How I delay or close school...

What goes into calling a 2 hour delay or school closing:
As I described in a November superintendent blog post (seen below), a lot goes into the decision to delay and/or close school. I wake up every morning at 3:45 AM from November to April 1st (give or take depending on the year and the weather patterns) and check on a number of factors that go into the final decision regarding whether or not I will have to delay two hours or close. Since our District is so large, geographically speaking, a one hour delay is pointless in the majority of cases. We (Transportation Supervisor, John Pierce, Director of Facilities, Paul Brissette, and myself) contact the highway crews who are in contact with the town supervisors, all the superintendents in Oswego County as well as some in Onondaga County as Brewerton is located in Onondaga County, our Director of Facilities and our Director of Transportation, who are in frequent contact with their counterparts throughout Oswego County. I also am watching numerous weather reports on television and on my computer at home in the very early hours. It is never a perfect science, but student and staff safety is always my top priority and I will never put them in jeopardy to save the five allotted emergency days that we have to draw from each year. The two snow days I called this year in November were a result of the highway crews informing us that a two hour delay was not enough to keep up with the constant snow fall. On the second snow day in November, it was reported by the Town of Hastings and Constantia that there were numerous trees down blocking many roads that were not passible. The heavy snow was weighing down trees on power lines causing thousands to go without power in the towns of Hastings and West Monroe. For today’s (Wednesday, January 23, 2019) snow day it was significantly different than the prior two, as this one was the result of multiple forecasts that predicted patches of intermitting rain that was supposed to hit the ground and freeze. I was watching the weather reports at 4 AM and all meteorologists were calling for freezing rain until 1 PM (however it is currently 2:15 pm and there is still freezing rain in many parts of our District). I called a 2 hour delay as many districts did to have more time to make this decision, but the forecasts were not improving and I have to make the decision to close schools (if that is the decision I will make) long before the 2 hour delay expires because we have bus drivers coming to the bus garage long before that to pick up students from all across the District to bring to PVM and CSMS, as they are the first bus runs each day. I did not cancel school on January 10, 2019 when it was snowing steadily in the morning because all of the reports we received from the towns’ crews and some town supervisors was that although there was steady snow, it was forecasted to stop, and it did. I did however call a two hour delay to get daylight to help improve visibility. All reports showed that we were good to open schools and we could safely transport students to and from school so we did. This past Tuesday, there were several people inquiring as to why we did not cancel school because of the wind chill temperatures, so please allow me to clarify that as well. School districts use anywhere between a -20’ wind chill to -25’ wind chill temperature as the threshold to close school. The Onondaga County Commissioner of Health recommends schools close when wind chill temperatures reach -20’. The coldest wind chill temperatures we experienced throughout all of our District never exceeded -9’ during the hours when students of any grade level would have been at their bus stops exposed to the elements. No one, including myself, is disputing the fact that it was cold out, as clearly it was, but in regards to closing due to the wind chill, we will close when it is in the high negative teens and colder depending on all factors considered. Please feel free to email me at any time at tcolabufo@cssd.org or call me at my office at 315 668-4220 extension 70221 and I will call you all back and answer any of your questions.

November Superintendent blog: https://cssdsuperintendent.blogspot.com/2018/11/

Here is the wind chill chart from the National Weather Service:

January Updates...

Feedback with the Superintendent

Besides anyone always being able to contact me by phone or in person, I scheduled 6 "Feedback with the Superintendent Sessions" in the fall, winter and spring.  The next feedback session is at 7 AM and again at 6 PM on Tuesday, January 15, 2019.  I will be giving general updates on our capital project, safety and security updates, college and career pathways, and then taking questions, and listening to all feedback that is brought up.  Fresh coffee will be served!

College and Career Readiness

Our next College and Career Readiness Committee is scheduled for 6 PM on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, and all are welcome to attend, as we really value different perspectives.  After successfully accomplishing our primary goal as a Committee last school year to establish the Attributes of a Central Square Learner (Seen on this hyperlink: Attributes List), the Committee's goal for the 2018-2019 school year is to strengthen our pathways for students by enhancing the job shadowing and internship opportunities we provide our students at PVM High School with, as well as increasing the number of mentors that represent multiple careers that our students are interested in gaining first hand experience in.  The District has reestablished our partnership with Partners for Education & Business and we will be hearing from one of their representatives on Wednesday at our Committee meeting at 6 PM Wednesday, January 16, as mentioned above. Our mission is to provide all of our students with several "real world" opportunities to match their interests, aptitude, and passion, with the many careers that are waiting upon graduation from PVM and/or College.  The following is an extremely brief clip of Deb O'Mara explaining just a few of the job shadowing learning trips that encompass the career exploration that takes place within our Career Center that she oversees at PVM High School. (video clip)
Before transitioning to a career in education several years ago, Mrs. O'Mara was highly successful in the business world, thus providing her with a unique perspective that allows her to have a keen understanding of what is needed to succeed in many career fields, all of which greatly benefit our students at Central Square.

Capital Project Update:The capital project that was approved in May of 2017 is moving along nicely.  To someone not familiar with the State regulations that accompany all capital projects, it may seem like a very slow process as it is 2019 and the work is not quite halfway completed.  Central Square, similar to every school district in New York State, all must comply with every regulation as well as the bidding process and the many safety rules and regulations that pertain to any and all construction work on buildings occupied by students and staff. With that said, the District's architects, King + King Architects and the District's construction management firm, Turner Construction, have done an excellent job keeping District administration and our Board of Education, as well as our community through regular public capital project updates at Board of Education meetings in open session, well informed of their progress, as well as any issues that present themselves along the way.  Our buildings are older and in most cases reveal things that need to be repaired that we would not have been made aware of during the required building condition surveys that all NYS school districts are required to have done every few years.  When these situations appear, King + King and Turner Architects keep us informed as to how we should proceed in rectifying the situation that are cost effective, but first and foremost, are the safest outcomes for our students and staff that occupy the buildings. We will be hosting a community informational forum at MHE on Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 6 PM-7:30 PM, where we will be discussing how we will be utilizing Central Square Intermediate (CSI), which was closed two years ago during an elementary consolidation, located next door to Millard Hawk Elementary as swing space for specific grade levels for the 2019-2020 school year.  We purposely only informed the parents/guardians of Millard Hawk Elementary about this community forum because everything that will be discussed only impacts the Millard Hawk Elementary community and we wanted to provide this group with ample amount of time to hear the plan and ask questions.  We are very fortunate to have the CSI building to use as swing space while work is being done on parts of MHE. King + King Architects and Turner Construction will be presenting at our next Board of Education meeting on January 28, 2019, at 6:30 PM at the PVM High School cafeteria. They will give an overall update of the district-wide capital project as well as introducing our efforts towards an additional safety and security project that is also of major importance to our District and school community.

Central Square's new Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services:
The District recognizes the continuous effort Mrs. Teresa Ross gave the students, staff, and parents in the Central Square Central School District for 34 years, as she held several different positions prior to retiring on January 1, 2019. Mrs. Ross' last position was that of Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services, and she has passed the baton to newly hired, Ms. Michele Alagna, as she joined our Central Square team on January 2, 2019.  Ms. Alagna came to us from Citi BOCES where she held the title of Assistant Director of Exceptional Education. Ms. Alagna comes to us with a lot of experience in the field of special education, and we feel she will be an excellent addition to our team and will do an amazing job supporting the needs of our special education students and staff throughout the District. To learn more about Ms. Alagna, view her introduction letter she sent to all parents/guardians with children receiving special education services. (Introduction letter) 

Safety and Security Update:
The District continues to make improvements regarding the overall safety and security of our schools as we have had several meetings with Armoured One, The NYS Troopers, the Oswego County Sheriff's Department, the Central Square Village Police Department, the Oswego County District Attorney, Greg Oakes, and our own Special Patrol Officers assigned to our District on a full time basis.  Today, Monday, January 14, 2019, PVM Special Patrol Officer Locastro and Central Square Village Police Chief Ed Carrol led a safety drill where the students and staff practiced what they have been informed to do in the event of a lockdown at PVM High School.  We utilized feedback from Armoured One and other law enforcement agencies, including the use of the K-9 Unit, and we were very pleased with how students and staff responded throughout the safety drill.  At our next Board of Education meeting on January 28, 2019, at 6:30 PM in the PVM High School cafeteria, we will be discussing what our safety and security capital project will look like.  This will include many aspects of security improvement such as the redesigning of each of our school's entrances, and other changes to our schools that will improve their safety and security.  The architects from King + King Architects and construction manager firm (Turner Construction) will be there presenting the Board of Education with this information.  Besides the hardening of our schools, we will continue to conduct safety drills, similar to the safety drill conducted today at PVM, at each of our schools.  Some of our Board of Education members accompanied me to the Oswego Community Safety Forum held at Citi BOCES on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, and we quickly realized the need to meet with all of the first responders that operate anywhere within the Central Square School District, including all fire fighters, law enforcement, EMTs, both ambulance companies (Menter Ambulance Service and North Shore Ambulance), and any other crises response unit that would come in the event of an emergency involving any of our schools in the District. At this meeting (not opened to the public because we will never advertise our safety plans because in the wrong hands it could be extremely dangerous) we will formulate clear plans based on each particular school and how each emergency unit will work in unison to avoid any confusion and be as efficient as possible in the moment when clear thinking and clear plans are a necessity. Central Square Police Chief Ed Carrol will be organizing this roundtable meeting and our administrative staff will be present.