Superintendent D. Joseph Corr 91 Fiddlers Lane, Latham, NY 12110 785-8591

January 14, 2011 - Welcome to 2011! I hope that you all survived the holidays and enjoyed the time spent with your family and friends.

This is the first edition of our North Colonie e-Newsletter (Note: You can receive the North Colonie e-Newsletter by signing up for the District News notification on SNN). Our intentions are to make this one more way to connect you with our school community. The e-Newsletter will be featuring stories about some of the amazing work our students are doing in and out of the classroom as well as remind you of upcoming dates and events and keep you informed on other important issues in the district.

A new year brings new changes and this budget season will be a change from what we are used to in North Colonie. Difficult decisions will need to be made in order to address the shortfall we will be facing. Many of these decisions will be driven by the budget of newly-elected Gov. Andrew Cuomo, due to be released on Feb. 1.

In his State of the State Address last week, Gov. Cuomo announced that this is a time of reinvention and redesign for New York State. While few specific details were release, Gov. Cuomo is proposing the implementation of a tax cap as well as restructuring a portion of our education aid to create incentives that reward school districts for improving student performance and implementing management efficiency policies.

I agree with the Governor, that this will also be a time of reinvention and redesign in North Colonie. We have worked hard over the past few years to reduce costs and expenditures while maintaining core beliefs essential to preserving an educational program of the highest quality at an affordable cost to the community. While this is a time of crisis in New York, we as a school district must proceed thoughtfully and deliberately. We must proceed in a manner that focuses on finding solutions that will maintain our core beliefs.

While we have yet to make any decisions regarding cuts or reductions, we have had the good fortune to hear from you, as many of you have participated in our Community Budget Forums this fall. We will be holding another one on January 27 and I look forward to continuing our conversation then. I hope through these forums that you have had the opportunity to hear the concerns and thoughts of your neighbors in the community, too. After all, we are in this together.

I am confident that that we will manage the future in a proactive and constructive manner. While difficult decisions need to be made, I believe we can still maintain a high quality program. Most importantly, we remain committed to our students.

Thank you for your continued support of the children and the school district of this community.

 

Sincerely,
D. Joseph Corr
Superintendent of Schools