October 31, 2008
“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” - - Warren Buffett
Board Letter
| 1.
| Halloween: With Halloween falling on a Friday night, we have added some security and will keep some of our field lights on. Our desire is to prevent our 16 year old boys from being 16 year old boys (probably some of our ladies too.) |
| 2.
| State Audit: We received a call today from the state comptrollers office informing us that it is our turm to be audited by the state. The initial meeting will take place next Thursday. I expect that our pre-audit will be helpful to us. |
| 3.
| Val Spanneut:
I learned some sad news yesterday. Val Spanneut, daughter of our former superintendent Gene Spanneut passed away yesterday of cancer. She leaves two young children. The family is planning a celebration of Val's life on Sunday Nov. 2nd at 2:00 at the Presbyterian Church of Penn Yan. In lieu of flowers, they are requesting donations to the Steele children college fund in care of the Lyons National Bank. Gene & Bernie’s address is 112 South Avenue, Penn Yan, 14527.
|
| 4.
| Freewill Family Death: Yesterday, one of our parents, Mary Ann Purdan passed away. She is the sister of Sue Brewer (OE teacher aide), Kathy LaManna (MS Special Ed Teacher), and Eileen Kohler (CSE parent rep). Dad is out of town and they are trying to contact him. This is a sad loss to our community. |
| 5.
| Pancake Dinner: Just a reminder that the Walworth-Ontario Rotary will be hosting its annual Election Day Pancake Lunch/Dinner. Lunch is served from 11:30 – 1:30 and dinner from 5:00 – 8:00 at the Ontario Fireman’s Exempt Hall. Don’t miss the exceptional, world famous pancakes. Your superintendent will spend the day welcoming voters. |
| 6.
| Flags at Half Staff: Flags were lowered to half staff on 10/ 30 and will be again on 11/3 to honor New York State servicemen who were killed while serving active duty overseas. |
| 7.
| Parent E-Mail: I have enclosed a very nice letter from one of our parents. Since you have proided unfailing support in the initiatives these past ten years, you should take pride in these accolades. |
| 8.
| Gullace Case: Attorney John Refermat has informed us that Justice Fisher, who was recently assigned to this case, has granted our request for a conference. It is being held today at 9:30, after which Town attorney Alan Knauf and John should be providing our team with an update.
|
| 9.
| Sectionals: Winter sports begin on Monday. Our girls volleyball team has their semi-final game on Saturday at 2:00 at Newark vs. School of the Arts. Girls soccer lost in the second round of sectionals. For the first time in years, the boys soccer team lost in the first round. Football won their first pool play game and lost their second round game against East High. Five Cross Country students qualified for states. |
| 10.
| State Budget Picture: The latest information from Albany has this year’s state budget facing a 1.5 billion shortfall. They estimate that next year’s budget deficit is 12.5 bilion dollars. The legislature will be called back into session on November 18th to close the 1.5 billion gap in this year’s budget. Although legislatures are stillsaying a mid year cut in education naide is unlikely, the money has to come from somewhere. With 4% wage increases abd 8-10% insurance costs, our expenses will increase. We do not believe that our taxpayers can affort larger tax bills. Especially in light of layoffs and retirement account declines. We wil be looking at our budget very carefully this year to make sure we maintain our important programs but reduce expenditures where we can. Your administrators have begun this process. One often overlooked fact is that New York State does, according to a local assemblyman, have 60 billion dollars in their rainy day fund.
|
| 11.
| Daylight Savings Time: Reminder - - Turn your clocks back Saturday night before you go to bed and get an extra hour of sleep!
|
11/4 – Election Day – Remember to VOTE!
11/4 – Rotary Pancake Dinner
11/4 – MS PTO Mtg @ Media Center – 6:30 p.m.
11/5 – FE Parent Group Mtg @ Cafeteria – 6:45 p.m.
11/5 & 6 – Dollars for Scholars Phone-A-Thon
11/7 & 8 – Jr. High Area All State @ Pittsford Sutherland
11/10 – Dollars for Scholars Phone –A-Thon
11/10 – HS PTSA Mtg @ Faculty Room – 7:00 p.m.
11/11 – School’s Closed – Veteran’s Day
11/12 & 13– Grade 5 NYS Social Studies Exam
11/13 – Board of Education Meeting
11/14 – FE Family Night
11/14 – Parent Teacher Conferences – Grades K-12
11/15 – HS Drama Club “Cabaret” @ PAC – 7:00 p.m.
A)
Resident E-Mail
Att. A)
From: Ron Price [mailto:rhprice259@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:57 PM
To: Havens, Michael
Subject: Wayne Central
Mr. Havens,
I would like to commend you for the fantastic job you are doing with the Wayne Central School District.
Twenty years ago when my wife and I moved to Ontario, we refused to send our oldest to Wayne Central because
of the poor quality of education he would have received. Now my youngest has been and is getting a fantastic education
at the same location! Being an educator myself, I believe that I am qualified to make this assessment.
Firstly, you could not have made a better choice than hiring Mr.Siracuse to be the High School Principal. We were
thrilled when we heard that he had "graduated" from elementary school to the High School. Mr. Siracuse is a phenomenol
leader, has wonderful people skills and is a great motivator. His teachers love him as do the students and their parents. He
is firm, but gentle, and extremely effective. He is hardworking, innovative and a pleasure to know. He deals with things fairly
and comprehensively. Mr. Siracuse always makes himself accessible to parents and always returns phone calls in a timely
manner.
The teaching staff at Wayne Central is of the highest quality. All of my sons' teachers have always been willing to "go the
extra yard" to ensure that my sons were given every opportunity to receive the finest education possible. The current faculty,
in my estimation, is the best you've ever had. I've had the pleasure of working with Wendy Riley and Greg Giesler, so I fully
understand the quality of the people that Wayne Central hires. My sons' teachers have been nothing less than first rate and
Mrs.Weber may be the best EL:A teacher I've ever met.
Kudos to Mr. Blankenberg for a fantastic athletic program. Having been assistant coach of the varsity tennis team a few
years back, I know what a pleasure it is to work for and with Mark and I know how hard he works!
Coach Marean runs an exceptional football program. He puts character building ahead of everything, and academics is a close
second. He is a true leadrer in every sense of the word.
Coaches McBride and Woodburn have done a fantastic job with our JV team this year. My son, Matt, has chosen
Coach McBride as the person outside our family that he looks up to the most. Matt has great taste as I couldn't think of anyone
I'd rather have my son look up to than Tim McBride.
Coach Casey is the perfect coach for Modified football. When he got my son, Matt was very immature. Coach Casey had more to
do with my son's maturation than anyone, including me!
Your art program is as good as any I've seen in any High School. You can't do better than Mrs. Robideaux and Ms. Riley.
Feel free to share these commendations anywhere and with anyone as you see fit. You have my utmost respect as an
administrator and you should be very proud of what you have created.
Sincerely, Ron Price (
rhprice259@hotmail.com
)
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Letter to the Board
