Posted September 5, 2012

New year brings new challenges, but the goal of educating and growing students never wavers.

The sights and sounds are all too familiar.

The yellow school bus taking a few spins around town.

Custodians polishing the floors.

Bulletin boards being put together.

The first day of school is upon us.

As students and staff prepare to enter their respective buildings on Thursday, a sense of optimism and excitement fills the district.

Assistant Superintendent Kathleen Skeals meets with teachers at a student learning objectives meeting on Sept. 4 and outlines some of the new challenges that they will be facing.

“It's a brand new start and a chance to start fresh,” Superintendent D. Joseph Corr said reflecting on what the first day of school means to him. “I think our mindset going in to this year is to have the audacity of optimism. We can always do better. Our students are and will always be the focus. As a district, we work to help them unlock their potential by seeing them learn subject content, acquire new skills, and so importantly, exhibit character.”

Education is at a pivotal point in history. New state mandates, including the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), Response to Intervention and the Dignity for All Students Act, have changed the focus of how education is delivered to students.

“We need to focus on making the mandates meaningful,” Superintendent D. Joseph Corr said in his Opening Day remarks to teachers. “We need to take control and remember why we are here. We need to get back to the district we want to be. We are not minimizing the stress of the mandates. Yet, they don’t shackle us.”

The CCLS are designed to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so that teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but they help teachers figure out the knowledge and skills their students should have so that the teachers can build the best lessons and environments for their classrooms. The Standards also help students and parents by setting clear and realistic goals for success.

District administrators and faculty have been working diligently since the beginning of last year to align its curriculum with the CCLS in mathematics and ELA. Beginning in the spring of 2013, the NYS 3-8 ELA and Math tests will reflect the mandated curriculum changes with a new design that is aligned with the rigor of Common Core expectations.

“Kathy Skeals (Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction), along with the help of the job-embedded coaches, have done a masterful job to create a curriculum that is on-going, reflective and is committed to improving student learning,” Corr said.

The Annual Professional Performance Review Plan (APPR) is the process by which New York state teachers and principals are evaluated on a yearly basis. The New York State Education Department requires that each public-school around the state document, and have a plan in place for reviewing the merits of each educator in the public school system.

Another mandate that you’ll be hearing a lot about is the Dignity for All Students Act. The Act seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function.

“We have created a document that focuses on providing students with a safe learning environment, appreciates diversity, honors differences, but does not tolerate bullying, harassment or discrimination,” Corr said.

With the emergence of these new mandates, the world of education is changing rapidly. But, as Corr reminded his faculty on Tuesday morning, there is more to educating a child then what is mandated by the state.

“Let this be the year that we make meaning of these mandates,” he said. “Let’s take control of the conversation and break down the barriers of isolation for the good of ourselves and our students. This is the year we dare to be audaciously optimistic.”