The meeting opened with some commendations, which was a great way to start! Miss Julie Brown, a middle school student, received an award for placing 3rd in the Professor Garfield Foundation Invasive Species Comic Contest. The focus of the project was to study an invasive species and learn about how they can affect an ecosystem. To read more about this contest see the following link: Professor Garfield Foundation Invasive Species Contest and congratulations to Julie!
Our Superintendent congratulated Mr. Linkens, our high school principal, on his school being recognized as a Reward School by the New York State Education Department. Reward Schools are schools that have either made the most academic progress or schools that have the highest achievement in the state. This is a wonderful award to for our district to receive, we are proud of Mr. Linkens, his faculty & staff, and students- thank you for making the high school a great place to learn!
Community member and parent, Rick Peddle, was recognized for his work in coordinating all the new student walkers at Park Avenue Elementary. Over the summer Rick has spent many volunteer hours working with principal Ms. Wood, the Park Ave. PTA, school district administrators and town officials to implement safe walking practices. Parents have created a 'Walking School Bus' for students to join. For more information on the walking school bus or to see how you can help, visit's Rick's facebook page at: Walking School Bus. Rick reported that although the first three days of walking have gone smoothly there are still some issues that need to be addressed. Dr. Bryant will continue to work with the town in monitoring and improving walking paths so that parents can walk their children to school safely.
Dr. Bryant welcomed Dr. David Leach to our district. Dr. Leach will be the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and we are looking forward to working with him. He earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership from Fordham University and he comes to us from the Ramapo Central School District where he was the Principal of Cherry Lane Elementary School. This year his school has been honored with the prestigious National Blue Ribbon School award, which shows his commitment to the teachers and students in his former district. We can expect great things from Dr. Leach!
In other news, we have received the Certificate of Occupancy from the State of NY Education Department for the Little Bear Observatory at Sanfordville Elementary School. Dr. Bryant expressed to the community that our teachers and students will have many wonderful new learning opportunities from having access to such a unique building.
Over the summer a presentation was given to us by the Warwick Valley Community Coalition
on results from a survey they had administered to students on alcohol and drug use. We asked for some information on what curriculum or programs are currently in place for our students in the middle and high school and last night we received a report from Mrs. Leandro, our middle school principal, and Mr. Linkens. Mrs. Leandro reported that our 7th and 8th grade students take a health course that focuses on drug and alcohol prevention and discusses peer pressure. The middle school also has Red Ribbon Week which is a week dedicated to drug awareness. Along with having a SADD group, Mr. Linkens reported that our high school students take a health class focused on drug and alcohol prevention and they host a Road Recovery concert once a year. He mentioned that the high school used to have a counselor who was specifically designated for students that were suffering or needed advice about drug and alcohol related problems. We briefly discussed the possibility of bringing back a counselor to the high school for this purpose.
Yvonne Koulikov, our Instructional Technology Staff Developer, presented an online program called the Foundation for a Drug Free World for our community to consider as a tool for learning. The program offers l7 learning modules that include public service announcements for students to view with their parents. The goal of the Foundation is to empower kids so that they can understand the facts behind saying "No" to drugs. Dr. Bryant suggested that the board consider forming a committee of parents, community members, teachers and/or administrators who could take the modules and determine if this program would be beneficial to our students.
Next, we reported on the Board of Ed. committees. One of the Board's major responsibilities is selecting the next Superintendent. Board president, Dave Eaton, announced that a community focus group is in the process of being formed whose input will help us determine what we are looking for in hiring the next Superintendent. The information that this group gathers will be presented to the board and it will be used for seeking out potential candidates for the board to evaluate. This committee will be composed of parents, community members and district faculty and staff. Other changes due to reorganization were the following, the Policy Committee was dissolved, the Technology committee will now include a STEM and an Appreciative Inquiry component, and the Wellness Committee will be merged with the Warwick Valley Community Coalition.
Dr. Bryant mentioned to the school board that polling places may have to be changed if Kings Elementary School or Pine Island Elementary School were to be rented out to another entity at some point in time. This is important information for us to consider in regards to keeping voter access available to our community.
Board member John Connolly asked Dr. Bryant to consider looking into a way to bring back the Odyssey of Mind Competition. Odyssey of the Mind is an international program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students and aligns with our district vision of promoting 21st century thinking skills.
Board member Keith Parsons asked Dr. Bryant to consider sending out a SNN alert to parents when buses are delayed to ease parents concerns when their child's bus is late. Dr. Bryant agreed with Keith's suggestion and thought that the SNN system would be helpful in these types of situations. As a follow-up today Dr. Bryant reported to board members that buses were delayed yesterday due to students being released later than usual at St. Stephens School. The problem will be addressed today 9/10/13.
A few 'Save the Dates' were announced at the end of the meeting:
- September 16th @ 1:00 pm, DCW Center: BOE work session featuring John Sipple. Associate Professor John Sipple has focused his research interests on the responses of public school districts to changes in state and federal policy. For more information see: The Changing Demography of NY State
- September 23rd @ 7:00 pm, WV High School: Lynn O'Shaughnessy will speak about financing college, for more information see: The College Solution
- September 29th @ 8:30 am (check-in time 7:30 am) at WV High School: Annual "Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk" 3-5 mile sunrise walk to prevent suicide, for more information see: Orange County Out of the Darkness Walk
- October 2nd from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at the Twin Towers Middle School in Middletown: Important Regional Advocacy Event, Fair Funding for our Schools This event will be hosted by WVCSD, more information to follow.
Submitted by Shannon Hockswender
