Letter to the Board
Letter to the Board
| 1. | MS Case Update: We have been requested to submit specific documentation by the MS teachers attorneys which they feel might contain references to this case and may not have already been provided. We have done so. | |
| 2. | Rifle Shots: On Wednesday OP reported hearing shots fired in the fields behind OP. They had the children come in from the gym classes and the playground and called the DO and Bob Miller for further instructions. Trooper Chapman, who was out of the building at his headquarters in Canandaigua contacted the Sheriff’s department to respond. Upon hearing the shooting they ascertained the appx. distance of the shots and went to locate them. Mike Pullen, Bob Miller and myself went out into the southwest area of the school property and then on into the next properties to try to locate the shooter. We could not find the person (s) but did determine that we believed it to be a rifle shot rather than a shotgun and that it was indeed close to Paddy Lane road (a substantial distance from the schools). The Sheriff located the shooters near the new small housing development built on the Schreiber property and ticketed them. | |
| 3. | Cross Country Teams: Our boys Cross Country team has for the first time in recent history reached a ranking for section V. This week they were ranked #8 while girls received honorable mention. That is a great achievement for this program. | |
| 4. | Board Question: Last night a Board member asked a question about why there wasn’t any improvement in one of the summer school reading scores. I wasn’t satisfied the question had been answered so I had them spend a little more time with it this morning. Their thoughts are below; | |
| Of the three tests we gave those 26 2nd grade students they did not show progress on one of the tests. That test showed that how smoothly the children read (fluency). After analyzing the data, we believe they did not improve in this area because; | |
| § Our expectations for students in this grade are higher. We move from 3 word sentences to 6-7 word sentences. Our students struggle with this change but catch up by the following year | |||
| § While our time fluency practice was adequate, specific fluency instruction was not. | |||
| § The two teachers using the measurement tool required additional training in using the tool and interpreting the results. |
| In order to improve our results we are doing the following; | |
| · | Providing additional instruction (AIS) in the area of fluency for each of these students. |
| · | Monitoring these students’ progress in fluency frequently throughout the year. |
| · | Increasing the time teachers spend on fluency in next year’s summer school. |
| · | Providing additional training to teachers on how to teach fluency. |
| 5. | Superintendent Absence; Wendy and I leave Wednesday for Duke for Jill’s surgery. We do the pre-op on Thursday and the surgery is scheduled for Friday. I will be gone the following week. Greg and Kim will be in charge while I am gone. I will have my cell phone with me and will be in contact with them. I have confidence that they will do a fine job. We do now have a fairly experienced administrative team that can function well with or with out me. | |
| 6. | Vandalism: At the end of the day on Friday, Mr. Siracuse went on the announcements with two of our senior leaders (Liz Newman and Dan Venniro) They talked about the unacceptability of damaging their school and writing those words. They asked for help in finding out who did this to them. We do have a person of interest. We are continuing to talk to students about the incident and hope we will have enough evidence to do something soon. | |
| 7. | Homecoming: The activities of the week were very enthusiastic and well put together considering they were earlier than usual this year. We had a great turnout of support at all events, had great weather and had very few issues. It is a nice event for the students and for the families to see the past graduates and their families and to keep the community involved in their school. | |
| 8. | Retiree Reception: We will be hosting the retirees reception at the next board meeting at Ontario Primary School on October 9. The meeting will start with a building tour as well. | |
| 9. | NYSSBA: The propose resolutions booklet was sent to you in August. Attached is the “Rebuttals to Proposed Resolutions.” We should discuss at the October 9 meeting if we wish to participate. | |
| 10. | Upcoming Dates: | |
| 11. | Attachments: | |