Welcome Back Message from the SOCSD Superintendent
Dear South Orangetown Families:
The start of the school year is a significant part of our culture here in the South Orangetown Central School District, so it is a great honor to welcome everyone back for the start of the 2015-16 school year! The “back-to-school” phenomenon affects all of us, and therefore we wish to extend this “welcome message” to the entire community. Our community has high expectations for our schools and everyone is welcomed to join us in supporting the growth of our talented students.
The staff and administrators have been busily preparing for the past several months to ensure that we meet the developmental needs of our students who will begin to form the basis of ideas and actions that will later provide for the advancement of our society and humanity. To this end, we have placed special emphasis on the enhancement of Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classrooms (LATI) where students will be able to take charge of their own learning. The LATI Classroom environment will be especially important since our students must know how to excel in a world where we are all interconnected; where people speak several languages; where information technologies provide for unlimited access to data; and where innovation and conceptual thinking will give them a competitive advantage in a global economy. It is our solemn belief that the solutions to the world’s most difficult challenges are sitting in our classrooms and the extra effort, that each of us provides, makes all the difference towards ensuring the success of our kids.
In addition to supporting improved student responsibility in classrooms that are equipped with 21st century technologies, our academic programs will continue to stress personal accountability and responsibility as a way of life for our students. This is aligned with our District Goal of “Fostering a Respectful Learning Environment.” We, as adults, will continue to stress these characteristics at home and in school. While academic content and related standards are important, it is even more critical that our students are accountable for their successes and have the life-skills to respond appropriately when experiencing the occasional setback (e.g., not blaming others for failure, seeking alternative solutions, perseverance, etc.). As such, we aspire to a renewed sense of connecting academic learning to real-world problem solving where character counts.
To this end, I encourage all parents and community members to get involved and stay involved throughout the school year. As a family or community member with children at home, you can help your student(s) by learning more about what each should know and be able to do by the end of the grade-level in which he or she is currently enrolled. This can be accomplished by asking open-ended questions about what your child learned in school that day, reading their homework and attending school events to learn about what their teachers expect.
The SOCSD team (which includes the PTA and Instructional/Support Staffs) is available to address any questions you may have about our school district and/or how we may better serve the students of the South Orangetown Central Schools. Our collaborative efforts and partnerships will ensure that our children succeed and reach their full potential. Have a great year!
Sincerely,
Robert R. Pritchard, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
