Budget, Safety and Security Capital Project, and Board of Education Vote on May 21...

Happy Nurses and Teacher Appreciation Week

We are extremely fortunate to have such amazing educators and nurses in our schools providing our students with knowledge, love, laughter, and compassion each and every day. We thank them for 
all that they do!
Technology Integration and ENGAGEMENT!

The students in Ms. Burns' 5th grade class at Brewerton Elementary really loved being able to share their augmented reality models depicting their rainforest research.  When their teacher asked them for feedback about the possibility of using this process in the future, they responded with a resounding “YES!”  They told her that they thought creating the model was very challenging, but one of their favorite activities so far.  The class came up with a list of other applications for using Augmented Reality in he future, and they all apperaed so excited and engaged in the lesson. For more on Augmented Reality used in schools, view the following link https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/augmented-reality-education/. Excellent job, Ms. Burns.  I was in that classroom and I was completely blown away by how into the lesson these students were. 100% STUDENT ENGAGEMENT!!!

CSI as "Swing Space" for 2019-20120

We are now in Phase 2 of the 2017 capital project and our architects have identified the areas of MHE that will be impacted during the construction and those classrooms will be emptied for the duration of the 2019-2020 school year.  We have selected the 4th and 5th grade (6 classrooms in total) be relocated to Central Square Intermediate School for the 2019-2020 school year. To avoid additional expenses, we will have the special areas teachers travel between Millard Hawk Elementary (MHE) and CSI, similar to how it was when CSI was operating as a regular school a few years ago. To also save the District money, I (Superintendent) will be operating out of CSI for next school year (savings is $60,000 because it is $200/day for an interim principal if we had hired one because we need an administrator in that building even though the Principal at MHE will remain the principal of record, doing all evaluations of staff at MHE and CSI. I will perform the day to day administrative needs of the school, but Mrs. Viel will handle all large disciplinary issues as well as communicating with the 4th and 5th grade parents housed at CSI. Also, my secretary will also operate out CSI and take on all the additional responsibilities of an elementary building secretary, instead of hiring another building secretary for $65,000 (salary and benefits). We will be hiring a school nurse that will be housed in CSI. For long term CSI planning purposes, our Executive Director for Student Support Services has been planning and analyzing which special education and non-special education programs that the District currently utilizes through BOCES (outside the District), can be housed at CSI for 2020-2021that will continue to be housed at CSI into the future. It will also allow these students that are currently busses to alternative programs out of our School District to feel part of our Central Square school community, which is important to them and to us. Our goal is to establish these programs at CSI starting in the 2020-2021 school year. If we did not have CSI to use as a "swing space," the work would have been bid out much differently, and given the current state of school construction bidding, it would have been exceedingly costly for the District because it would have required a construction workers to only work after school hours and have all classrooms within the construction zone to be cleaned prior to the start of each morning. This would have also been very costly because we were told by our Construction Managers, Turner Construction, that it would have doubled the length of the project, drastically increasing the cost to the District.

Budget/Safety & Security Capital Project/BOE Vote on May 21
New Voting Times: (6 am-9pm): In the past, polls opened at 10 am, now the polls will open at 6 am, which has been requested by community members for quite some time, but securing that many certified machine inspectors and poll workers for 5 locations would be extremely difficult to achieve had we stayed with 5 voting locations. All registered voters will receive a card in the mail informing them whether they are to go to Voting District 1 or Voting District 2, approximately one week prior to the May 21 vote. Click on the visual above to see a larger picture of it.
Four Candidates For The 3 Available BOE Seats

Randy Hoyt
Randy L. Hoyt is a life-long resident of the Central Square School District and has lived in the Village of Central Square for over 20 years and has lived in the Town of Hastings for 50 yrs.  He earned his Bachelor degree in 1993 from SUNY Oswego, is a 1988 graduate of Paul V. Moore High School and a 2001 graduate of Leadership Oswego County. Randy has previously served on the Central Square School District Board of Education for 18 years.  He is also currently serving as a Board of Education Member for Oswego BOCES (CITI BOCES).

Randy has been employed with Fulton Savings Bank for 24 years.  His current position is a Branch Officer and Mortgage Loan Coordinator.  In this capacity, he has worked in the Fulton, Hannibal, Phoenix, Central Square, Constantia and Brewerton townships in which he has created many strong personal and professional relationships.  His wife, Lori Lemm, is also a graduate from both alma maters and is a science teacher with Citi BOCES.  They have been married for 20 years and are the parents of two children.  One child who graduated from Paul V. Moore High School and is working on becoming an RN and the other is an 8th grade student at Central Square Middle School.

As a member of the Central Square Board of Education, Randy has been on the School Board Policy Committee, the Audit Committee and the District Level Shared Decision-Making Committee.  He has served as an adopted board member for Central Square Middle School and Millard Hawk Elementary Schools.  As a BOCES member, he currently sits on the Audit Committee. Randy is very active in his children’s extracurricular activities and family endeavors.  He also has been and continues to be an active participant in various civic and academic organizations throughout the Oswego and Onondaga Counties and it is not uncommon to see him and his family volunteering for these organizations.  During their spare time he and his family enjoy their camp in Redfield, NY.

Timothy McCarthy
Tim, his wife Beth and 2 children (Ryan, age 21 and Erin, age 19) have resided in Central Square for the past 27 years. Tim brings to the table over 36 years of effective leadership and management experience throughout his career with Sodexo (a national contract management company).     He served on the West Monroe planning and town boards for several years.  If re-elected, Tim remains committed to serving all students, staff and residents of the district.  He has worked diligently to make fact-based decisions that positively impact all stakeholders and will continue to work to help position our school district to successfully meet both the economic and academic regulatory challenges currently before us.  Tim states, “I would be honored to continue to serve the school district and our community in this capacity”.   

Cathie Sundet
My name is Cathie Sundet and I’d appreciate your support on May 21st for a seat on the Central Square School District Board of Education.

I have lived in the district since 1991 and currently reside in West Monroe with my husband, Vern, and our three children Cayley (a Junior), Joshua (8th grade) and Abbie (6th grade). I have served over 32 years in the US Air Force and the NY Air National Guard; 12 years as a Radar Maintenance Technician and 20 years as a Cyberspace Officer. My current assignment is Inspector General with the Eastern Air Defense Sector in Rome.

The knowledge and experience I’ve gained throughout my military career will bring value to our school board. I have vast experience leading small and large groups of people, making tough decisions regarding programs and budgets, and developing and overseeing training. I’ve taken government fiscal law courses, managed multi-million-dollar budgets and systems, and led contracting and civil engineering teams on capital projects. In my current position I am focused on ensuring we meet requirements, manage risk and become more efficient and effective in our operations.

When my children attended A.A. Cole I was able to be a “room parent”, a centers helper and a chaperone. These opportunities gave me a glimpse into how education was delivered in our classrooms, and an appreciation of the challenges our teachers sometimes face. Now that my children are involved in sports, math club, and various bands and choruses, I am getting an up-close perspective on how these types of activities positively impact our kids’ education.

I am driven to help ensure Central Square is a district which delivers a high-quality education with a variety of engaging extracurricular activities while remaining fiscally responsible to our tax payers. That is why I volunteered to be on our district’s College & Career Readiness Committee for the past two years, and why I’m asking for your support for school board.

Jamie Coppola

My name is Jamie Coppola and I am running for the Central Square Board of Education.  I am a 1988 Central Square graduate.  I graduated with a Regents high school diploma and was a three-sport athlete.  I went on from high school to attend college and graduated from St. Lawrence University, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Science.  I continued on another year at St. Lawrence University to get my Master’s Degree in General Studies.  Immediately after, I was employed by the Central Square School District as the Physical Education teacher at Brewerton Elementary.  While working at Brewerton Elementary, I coached three sports for Central Square and started taking courses to get my CAS in Educational Administration from Oswego State University.  I completed my internship at Central Square Middle School as Assistant Principal and also did a half year interim Assistant Principal position there as well.  Shortly after, I was hired at APW as the full time Assistant Principal at their middle school.  Six months into the position, I was hired to be their middle school Principal and did that for ten years.  The next six years, I was the high school Principal.  After two successful principalships, I became the K-12 Director of Health, Physical Education, and Athletics.  I am currently in my fifth year in this role.  I have been a resident of the Central Square district for twenty-three years, married to my wife, Marci, for fifteen years, and a father of four.  My oldest has already graduated from Central Square and I still have three more in the system, two at the middle school and one at Millard Hawk Elementary.  I coached pee wee wrestling and also little league baseball in the community for the past few years.  As you can see, I have a vested interest in the Central Square School District and want to continue on with that by becoming part of the Central Square Board of Education.

Citizenship Awards for 2019-2020Click on the following link to view all of the Citizenship Award winners for the 2018-2019 school year, https://tinyurl.com/Citizenship-Awards-2019 

The following members of the Greater Fort Brewerton and Oneida Lake Chamber of Commerce donate in the form of gift certificates each month so two students from Central Square Middle School and two students from Paul V. Moore High School are randomly selected that have no behavioral referrals, and are presented these amazing gift certificates from Rosie's Corner (https://www.facebook.com/rosiescorner/), the Brewerton Diner (https://www.facebook.com/BrewertonDiner/), Joa's Pizza (https://www.facebook.com/Joas-Pizza-149499535079715/), and Brewerton Special Tees (https://www.facebook.com/BrewertonTees/). We are blessed to have so many local businesses that believe in our mission "to empower all students to excel in a changing world."  We want to thank these amazing businesses for their continued generosity and support for the students of the Central Square School District, which truly exemplify our District's slogan, "As one we rise, together we soar."