Dear Bedford Central School District Parents and Community!
As you may know, I use the phrase, “School the Way it Oughta Be” often. As a child of the ‘50s I remain nostalgic for field trips, creative writing, projects, reading really thick books, being involved in activities, and more – and I hope we retain this and more in schools forever.
Earlier this week, Tim Gembka and I were walking through several classrooms at Pound Ridge (and observed all students engaged as can be, their brains working, figuring out math problems, learning math terminology (I learned about “friendly numbers” in rounding), and more.
As we entered Eva Klatt’s kindergarten classroom, the children were voting! Of course they were - it was election day and that’s what you do on election day – you vote! In this case, students were voting on the type of Oreo cookie they prefer. After they voted, they would count the votes (and probably enjoy the winning and losing cookies).
Problem solving and active figuring out the language mathematics and voting in kindergarten!
That is “School the Way it Oughta Be!”
Sincerely,
Jere Hochman, Superintendent of Schools
In this Edition:
Board of Education News
District News
Community News
Board of Education News:
- The Board of Education will meet next on November 13, 2013. The District's external auditor is scheduled to present the District's external audit report. Beth Staropoli, Director of Health, Athletics and PE, will present the "State of Athletics" report and Mark Betz, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Administrative Services, will present a report on the District's transportation services and food service operations. Please check the website for the exact starting time of the meeting.
District News:
- Snow: It’s that time to be prepared. The good news is we made it through October (October?) without snow. As in the past, we will communicate through:
- Mr. Betz’s wake-up call on School Messenger
- Text message if you signed up for that (see below for more information)
- Twitter @bcsdnotes
- Facebook - bcsdny
- The usual television and radio stations
- Website center screen – www.bcsdny.org
- Calling 241-6000
The call will either be a “No School” or “Two-hour delay.” We do have a “Three-hour delay” that is rarely used but could, if necessary. I know everyone prefers a “night before” decision but calling off school on a forecast is risky. I know that early dismissals are difficult, too, but sometimes they are a necessity. If there is no school, there are no after-school or evening meetings or events on our campuses. And, as we learned last week with an early morning power outage at West Patent, an unanticipated dismissal can occur at any time due to a power outage, water main break, or some other reason. Please be sure you have your back-up plans in place for an early dismissal – even if it’s a beautiful sunny day.
- Text messaging: The district will be sending a test text message to all parents currently enrolled in our communication system next week. Parents that do not receive the test text message and wish to receive future text messages from the District, in addition to our already established telephone and email communication methods, should follow these steps to enroll:
- Text 'yes' to 684-53 to register your phone number with the calling system (to opt out, text 'no' to 684-53)
- Contact the school main office to confirm that your number is listed in our Student Information System properly.
- Race to the Top – FYI: On Wednesday, I will recommend to the Board of Education that we withdraw from Race to the Top. This does not change our compliance with components of RTTT. It does, however, keep us from having to select one of three “data dashboard” vendors. We already use eSchoolData to communicate with our parents and to monitor student progress. Selecting another “portal” would be redundant and we seek further assurance about the security of the data.
Staff News:
- Congratulations to Eva Klatt who has received her recertification from the National Board. The recertification validates that she has continued her professional practice and involvement in a way that is consistent with the high and rigorous National Board standards. Eva’s renewal submission called the Profile of Professional Growth® (PPG), articulated that her teaching practices continue to align with the Five Core Propositions in her certificate area. The Profile of Professional Growth is a single submission composed of three interrelated components and a reflection. These components draw upon a single group of Professional Growth Experiences (PGEs) that the teacher selects. Congratulations to Eva for taking on this daunting, professional challenge.
- Special thanks to Visual Arts Department Coordinator Heather Kranz for her work with the Katonah Museum and the Bruce Museum who are both having portrait exhibits this fall. The Katonah Museum approached Heather about presenting to other educators on the "Collection Piece" portrait project that she has done with the AP Art students for the past few years. (Many have probably seen them prominently displayed in the entrance to the HS.) Heather brought our Bedford District philosophy and K-12 department approach to teaching art. Heather’s presentation was a huge success after which the Director of the Museum, Karen Stein, asked Heather to work with her on a more extensive, collaborative project to develop a forum for discussion on how to foster creativity and 21st Century skills within the context of the Common Core. Congratulations Heather!
- Congratulations to Margaret Rose Goodman, ECT at WPES, who presented on the implementation of WPES' character education initiative at the National Character Education Partnership Convention last week in Washington, DC. Margaret Rose also received an award from the National Character Education Partnership for best practices in character education. Here is the blurb from the convention booklet highlighting the key elements of her presentation. Making it Work! Developing an Effective, Viable Character Education Initiative . Learn how to develop or strengthen a viable character education initiative. Workshop participants will explore essential elements and best practices in character education. Time also will be devoted to how character education can be embedded in the curriculum, especially through the medium of quality children’s literature and lesson plans which incorporate ELA Common Core content skills and understandings. Margaret Rose Goodman is the elementary consulting teacher and character education coordinator at West Patent Elementary School in Bedford Hills, NY. She has been an educator for more than 30 years and has taught elementary and middle school, both in Ireland and in the United States.
Community News: (Note – Community News items are just that, community news. these are not “school sponsored” activities or endorsements, just items from our community partners, public service-type announcements, and helpful information.)
- Fox Lane Sports Booster Club: Please mark your calendars - hold the date! The Bowl-a-thon, begins at 6:00 pm Friday Jan. 10th and runs non-stop for 24 hours until Saturday 6:00 pm.
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