The Diplomas are Coming!

Each year our Board of Education President, Building Principal, and I get to sign each diploma. I had the privilege of signing the diplomas last week and that means that we are very close to the big day. I am very excited to be involved in my first ceremony as Superintendent of our school District. Watching parents, staff, and students come together before we release our children into the larger world is a very powerful experience, and I have the distinct honor of having a front row seat.

Last week we held a simulated DWI crash at the high school. I had done this type of exercise in my previous District about every two years and involved the juniors and seniors. I would like to continue that practice here. Having the Fire Department, Police, and Ambulance, all of whom are our parents and volunteers in the community working with our children about the dangers of drinking and driving is a very positive experience and one the students will not forget. I would like to personally thank all of those who helped to coordinate the exercise last Friday. (Click here to access pictures of the event from our District web site.)

The past few weeks have been a blur, but I can share with you that I have had a wonderful time attending honors’ dinners and breakfasts’, various concerts, games with national implications on the line (also win number 700 for our Boys Lacrosse Coach and win number 200 for our Girls Lacrosse Coach), the Senior Ball, and today the Special Olympics. I wish I could do a video blog of all of the wonderful things I get to see every day.

With the budget behind us, we now prepare for the end of the school year. There will be more awards, more games, and hopefully more warm weather. It is my hope that as we close out this school year and begin another, that we do so happy with what has happened since September. On paper we can celebrate our New York State School Report card, but in real life we should celebrate each of the days we have had together as successes, and I am looking forward to many more.

Chris

Music in the Air

Since my last post I had the pleasure of attending the Junior Prom. It was a real treat for a couple of reasons. First, I enjoyed watching our students have a great time with each other. All to often we take our children for granted and Prom night is a great time to see that they indeed do have feelings, expression, and joy. Second, my wife and I have not missed a Prom or Ball in 15 years and we are looking forward to the Senior Ball next week.

Speaking of next week, please do not be alarmed next Friday morning if you are passing the high school and see emergency vehicles. We are working with local emergency officials to simulate a car crash to demonstrate to students the importance of making good decisions.

At this point we are celebrating our success on the New York State Assessments, wrapping up budget presentations, attending awards ceremonies and concerts, and planning for the end of this year and next year. While these are busy times, they are memorable times as well as we watch our children grow another year.

Finally, it is officially okay to not be alarmed by the "Swine Flu" or H1N1 as it is technically called. We received correspondence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and they are NOT recommending the closing of schools for confirmed cases of this type of flu. They still and always do recommend staying home if ill and washing hands as much as possible.

Those are the updates for now. Thanks and see you soon.

Chris

A Pretty Busy Week

Well, last week was pretty busy. First there was a fire in one of the bathrooms at the high school. We are fortunate that there is a good safety plan with good people to follow it, or the situation could have been more dangerous than it was. We do have some opportunities to improve our attendance record-keeping and communication and those improvements are being made as a result of a debriefing meeting that was held last week. Let us all hope that this type of situation does not happen again. The student responsible for setting the fire was apprehended and when you include all of the items from clean-up, materials, labor, etc… the total damage will weigh in just over $20,000. In my opinion, $1.00 in damage is too much. We will not be sensationalizing this situation as it has been addressed and we are moving on.

The Board has allowed us to try to obtain some grant money to comprehensively outfit all buildings with security cameras. This has been in the works since September and became a focus area during the Strategic Planning process in January. You have my personal word that these cameras will not be used to create a police state; they will be used to help deter and provide us with successful investigations when students choose to make poor choices. We will continue to breed and foster an environment of respect and responsibility, but we are also going to take advantage of what is available to make our schools as safe as possible.

You might have also heard that we have decided to slightly change the times of the school day. This is being done to help deliver students to our schools in a more efficient and timely manner. This is also being done to maximize student time on tasks and to keep room for extracurricular activities, sports, jobs, babysitting, etc… I think once these new times below are in practice, that the 5 or 10 minutes difference from what we are currently doing will feel like no changes were made at all. In many cases the bus run times will not change. Stay tuned for letters from your child’s principal concerning the new times and new bus runs if applicable.

School Start and End Times

High School-(now) 7:30AM-2:26PM; (next year) 7:20AM-2:16PM
WGMS-(now) 8:00AM-3:00PM; (next year) 7:50AM-2:50PM
CMS-(now) 8:00AM-3:00PM; (next year) 7:50AM-2:50PM
East Hill-(now) 9:00AM-3:20PM; (next year) 9:00AM-3:20PM
Onondaga Road-(now) 9:00AM-3:20PM; (next year) 9:00AM-3:20PM
Split Rock-(now) 8:45AM-3:00PM; (next year) 9:00AM-3:20PM
Stonehedge-(now) 9:00AM-3:20PM; (next year) 9:00AM-3:20PM

Finally, we were able to lower the tax rate predictions from 2.15% to 1.4%. The updated presentation is on this web site, and the change was made due to some additional BOCES aid that we now know that we will be able to receive. No other changes were made to the budget as we head toward the May 19th vote date.

We are continuing to move in a very positive direction, and I am looking forward to our continued success.

Chris

Don't Get Too Excited

We have been tracking the latest budget news coming out of both Washington and Albany and the bottom line is that we will be making few, if any any, changes to our existing budget package. We are not confident that the monies that we are being promised (approximately $1.5M) will actually be delivered, and if they are delivered, for how long.

We believe that the global economic crisis will last two to three years minimum so the correct approach is to see what additional money actually arrives and then "feather" that money out to avoid having to make deeper cuts than we had to this year. I also believe that we will be able to restore in some fashion at least field trips, and some equipment, materials, and supplies. For the record, we have reduced our workforce by 11.4 positions but were able to retain our teaching staff due to other retirements, resignations, and terminations.

It has been fun watching classes launch rockets, perform plays and concerts, and prepare for Open Houses. I am really looking forward to the Diversity Fair being held this Saturday at the high school as well as being able to check out a few lacrosse and softball/baseball games while it is still light out!

My next post will be made soon and will include information about some directions that we will be heading into this Summer as we prepare for next school year.

Take care.
Chris

Moving Right Along

It took me until I was probably in my early thirties to recognize that my playing days are over in just about every sport except maybe golf. It was then that I realized that sports, fine arts, and State Fair Expo's are as much about taking our minds off of our real lives as they are about winners, losers, and Sham Wow's. With this in mind, I promise you that while I did fill out an NCAA bracket and will be following the Orange to an NCAA Championship (hopefully), I will still be doing my work!

Since my last post we have had another whirlwind of activity. Spring sports are in full swing, it was still light out when I left a concert the other night, and I am seeing award nights on my calendar and that can only mean one thing; a snap of your fingers until the end of the school year.

Thanks to those who attended my first budget presentation. I am always nervous until I say the first word and then it kind of flows from there. A copy of the presentation is on our website at http://www.westgenesee.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=1556 and I am also going to have a "movie" of the presentation uploaded as well, as soon as I figure out a way to keep my forehead from shining on camera.

To give you a very brief synopsis, the worst case scenario (and I always work in worst case scenarios) will be a .46% budget increase, a 2.15% Tax Levy, and a 1.7% tax rate. What this means is that if you have a home valued at $100,000 in the Town of Camillus you will pay $24.98 more that you paid in school taxes this year. Again, please view the whole presentation and in about 10 minutes you will know all of the details behind the numbers.

We are also extremely proud of our high school Academic Decathlon students. They placed second in the state behind an established Cazenovia club. Our students also brought home 22 medals! Way to go.

All for now. Enjoy your weekend.

Chris

A Pretty Cool Day

Today was one of those days that was really enjoyable. It started off with honoring staff from Split Rock and Onondaga Road schools for achieving 25 or 30 years of service to the District. It was wonderful watching the support and congratulations they received from their peers.

From there it was off to West Genesee Middle School to be a part of a surprise award "ceremony" for Rick Chapman, one of our science teachers. He was one of 24 teachers in the country to be awarded the opportunity to attend the Advanced Space Camp, an experience backed by Honeywell Corporation. Here is a link to an article about the the opportunity and the event this morning: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/west_genesee_middle_school_tea.html

From there it was off to put the finishing touches on the budget. We were able to factor in the affects of the stimulus bill and create a tax levy of 2.15%, a tentative tax rate of 1.7%, and begin to have discussions about how to best incorporate field trips back into the budget for next year. If the Government does what is says it is going to do we should be able to "feather" the stimulus money out over the next two to three years and keep our tax levy low and our offerings and staff intact.

From there is was out to Camillus Middle School to observe a student teacher. I have always offered to observe student teachers because they could be job candidates in the future so it is nice to have an idea of what their skills really are before they leave the district. In the particular lesson I observed I learned that many of our Middle School students are aware of the effects of drugs and alcohol and know to stay away from them. This is also good news.

Lastly, I got to celebrate 25 and 30 year anniversaries with staff at Camillus Middle School. Again this was a great time and I was really happy at all of the support that our honorees received.

All in all I would call today very full and refreshing!

Chris

The "Volcano" is Alive and Well

I learned some great things last week. For starters, at the Camillus Middle School Science Fair I learned that Honey Nut Cheerios are better for me to eat for quick energy than granola bars. I also learned that some of the less expensive finger nail polishes and make-up are actually better quality than some of the more expensive brands. I also learned that the students put a lot of time into preparing for this event. As I circulated and watched the judges challenge each contestant it was clear that the participants knew their projects from the inside out; including welding, which is exactly what one student did themselves in order to complete their project.

At Split Rock there were many great projects as well and I was glad to see that the erupting volcano is alive and well. It is such as sense of normalcy to see a vinegar and baking soda plaster of Paris volcano in an Elementary gym. There were many quality experiments and it was great to see exploration of some of the "green" technologies that are making their way into our every-day lives.

On Sunday our Varsity Hockey team played Baldwinsville for the Sectional Championship and were able to pull it out in exciting fashion. It still is difficult for me to get over how calm and collected our students are when under stress to perform. I can tell you that the crowd was stressed for them!

March is the time for the Math assessment in grades 3-8 and it is also the time to really put the finishing touches on the budget and prepare to present the information to the public. This is a stressful time for me as well and especially this year because it is the first time I will have an opportunity to relay my personal interpretation of the budget to all of our taxpayers. As soon as the budget presentation is complete it will be located on our school website for your review. I am also hopeful to have a video presentation of the budget on the website as well in case you are not able to attend one of the many presentations.

One thing that will be different in the presentation will be a significant reduction in the number of pictures. Previous presentations contained many pictures of students and staff working within the buildings and I can assure you that nothing has changed in that department. However, in order for us to make our presentations available to the public via the Internet, etc... we have had to shorten the presentation. The presentation you will see will focus on our accomplishments, expenditures, revenues, tax rate and levy information. We are including more student and staff pictures on a regular basis on our website, as well as our new 2009-2010 school calendar to help make up for the lack of pictures in the budget presentation.

Today I get to help honor staff and faculty at the High School who have worked in the District for 25, 30, and 35 years; what an honor!

Chris