind ourselves just how good our bus drivers are. Our mechanics make sure that each bus is completely ready to go. Then our drivers do an amazing job of navigating the roads safely in undesirable conditions, while we arrive to work thankful that we didn’t drive our own cars into a ditch! Thank you for all of your work and for keeping our students safe on the way to school.

Also, if your child drives to school and you do not want them driving because the weather exceeds their driving experience, give an early call to our bus garage at 315-487-4576 and let them know that your child needs a ride. They will make it happen! I think we would all agree that your child getting to school safely is more important than them being upset with you because they have to ride the bus for a day or two.

Evaluations/Student Governments: I have spent the last two weeks sitting down "formally" with building principals to discuss their evaluations. I have been very pleased with the progress that has been made with our struggling learners and also really happy with our elementary and middle schools as they have formed student government groups (the high school has had student government groups for decades). 

Student government promotes ownership, critical thinking skills, debate, social skills, and organizational skills. We will take a closer look to see if there is a relationship between a student involved in student government and their academic success. I am proud of the strides that teachers and principals have made in our District and you should feel comfortable that your children are in very capable and caring hands.  Stay tuned.

West Genny Has an App for That: If you have a smart phone or tablet, hopefully you have been able to download our free app. We are meeting with the president of Parentlink this week to discuss our successes as well as areas where we think the app could be even more beneficial. As a parent I have learned all that the app has to offer, and I think that it makes managing things related to my own child much more efficient.  I was able to walk into a meeting the other day and use the app to put money on his lunch account. The entire transaction from start to finish took about 45 seconds.  I can deal with that!

Enjoy the week!

Chris

Listen to Your Elders

Dancing the Night Away: My wife and I had a wonderful time at the winter semi-formal on Saturday night. The theme was The Great Gatsby and the high school hallways, cafeteria, and gym were transformed into something right out of the book and movie. Tremendous kudos to our faculty advisors, Mrs. Deemer and Mrs. Hogan, as well as Mrs. Brown (not my Mrs. Brown!) who helped to organize all of our parent volunteers.

Our parent volunteers also deserve plenty of thanks as they helped with ties, dresses, and making sure that everything went well. For the freshmen this is really their first dressy dance, so it is always fun to watch them walk into the gym for the first time and see that they are awesome pieces of an 850 student puzzle! The gym was dancing and hopping and I even saw a few students do the worm. I am actually starting to like some of the new music that is out there, so that was cool too. I cannot wait for the junior prom!

Learning from Seniors: Earlier in the week I had my annual opportunity to meet with our senior citizens at the Camillus Senior Center. I would like to thank Mrs. Bacon for making this opportunity possible. The seniors are so welcoming, and I enjoy the chance to speak to many who helped forge our community into what it is today. I asked for a show of hands to see how many had gone to a West Genesee school, sent a child, grandchild, or great grandchild through the district and most of the crowd (I would say around 75 people) raised their hands proudly.

I went through a lot of topics over the course of an hour. Budgets, community issues, school matters, national concerns impacting education and talk of the past occupied our time. Of all of the topics covered, there was one that drew the most passion from the audience. The topic was how children are communicating differently and if that is a good thing or not.

From cursive writing, to block print, typing, texting, Facebook, Twitter and anything else social media many of our seniors felt that this evolution is ruining the art of communication, of resolving conflict, of forging true long lasting friendships, of memories. It was a powerful piece of our time together. They understood why things are changing and that we will probably never go backwards, but I learned that we should find other ways to preserve the human emotion in communication or we are going to be in trouble decades from now.  Thank you for the learning experience!

Busy Week in Fine Arts and Athletics: We had a very successful weekend with our fine arts and athletics. We had many musicians play in All-State Concerts in Rochester this weekend (click here for a list of students). I followed along on Twitter while the students performed, and they certainly represented us well.

On the athletic side all of our team sports won over the weekend. Considering nearly all of them competed, that is pretty cool!  Check our website for the most current schedules.

Enjoy the week!

Chris

The Blur

I hope that each of you had a peaceful and restful Thanksgiving weekend. I was able to see family and friends and actually took a few days off from e-mail, twitter, and Facebook. It was delightful!

The time between now and winter break should really be called "The Blur". One blink and December is over. Shopping, working, concerts, games, meetings, slippery roads, and stress all form the top layer of "The Blur". Below the top layer is where all of the goodness lies. I believe being thankful to have a job, fortunate enough to be able to purchase things for others, enjoying prized possessions, performing in a concert or in a game without a care in the world, and enjoying the snow that we are going to get, all make up that bottom layer. I hope you are able to enjoy all layers of "The Blur" throughout the holiday season!

I still do not have many details, but the Commissioner of Education, Dr. John King will be holding a parent forum at Fayetteville-Manlius High School on Tuesday, December 3.  My understanding is that doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the forum is being conducted from 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. If I hear any additional details, I will pass them along.

For those who are just hearing about the Common Core Learning Standards, standardized testing, and data collection, we are trying to put a quick fact sheet together that will indicate what each item is and what supporters and detractors are saying,  so you can stay in the loop. The goal is to make you read for about ten seconds per item and then have enough information to decide if you would like to hear or read more. We will provide additional resources after that if people are interested.

Take deep breaths, relax, and enjoy "The Blur" that starts…..RIGHT NOW!

Chris