Parent, Community Partnerships Support School's Mission

Happy holidays to all of the visitors to our web site! We have been working hard to keep the information on our site informative, fresh and relevant. If you have time, I encourage you to explore the various dropdown menus and read about the many programs and services we provide to the students and the community. In addition, look for the links found on the home page which connect to current topics, including our recent Budget Listening Sessions and our new “Question and Answer” feature that is also found in the district’s newsletter, the Navigator.

As we enter this time for family and celebration, I believe it is critical to recall how important the mission of the school is. At the core of the mission statement itself are students. The school exists for the primary purpose of nurturing our young people to thrive in a changing world. Our long-term goals further define that mission to identify core benchmarks for measured success. And our new one-year priorities are in place to help us keep focused on a month-to-month basis as we strive to bring the very best teaching and learning opportunities to our children.

We recognize that our mission could not be accomplished without the strong and valuable partnerships that we have established on many levels. The critical “other half” of our mission statement refers to partnerships with family and the community, and we have many of these partnerships throughout our school community. From the multi-faceted parent involvement in various building-level and district-level committees, to our Parent Teacher Council and the Thunderbird Club, we have built solid relationships with parents. From exciting lease relationships with BOCES and the Chautauqua Lake Child Care Center to dynamic collaborative pilot programs with local businesses, we continue to seek out creative interactions with organizations that can lead to new learning opportunities for our students. From the new Budget Process links on our home page and the recent community-wide Budget Listening Sessions, to our accelerated budget calendar, we continue to involve taxpayers in understanding the complex and challenging issues of funding a public school system.

In addition, students, teachers, administrators, and the Board of Education are all well prepared to rise to the challenges of high accountability standards. We take the business of teaching and learning very seriously, and our results show it. As a “District in Good Standing” according to state assessment measures, we strive for success for all students. We are proud of accomplishments of our students and staff, such as the 2006 Blue Ribbon Award honoring achievements in our Middle Grades. We are also prepared to identify and plan for improvements in areas where we believe we can do better.

Sincerely,

Benjamin B. Spitzer, Superintendent