Last year, the Board of Regents adopted an amendment to the regulations concerning the minimum instructional hour requirements for students, consistent with Education Law §3604(7). I mention this since our South Orangetown Central School District recently adopted the 2019 – 2020 School Year Calendar that reflects the changes to the law and provides for an “Annual Aggregate Minimum Hours” requirement. The law states that students in Kindergarten through grade six will be scheduled for a minimum of 900 hours over 180 days and students in grades seven through 12 will be scheduled for a minimum of 990 hours over 180 days. Our recently adopted school calendar (for the 2019 – 2020 school year) provides 936 hours for our elementary students and 1,022 for students who attend SOMS and TZHS. In summary, our school district exceeds the amount of instructional time that is required by NYS Education Law. Here are some additional items that we consider when planning the school calendar:
We do not include “snow day” (or emergency) closings, lunch, recess, or passing time in the hours counted toward “actual instructional or supervised study.”
Sessions are not held on legal holidays, Saturdays, or Sundays.
Sessions may only be held between September 1 and rating day in June (June 26, 2020 in next year’s calendar).
Aggregate annual hours must still be provided over 180 school days pursuant to Education Law §3604.
This is consistent with the Rockland BOCES calendar. An important feature is that our SOCSD calendar is synchronized (as closely as possible) with the BOCES calendar for the benefit of our many students who are enrolled in BOCES programs.
We look forward to doing great things in the years, days, and hours ahead – thank you for your continued support.
I recently had the opportunity to have lunch prepared by some of our Tappan Zee High School students at the Rockland County BOCES Culinary Arts Program. While I was eating my lunch, I had the impulse to give this meal a five-star review on Yelp. However, I had to continually remind myself that this was a Career and Technical Education program and not an exclusive restaurant listed on Yelp. I started with a mixed green salad with marinated cherry tomatoes and had a choice of two entrees. The entree I selected was a delicious, sauteed breast of chicken with artichoke hearts and roasted peppers, grilled baby carrots and roasted potatoes. For dessert, I had deconstructed raspberry cheesecake. The meal was amazing and reflected the culinary talents and personal dedication of the students. After lunch, I had the opportunity to meet with our Tappan Zee High School students enrolled in CTEC culinary arts training at Rockland BOCES (pictured below): Louis Rodriguez, grade 12; Tatiana Guzman, grade 11; and Elizabeth Caramante, grade 12.
from left to right: Louis Rodriguez, Dr. Pritchard, Tatiana Guzman, and Elizabeth Caramante
Later this month, Tatiana will compete in the Prostart Culinary Team Competition to be held at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. She and her team will prepare an entree of sauteed shrimp with eggplant and olive caponata with penne pasta in a sauce of red wine, EVO, and fresh herbs. All three of our TZHS culinary students have expressed a desire to connect their academic pursuits to their career interests. As educators, it is very compelling when we see students, such as these, create a program of study that is driven by their interests and a desire to hone their career skills. Many of our students involved in career and technical education are able to develop healthy and sustainable lifestyles that will allow them to focus on goals that can be achieved over a lifetime.
With voter support of our 2018-19 budget, SOCSD created 16 additional seats for students to attend Rockland BOCES Career and Technical Education programs and 4 additional Career Services Programs seats this school year. This is just one example of the many ways that we’re creating more opportunities and experiences to prepare students for life after graduation. In the weeks ahead, I look forward to sharing more information about what’s in the 2019-20 budget for the benefit of our young learners.
We are currently in the third quarter of the school year and this is a good time to check our bearings. As a New York State public school system, we assess the quality of student learning in accordance with indicators prescribed by the NYS Education Department. Through strategic oversight, the administrators and board of education collect and analyze evidence of success. These indicators are defined by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)and include student academic achievement, student growth and school progress, progress of English language learners, chronic absenteeism, and, for high schools,
graduation rates and preparing students for college, career and civic engagement. This is the “view from 30,000 feet.”
While this strategic perspective is helpful, it is equally important to understand what the ideal classroom should look like at the tactical level (or from the perspective of the learner). I frequently visit classrooms to ensure that the policies articulated in the boardroom are supportive of the work that we do in the classroom. During my classroom visits, I’m essentially asking one overarching question: Who owns the learning? A very simple answer to the question of “who owns the learning” can be viewed in those classrooms where the students are working at least as hard as the teachers – this optic is presented when students contribute to the creation of content, seek meaning of relevant curriculum on terms that are important to each, and an expressed desire to learn more. Beyond this, I rely upon eight elements to determine how well we are empowering students to “own the learning.” These “8 Things to Look for in Today’s Classroom” are described in detail in George Couros’ book, The Innovator’s Mindset and provide a framework of understanding as to how well we are meeting the needs of our learners (Couros, 2015).
8 Things to Look For in Today’s Classroom:
Voice
Choice
Time for reflection
Opportunities for innovation
Critical thinkers
Problem solvers/finders
Self-assessment
Connected learning
I am pleased to report that our teachers and students have taken this to heart when creating lessons and activities that empower and promote talent and creativity. If you would like to learn more about how we empower students, please click on the video below of our “Opening Day 2018-19” keynote address delivered to our staff on August 29, 2018. In this video, Dr. Nancy Sulla reviews how we promote executive function in our students to better foster student ownership of learning. Dr. Sulla has worked extensively with our instructional staff over the years to make our classrooms “learner active.” This video is about 40 minutes in length and captures those essentials that we use to develop lessons that build executive function in our students.
This past week, we launched ThoughtExchangein order to gain insight and to guide our strategic planning efforts. So far, the response has been great. Many of our community members and families have participated and have provided some very interesting feedback as to how we can make our communications effort even better. If you haven’t yet participated, I would encourage you to visit the site and give your opinions. And, if you have already participated, you can go back to the site to see what others have contributed. In a few weeks, we’ll do a thorough analysis as to what are the topics of greatest interest to the community and use this information to guide our strategic planning in the best interest of educating our students.
We started our community discussion with Focus Area C which addresses our ability to communicate and engage with our families. This seemed like the logical place to start. So, we asked the question, “what are the strengths and areas that we can improve upon in our district’s communication and community engagement efforts?” I read though many thoughtful responses that will be helpful to set goals and objectives to improve communications. To this end, we intend to incorporate all feedback into the planning process. However, during my initial screening of responses, one response in particular caught my attention immediately: “It would be nice for parents to have more access to curriculum info, what is expected from students…Kids do better academically when families are involved.” I absolutely agree with this and this aligns nicely with my working definition of family engagement which is that, “every parent should understand what their child is expected to know and be able to do by the end of the grade in which their child is enrolled.”
Along those lines, the best way to be engaged is by reviewing the curriculum maps for SOCSD. Dr. Brian Culot, our Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and the instructional coaches have made these curriculum maps accessible to all families as a resource. Please click on the link below if you would like to have a better understanding of the work that our students are doing at each grade level:
We will be doing a series of ThoughtExchanges with the community in the coming weeks in the other strategic focus areas. ThoughtExchange is a great way for us to “open a window of understanding” as to what truly matters to the community and, of equal importance, is our ability to listen to each other. Together we can!
The “Word of the Month” in our schools is compassion. I attended a student-led assembly at Cottage Lane Elementary School this morning and was greeted by our friendly students. The assembly started and here’s what the students had to say: “We are how we treat each other and nothing more.” I had to let that sink-in a little bit. “We are how we treat each other and nothing more,” I repeated to myself quietly. After stewing on this a bit, I felt a wave of inspiration. I was inspired to see that our children understand that their personal identities (their “insides”) are directly connected to the way they treat the people around them (their “outsides”).
At the beginning of the assembly, Mr. Schliessman (our CLE Assistant Principal) introduced me to the students as a special guest. The elementary school kids mostly know me as the “snow day guy” or the man who dismisses the schools early in case of an emergency. Mr. Schliessman saw this relationship between the students and I as a teachable moment and told them these acts of keeping students and staff safe (e.g., snow days and early dismissals) are compassionate acts. I very much appreciated Mr. Schliessman for helping the students make that connection, not only for the students but for me. I also feel great compassion for families who rely upon the staff at SOCSD to keep their students safe from harm – it’s not enough just to be physically safe (which is of utmost importance) but there also must be a feeling of safety. This feeling of safety is the result of our collective ability to be compassionate and to make sure that our “insides” match our “outsides” in the best possible way.
I have only been truly scared three times in my life (in no particular order): First, the day that my son was born he and my wife went through a difficult delivery; second, I was the target of a rocket attack in Afghanistan; and third was when I was a superintendent in another school district and the buses were traveling during a snowstorm. I can’t say specifically what I do when I am truly scared, but in general terms, it involves making an appeal to a higher spiritual power. What I can also say is that in all three instances above, I typically vow to never put myself, or those who I care about, in danger ever again. So I appreciate the staff members who notified me on Wednesday that a snow squall was headed our way and for all of the staff and families who worked together to avoid an unsafe situation. It is truly amazing when we all work together in a way that reflects the compassion that we have for each other.
As many of us are aware, making a resolution for the new year can be problematic because resolutions don’t really “stick.” These resolutions are an annual ritual that many of us go through in an attempt to affect change in our lives. As a school district, we effect change as part of a cycle of continuous improvement. I discussed this a little bit in a blog post I wrote in 2017. In that post, I mentioned that the process of change was every bit as important as the outcomes. Looking back, I can say that we have made improvements in all five of our Strategic Focus Areas.
Over the coming months, I’ll be asking our community for feedback (because feedback is an important component of the continuous improvement cycle). Sometime in February, I will be reaching out to engage the community in a ThoughtExchange. The ThoughtExchange platform will allow us to continue to refine our long-range planning and strategic outlook on what we want our schools to provide for our children. Our first ThoughtExchange will focus on communications and engagement.
In anticipation of this upcoming exchange, please reflect on these themes. Rest assured, I am looking forward to hearing more from you about how we can best continue our journey together as a community of learners. Thank you in advance for your continued support and best wishes for 2019!
