Happy Halloween Central Square!!!

School Board Recognition Week

Last week was the New York State School Boards Association sponsored School Board Recognition Week, and as always, our fantastic art teacher from PVM High School, Mrs. Staats organized this truly special event.  Students from various grade levels across the District presented Board Members with a special piece of art work at our Board of Education meeting on Monday, October 23.  This is always a very special time at Central Square because it is yet another opportunity to showcase our talented students' work.  We are so very proud of our fine arts department at Central Square and we will never leave out the 'A' in STEAM, as we feel that while Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, play key roles in preparing our students for success in the 21st Century, we also feel that the Arts play a significant role as well. 

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New York State Field Band Championship

Click HERE to view pictures from this week's Marching/Field Band Championship in the Carrier Dome. Congratulations to all of our student performers and to the staff, and a huge thank you to all of the parent/community volunteers that make this all possible, year after year. I have compiled just the Central Square photos from the Syracuse.com article.

 POWERFUL
 PERFORMANCE!!!

 SO MUCH TALENT!!!

 SO DEDICATED!!!
 

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Paul V. Moore High School To Present ‘Treasure Island’ Nov. 3-4

Paul V. Moore High School is proud to present “Treasure Island” on November 3 and 4 with the curtain opening at 7 p.m. on both evenings. 

Tickets are available at the door for $8 adults ($7 presale); $7 for students and senior citizens ($6 presale). Presale tickets can be reserved by email at jschantz@cssd.org.

“Treasure Island,” by Joseph George Caruso is adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel.

The play is directed by Jennifer Schantz and Katlin Ginney, and is produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc.

Come experience another amazing example of the talent that our fine arts department continues to produce.  Our students work so hard collaborating and preparing for these shows and its clearly shows.______________________________________________________________

CONGRATULATIONS
to all of our Fall Sports Teams!

Every Central Square Fall sports team made the playoffs in their respective sport.  This is a wonderful accomplishment and a testament to all of the hard work and dedication of our student-athletes, coaches, supportive parents, amazing fans (THE FLOCK), and Mr. Dranscak and Mrs. Hall from the athletic department, and all of our staff members that come out to support their current and past students.
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College and Career Readiness Committee

After blasting out an informational/invitation link to all staff members across the District last week, I have already received 36 interested staff members, which is wonderful because of the nature and goal of this particular committee. This week we will be sending out an email blast including the Google Form link to all parents/community members that have signed up to receive Central Square alerts via text message, or both.  If you have yet to sign up and would like to receive mass notification alerts throughout the year, click HERE and complete the required information (It is super easy and quick). We will also invite students to participate on this committee as well and we are collaborating on the best way to invite students as we would like a good cross section representing. Click HERE to view the informational/invitation form link that we are currently using to recruit interested members. For more information on the College and Career Readiness Committee, please view a prior blog I submitted on Wednesday, October 25, 2017, or scroll down to view it.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

MEMBERS WANTED...

We are creating a College and Career Readiness Committee at Central Square, and we are looking to recruit parents, students, staff, and local business owners/workers to be apart of this committee.  Preparing our students for college and/or career is essential for the success of all of our students and this effort and focus must begin in elementary so when students graduate from Paul V. Moore High School, they will be prepared for jobs that currently exist, and for those career fields that have yet to be created, but will be in existence when many of our students graduate.

This committee will meet five times throughout the year and we will determine the optimal meeting time once we get a better idea of those members that are interested, but it will likely be after 4:15 p.m. so that our elementary staff members can take part as well.  The goal for the College and Career Readiness Committee for the 2017-2018 school year will be the creation of the District-wide "Attributes of a Central Square Graduate," as well as the continued effort to build strong college and career pathways for our students.  Once the committee consisting of the groups of people mentioned above has identified and agreed upon what the attributes should be, we will then determine what those attributes should look like at the elementary level, at the middle school level, and at the high school level.  For example, if effective communication is a selected attribute, what does effective communication look like in first grade, in fifth grade, in seventh grade, and throughout the high school.  If problem-solving is an agreed upon attribute, then what does that look like at the elementary, middle, and high school grades.  It will be the expectation that these selected attributes will be the focus when teachers plan their lessons, when administrators plan professional development, and when the District engages in strategic planning and when the Board looks at making policy.  We believe that our mission statement and whatever attributes are selected must align to each other.

When looking at our work on our college and career pathways, we are excited to have local business owners/workers leading discussions during these committee sessions, as they have so much experience and knowledge pertaining to many different fields that our students and staff can benefit from.  We feel that this partnership with our local business owners/workers will provide our students with a better insight regarding the world after Paul V. Moore and for those students that will graduate from college, as well as students that look to go right into the career world following their time at Paul V. Moore, and for those students that look to enter the armed forces.

We will be soliciting community interest in joining this committee, and I will continue to meet with the local Chamber of Commerce, the Lions/Lioness Clubs, our local VFW's and American Legions, to further explain the purpose of this committee in hopes to get a good cross section of our community to join.  Like our District's slogan states, "As One We Rise, Together We Soar," we truly believe that the success of our school district and our local businesses are mutually dependent upon each other.

If you are interested, please click HERE and complete the very brief information form and I will be contact you directly.

Please feel free to contact me directly at 315-668-4220 if you need any further clarification.

Congratulations to our very own Master Teachers

We were delighted to hear that three Central Square teachers were accepted into the New York State Master Teachers Program.  This prestigious honor went to Gina Duggleby (science teacher at Paul V. Moore High School), Kathy Stropp (math teacher at Paul V. Moore High School), and Jaime Brown (math teacher at Central Square Middle School).  We are so proud of their accomplishment! View the article by clicking on the following link:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/who_are_new_york_states_214_new_master_teachers.html

Changing seasons...

                                          AND NOW ALMOST OVER

Congratulations to all of our sports teams that competed during the Fall, your hard work and sportsmanship made us all so very proud. Our student athletes excel in the classroom and in their respective athletic arenas, which is part of the well-rounded student that we continue to promote at Central Square.  Our coaches, volunteers, and Athletic Director and Athletic Assistant love what they do and it shows! Here are a few of the many highlights from the Fall sports season, and to see our Athletic page click here, http://www.cssd.org/athletics.cfm : 

• http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/-7670654510223750098/central-square-comes-back-runs-over-fulton/
• http://www.syracuse.com/hssports-special/2017/10/the_top_scorers_in_cny_high_school_football.html 
• http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/7190276369106226035/liverpool-shocks-central-square-with-late-touchdown/ 
• http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/news/article/6628077192067587384/watch-jamie-battaglias-big-night-leads-central-square-past-f-m/
• http://www.oswegonews.com/osw/central-square-football-playing-for-championship-against-fm-20171002
• http://www.oswegonews.com/osw/mccarthy-poised-for-big-finish-to-central-square-tennis-career-20170925 
• http://www.oswegonews.com/osw/mccarthy-qualified-for-states-20171016
• http://highschoolsports.syracuse.com/school/central-square-central-square/boysvolleyball/

Another amazing season for our Redhawk Regiment. See you all in the Carrier Dome on Sunday, October 29. I absolutely loved attending these performances to witness the incredible talent that we have in the Redhawk Regiment.

http://www.oswegonews.com/osw/3-oswego-county-bands-to-compete-for-state-honors-20171020

Here is a link to the field band page: https://centralsquaremusic.org/field-band/

We at Central Square are blessed with such talented well-rounded students. We had excellent community support and we thank all of our students' parents for loaning us such amazing people!!!

Sports Start Time Change Effective With The Start Of The Winter Sports Season

It is hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching November!

Our students continue to make headlines as they not only excel in the classroom, but also in their athletic arenas and in their many musical/band competitions.  I wanted to inform parents of the fifteen minute change to the sports start time, which will go into effect immediately following the Fall sports season. 

Why are we making this change?  We feel that providing opportunities for our students to participate in clubs, activities, sports teams, and our numerous bands is an essential part of the high school experience, and we want to remove any barriers that prevent them from being able to take advantage of participating in a club while also playing a sport or participating in our band. We are sending home letters to parents of students at our middle school and high school next week that will go into greater detail regarding this change and clarify what the supervised sports study hall/open gym will look like once the winter season begins. 

With the start of the winter sports season (in 2 to 3 weeks, depending on playoffs) Paul V. Moore High School's dismissal will remain at 2:47 pm everyday, with clubs/activities starting at 2:50 and ending at 3:20, with sports not starting before 3:30. The late (sports) bus runs from the middle school and PVM High School will be changed slightly to accommodate this change, and will be included in the parent letters going out next week. This will also benefit our PM BOCES students that sometimes (depending on the weather) return at 3:15, as they will have an opportunity to get to practice on time and not feel rushed. We really feel this change of 15 minutes will positively impact our students as the level of competition to get into colleges/universities continues to intensify, and we all want our students to have every opportunity to shine.

The following are clubs that our students can participate in at PVM High School:

• Art Club
• Big Brother/Big Sister
• Change
• Character Education
• DECA
• Drama Club
• Envirothon
• Field Band
• Jazz Band
• Language Club
• Math Team
• Mock Trial
• National Honor Society
• Ski Club
• Science Club
• School Newspaper
• Shakespeare Club
• Student Government
• Symphony Band
• Wind Ensemble
• Winter Guard

* While many of the clubs above take place from 2:50-3:20, a few are at night.

STUDENTS AND STAFF at Central Square: This Thursday, October 12, wear pink to show your support and encourage all cancer warriors! Donations can also be made (they are optional, of course) and will go to the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. The walk is on Sunday, October 15, and the link to join the CSSD team is below, for anyone interested.

 http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=2235658&fr_id=84659&pg=team

                                      GO REDHAWKS!!!