Education Board Craig Veley Named Assistant Principal and Athletic Director
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Autumn 2007 Craig Veley Named Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Craig Veley joins the administrative team as the new Assistant Principal / Athletic Director. He comes to GCS from Keshequa Central School where he was a physical education teacher. He earned his BSE in Physical Education from SUNY Cortland and both his MS in PE and Masters in Educational Administration from SUNY Brockport. “Geneseo Central School has a very positive and supportive culture,” said Mr. Veley. “It’s an ideal setting to prepare students to be successful in life.” Born in Cuba, NY, and raised in Rushford, his parents are Brenda and Bill Veley. He and his wife Trish reside in Portageville. In his freetime, he enjoys following the fortunes of the Patriots and the Yankees. He keeps active by playing basketball. In our last issue, we ran a springtime of Education photo of student Rosemary Teres, Ph.D., President Lenny Mack in the Michael Wischnowski, Ph.D., Vice-President budding Elementary Roger Collins Students’ Garden. Marlene Hamann-Whitmore When Lenny (shown Board Mark Peace right) and classmates Dan Strang, Ph.D. returned to school Charles Whittel in September, they Timothy C. Hayes, Superintendent discovered how much their garden had Kyle Adamczak, Linkages Editor grown. 1 Linkages Hello from the GCS Board of Education by Rosemary Teres, Ph.D. I’d like to report on the most that will create opportunities to enable Our Board of Education and recent Board of Education retreat. This students to maximize their potential, Administration believe that a coherent, is done every year in order to establish understand the world in which they well-articulated plan serves the district, the district goals with the members of live, and work to improve society.” We the administration, and the faculty. the school administration. decided to put this statement on hold, Since the administrators worked As a general rule, this work because we think our educational plan with us establishing these goals, they takes an entire day, but this year is developed sufficiently at present. We are now able to develop their own we managed to complete it in less will continue to work on a new vision goals. These administrative goals can than four hours. We, the Board of statement. be beacons or guidelines for the faculty Education, would like to and staff as they establish their commend the members of own priorities for the coming the Administrative Team for “By establishing and prioritizing year. working so diligently with us, There is always much that in spite of all the pressures of goals, we have a better chance of must be done. Establishing beginning a new school year. these goals and guidelines It is our achieving them…” identifies priorities for all responsibility to maintain concerned. There are some the fiduciary stability of the District The Mission Statement of the issues that take precedence each through careful budget management GCS District is “to enable all members year over others. Everything cannot and to establish policy for the of our community to become life-long be accomplished all at once. By management of GCS. These policies learners and valued contributors within establishing and prioritizing goals, enable the Superintendent to a global society.” We believe this should we have a better chance of achieving efficiently manage and oversee the day remain as is, since this does describe them, rather than working in the by day operations of the school. our mission. nebulous realm of “what should we do In keeping with this charge, The Mission Statement provides now… or next?” the Board of Education and the guidance in the development of goals. All aspects concerning the District administrators of the school met for So, our primary goal is: Continue to drive the budget. The budget drives a working retreat on August 21. This promote academic excellence. This has policy to enable us to achieve our was our sixth working retreat to set been the primary goal for a few years mission statement and accomplish it the goals for the management of the now, since it is an excellent rubric for through goals. District. the implementation of several sub If you have concerns or opinions, For the 2007-2008 school year, headings aiming at the promotion of you are welcome to contact me, or the we reviewed the Vision Statement, student success. Superintendent, or other members of the Mission Statement, the state Our second goal is: Support the Board of Education. We want to mandates, and regulations and worked outstanding instructional and non- hear from you. to align all of these with our plans instructional personnel. Some of our goals for this year to continue focusing on academic arose out of concerns brought to us Number three: Manage policies and excellence for the children of GCS. by members of the community. We programs of the District. With tight budget restraints, and do listen. We very much appreciate several unfunded mandates, this is Number four: Improve school culture community concerns. After all, always a complicated and lengthy and the climate of the District. improving communication is one of process. Number five: Improve communication our major concerns. The Vision Statement for our with the community. school is: “The Board of Education of Number six: Manage and improve the Geneseo Central School envisions the quality of District facilities. development of an educational plan 2 Autumn 2007 Summer 2007 Curriculum No Child Left Projects and Training Behind by Jeanne Fradella, Director of Curriculum and ELA K-8 At GCS we work hard to involve During summer vacation, groups of GCS educators revised curriculum and parents in our schools. We know that participated in several professional development programs. parental support for student learning GCS has started a full revision of the district’s curriculum documents. The at any age or any grade can increase goal is to have documents in place for every content area, kindergarten through the likelihood of student success. You twelfth grade, by September 1, 2008. should know: This year, 38 Geneseo teachers were involved in thirteen different • Parents (and students over the age curriculum-writing projects. Ten of these projects focused on English Language of 18) have the right to inspect their Arts and Mathematics, including curriculum for the new 6+1 writing traits student records. program that is being used with students in grades K-8. • Parents have the right to authorize Physical education teachers revised their curriculum, to better align with the the release of student information to district’s new health and wellness policy. Curriculum was written for the new non-school personnel. accelerated science course in seventh grade. • Parents may request information We continue to improve our curriculum through the analysis of student regarding the professional assessment information, research, and the sharing of best instructional practices. qualifications of faculty. Teachers participated in the introduction of Everyday Math at the fifth and sixth grade levels. Portions of this training were done with teachers from other • Parents may notify the school to districts, giving our faculty a chance to share ideas with other professionals. forbid student information to be Middle school teachers attended a one-week workshop that addressed best shared in the media, on the school practices in Academic Interventions Services (AIS) for students. The goal of this website, or in a private school/ workshop was to look at the way GCS delivers these services and revise them to student survey. better meet the needs of students. Copies of the GCS Parent/ During the last week of August, Advanced Placement (AP) teachers begin School Compact and any other meeting with students. This allows students to receive an additional week of GCS parent involvement polices are instruction to prepare them for the AP exams in May. available by contacting the District GCS’ annual New Teacher training took place on August 27-28, where first, Office. second, and third year teachers worked with mentors. New teachers participated in a series of workshops to help them learn about GCS and to enhance their Middle Class STAR performance in the classroom. Finally, in late August, teams of Rebate Available teachers collaborated to promote the instruction of special education students The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has launched in general education classes. The a public outreach initiative to provide information to taxpayers on the 2007 instructional processes and practices that Middle Class STAR Rebate Program. teachers examined are good for all of the To receive a STAR rebate this year, property owners with a basic STAR students in our blended classrooms. exemption on their 2007-2008 school tax bills must complete and submit an Many new practices and curriculum application (available on the Department of Taxation & Finance’s Web will be implemented in our GCS site www.tax.state.ny.us/star/2007 by November 30, 2007. classrooms during the 2007–2008 school [Note: Senior citizens who are property owners and receive an enhanced year. It should make for an exciting and STAR exemption on their 2007-2008 tax bill will receive a rebate check educational school year. automatically. For seniors with enhanced STAR, no application is required.] 3 Linkages PTSA Kicks Off School Year With New Initiative The PTSA Officers The first General Assembly meeting of Geneseo Central Parent Teacher for 2007-2008 are: Student Association (PTSA), for the current school year, took place on President: Anna Kowalchuk September 11 with a kick-off the new K-12 fundraiser (Entertainment Books). Vice President: Tracy Gagnier The Geneseo Goes Green initiative was newly added as a sponsored program. Secretary: Saleen Chenevert The purpose of this is to teach students about recycling and get them actively Treasurer: Steve Haigh involved in the process.