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

Giving Thanks

Congratulations are in order for all of the cast and crew of the Camillus Middle School musical, Suessical. The students performed well, and the parents also performed well driving in our first mini-snowstorm!

Speaking of storms, our girls swim team stormed the pool at the state finals! Olivia Castro finished ninth in the 200 freestyle, and 11th in the 100 freestyle. The Wildcats’ 200 freestyle relay team (Sinead Guy, Olivia Castro, Brianna Smith, and Kaitlin Dunning) came in 11th, and the 400 freestyle relay team (Sinead Guy, Rebecca Kanoza, Brianna Smith, and Olivia Castro) finished 10th. In the team standings, West Genesee had the best finish of any Section III school, 14th in both the federation and public schools results. We are really proud of all that the swim team has accomplished.

We have a short week ahead that leads us to Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for: family, friends, a supportive community, and each other. I hope that you are able to take time later this week to give thanks. If you are able to give a little to someone in need please do so, and if you need help please reach out because there are plenty of people willing to help.

Enjoy the week and thank you for your support.

Chris

Spreading Out the Talent

Over the Weekend

The past weekend was a gift on many levels. I was able to get a lot of yard work done, but more importantly many of our students were spread out across Syracuse and beyond representing our West Genesee Community. 

Cross Country Runners at Federation Championship/Girls Swimmers to Compete at State Championships - There were several cross country runners (Laura Leff, William Randall, Jack Erhard, David Leff, Michael Richards, Michael Lannon, Jr., Matthew Romano, Nathan Conroy, and Sean Beney) who had a chance to compete in the Federation Championship in Wappingers Falls, NY. Our students placed very well compared to other runners from across the state. We also still have girls swimmers competing this coming weekend at the state championships in Ithaca Congratulations to these awesome athletes!

Honk! Jr. Swims into West Genesee Middle School - Many talented West Genesee Middle School students performed on Friday night and Saturday afternoon in a musical called Honk! Jr.  Christy Knowlton and the gang always put on a great show. I am looking forward to checking out the video as soon as I can get my hands on it!

Split Rock Chorus Sings at Crunch Hockey Game - Lastly, members of the Split Rock Elementary School fourth-grade chorus had an opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the Syracuse Crunch hockey game on Saturday night. They did such a good job that it earned them the honor of "Anthem of the Week" by syracuse.com.  See the video embedded below. Pretty cool!

 

Coming Up this Week:

National Honor Society Induction - I am excited to induct mid-year members of the National Honor Society (NHS) tonight. The NHS is one of my favorite evenings because being inducted is not the end for these students. They have to live by the traits of service, scholarship, leadership, and character each day in order to keep this award. These traits really help our students to develop into responsible young adults, and I congratulate them and their parents. Keep up the good work!

Freshman Sings at SU Game - Also tonight, high school freshman Caitlin Barry will be singing the National Anthem in front of over 20,000 people at the Syracuse University vs. St. Francis basketball game. Wow! Look forward to the video on our Facebook page on Tuesday!

Camillus Optimists Honor Teachers/Youth - On Tuesday night I get to help recognize the Camillus Optimists Students and Teachers of the Year. This year our Students of the Year are Emily Cook and Michael Richards from the high school, Sophia Valerino and John Howes from Camillus Middle School, and Kyle Jenkins and Grace Walker from West Genesee Middle School. Teachers who are being honored are Melanie Callahan from Split Rock, Kathleen Byrne from WGMS, and Leandra Kovalchik from the high school. Nice work and I am looking forward to celebrating with our recipients and their families. 

Suessical the Musical at Camillus Middle School - The week ends with the Camillus Middle School Production of Suessical, which I am sure will be as excellent as Honk! Jr. Wow, what a week ahead!


Tracking Changes in NYS Education
For those keeping an eye on the Commissioner, do not think for a second that I have taken my eye off of that situation. His talk of local schools giving fewer tests (if parents are angry about testing) and broaching the topic of K-2 standardized testing, as well as his slow implementation of some pretty easy suggestions from parents and educators in the field, has "poked the bear". I will let you know how we can strike back in the coming weeks.

Have a wonderful week, and I hope to see you around.

Chris

Where Do We Go From Here?

This is just a quick post to thank you again for your overwhelming support of our Capital Project Referendum and establishment of a reserve account to eventually replace our turf field. Those who were able to come out and vote braved some obnoxious weather for this time of the year. I want to thank all of our volunteers for working the polls and especially Hugh Stannard, who at 97 years old drove, himself to the school to help voters use the machines as he has done for a long, long time! Your service is MUCH appreciated.

Where do we go from here? Great question. As you know, the project calls for technology and security upgrades at all buildings, renovations of all buildings, and additions at Onondaga Road and East Hill Elementary Schools. We are also looking to maximize our money so we have the least impact on taxpayers ($5.19 or less per $100,000 of assessed home value).

The first step in the process is to have formal plans approved by the New York State Education Department (NYSED). This can take up to four months at a minimum.  NYSED is backlogged and understaffed, and my experience has been that the harder I have pushed to get plans approved, the further down the pile the plans have gone.

Once the plans are approved, we will send what are called "bid specifications" out to general contractors and sub-contractors. They will have approximately two months to look things over and let us know through a sealed bid how much the job would cost for them to complete the work. We then open the bids and reward the work.  By now we are into May or June if all goes well.

We will begin the technology and security upgrades by the end of June, which are scheduled to be finished first (at this point I do not want to guess on an exact completion date). The first shovels for renovations and additions will hit the ground by July or August, if all goes perfectly.

There are many more little details to attend to during this time, but this is a blog not a book!  Based on past experiences, I would expect this entire project to take about two years to complete. However, you will see substantial completion of some aspects of the project by this time next year.

We always talk about how much things are going to cost, but we are also going to track savings as well. We think we can save hundreds of thousands of dollars just by changing our phone system, for example. We will also save tens of thousands by converting regular parking lot lights to LED lights, and we will save tens of thousands on our utility bills by upgrading boilers even though we are ADDING air conditioning to the elementary schools.

It is important to track savings for you because many of the utility and technology updates we are doing can be done on a much smaller scale in your own home. For example, I was amazed at how much money LED lights can save. So I converted most of my own home to LED lighting about a year ago, and I am saving at least $100 per month on my own utility bill. That was as simple as going to the hardware store, purchasing light bulbs (yes they were more expensive than traditional bulbs, but I have already made my money back) and replacing my existing ones with LED bulbs. 

At any rate, we are very excited to begin this project and we could not have done this without your continued support of our schools, our students, and our mission. We will provide updates as we have them.  Enjoy the rest of the week, and I hear that I could be in a t-shirt again by the weekend!

Chris