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.

  

Winter has arrived in Oswego County...

College and Career Readiness...

Our College and Career Readiness Committee, consisting of over 100 members, met throughout the 2017-2018 school year and has already met twice over the fall diligently focusing on our 2018-2019 goal, which is to increase and strengthen our mentoring/job shadowing/internship opportunities for our students in the Central Square Central School District. With a focus on the students at PVM High School, this committee, consisting of staff members, local business owners/workers, and workers from companies and colleges/universities from the greater Upstate New York area, did a wonderful job accomplishing last year’s initial goal of establishing the “Attributes/Competencies of a Central Square Learner,” seen here: https://tinyurl.com/Attributes-Competencies-CS

The committee has already begun the process for recruiting quality mentors and job shadowing and internship opportunities, which will provide our students with firsthand knowledge and on the job exposure to the career field that is currently of interest to them. Our hope is to either validate their potential career plan, or equally important, realize that it is not for them once they see what working in a particular field is actually like. We have already been able to place PVM students in different job shadowing locations and the feedback we are getting from the students and their parents has been extremely positive. If you or someone you work with would be interested in presenting to our students, hosting a student for a job shadow, supervising a student for an internship, or being a mentor, please complete the survey at this link: http://tinyurl.com/C-C-Readiness-Survey

Capital Project... After the voters passed the Capital Project Referendum on May 16, 2017, that highlighted much needed improvements on all of our schools and facilities, we have made significant progress regarding the overall scope of work highlighted in phase one of the project. Several parents and community members have shared positive feedback regarding the noticeable upgrades that have been made to our buildings and grounds. The Central Square Central School District has not had a district-wide capital project in over a decade, resulting in a very large scope of work that has taken place during the summer months when school was not in session. We would like to thank the staff, parents, students, and community members for being so understanding and patient throughout the first half of this massive capital project, that when completed will provide our community with schools that are not only safe, but will also provide our students with a sense of pride. Our Director of Facilities, Mr. Paul Brissette, and his amazing maintenance and custodial crews worked tirelessly to allow for school to start on time in September, and that was a herculean task, but one that they achieved by working as a team, and we are all so grateful for their efforts. To view the original capital project flyer (seen above) click on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/Capital-Project-2017-Flyer To view the progress we have achieved through phase one of the project, view the following link: https://tinyurl.com/Capital-Project-Slides-2018, and to view all information pertaining to the Capital Project, click on the following link housed on our District website: https://tinyurl.com/Capital-Project-2018

Daniel Baldwin Presents at the December Redhawk University...Daniel Baldwin is “sharing his experiences, strength and hope” at the next exciting installment of Central Square School District’s Redhawk University on Friday, December 7. Daniel Baldwin is an actor, director and a member of the Central Square community, and would like to share his story regarding his battle with addiction. His goal is to give hope, strength and resources to help our community at large. The Redhawk University program is designed to inform the public about topics and issues that directly impact students and the community at large. Redhawk University is a monthly series of workshop presentations throughout the school year. Each is free to the community and includes guest speakers, along with other professionals to discuss relevant topics. The target audience for these informational sessions are our students’ parents/guardians and any interested community members, with the goal of keeping them informed on many important topics that impact our student population. These sessions are designed and facilitated by our Dean of Students and veteran staff member at Paul V. Moore High School, Mr. Damon Villnave, and our Director of Student Supports and Interventions, with over twenty years of experience and expertise in the area of school social work, Ms. Jennifer DiBianco. The primary objective is to provide important information and valuable resources on a variety of topics so we can strengthen the homeschool partnership with the common goal of “empowering all students to excel as citizens in a changing world.” There is no doubt that our students are faced with difficult issues and decisions that we simply did not face when many of us were students. It is only through strong lines of communication between the schools and our students’ parents/guardians that we can truly be successful in providing the safest experiences for our student body. Redhawk University runs for approximately one hour, each slated from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. Paul V. Moore High School hosts these events, with light refreshments being provided. “The Central Square School District is proud to have Mr. Daniel Baldwin speak about how experience, strength and hope helped him overcome addiction and how those attributes can provide a foundation of support for you or someone you care about,” said Villnave. Additional installments of the series include topics such as mental health, suicide prevention, internet safety, distracted driving, alcohol and drug prevention. For a full listing of Redhawk University workshops, please visit the District website at www.cssd.org.

Two snow days and it's only November...I wake up every morning at 3:45 am from late October 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 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, our Director of Facilities and our Director of Transportation.  I also am watching numerous weather reports on television and on my computer at home. 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. Both of the snow days I called this year 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 last snow day, 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. 

The Citizenship Incentive Awards..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."

College and Career Readiness...

I am reposting the below blog entry that I had originally posted in August, 2018, for those that did not get an opportunity to read it, and then I am providing an update, as the College and Career Readiness Committee has played, and will continue to play, a key role for the District for years to come.

In the Fall of 2017 we created the College and Career Readiness Committee with a clear focus to identify and continuously work to strengthen the pathways our students can select that will best prepare them for their future following their graduation from Paul V. Moore High School. The committee, consisting of over 150 staff, parents, students, local business owners/workers, business partners, college admissions staff, and other interested community members, met several times throughout the 2017-2018 school year and were extremely successful in accomplishing goal number one, which was to identify the attributes/competencies that we want all Central Square learners not only to possess, but also excel in. Students enter at the Pre-Kindergarten level and before you know it, they are entering high school, and we need to make sure that we have done our very best job in preparing them all for college and/or career following their graduation from PVM High School. To better accomplish this, we are taking a systematic approach to strengthen the consistency of our Pre-Kindergarten-12th grade program. The following list of attributes/competencies is the result of many hours of collaboration between the Committee and administration: 
https://tinyurl.com/Attributes-Competencies-CS  

Besides identifying these essential attributes/competencies, the Committee had several guest speakers, some of whom were former graduates from Central Square, that spoke about the pathway they had selected while at PVM and how the courses they selected at PVM and/or CiTi BOCES greatly prepared them for life after high school.  They also provided feedback and suggestions on other courses we should offer that would further strengthen our pathway options. The goal of the College and Career Readiness Committee for 2018-2019 is to not only continue to strengthen our pathways through rigorous course offerings, as well as requiring all students to meet with their school counselor a minimum of twice each year, but by the end of this school year, we will identify the best approach to provide students with systematic opportunities to develop each of the attributes/competencies according to their grade level.  We fully recognize that being an effective communicator and collaborator, innovative and critical thinker, emotionally intelligent, and a contributing citizen will look different at the primary, intermediate, middle school, and high school levels. 

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to provide students with valuable information regarding their individual areas of strength and the possible careers that would best match their abilities.  We are having all 10th grade students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, better known as the ASVAB.  I am sure many parents will be initially concerned about the ASVAB as many parents do not want their child being recruited for the military and may think this is a recruiting ploy. I assure you it is not, and every parent must provide consent if they want the military to get the results.  In speaking with different branches of the military, they fully understand that the majority of parents check the box that prohibits the military's use of this data and they cannot even attempt to contact students. They understand that most utilize the ASVAB to help students identify which career pathway would be the best fit.  However, Central Square has a proud contingent of alumni that are active and veterans in the United States Armed Forces and providing students with the opportunity to take the ASVAB at no cost as many times as they wish absolutely benefits those students looking to enlist after PVM or attend college on an ROTC scholarship and then enter the military.  The reason why this is huge for those students looking to enter the military (any branch) is because if students go to a recruiter to take the ASVAB (as it is a requirement to enter the military) the students can only take it once and that score literally dictates which type of program they can enter, which essentially leads to a career closely associated with the work performed in that type of program.  If a school district administers the ASVAB, the students can take it as many times as they want starting in their junior year and only their highest score counts, which greatly benefits the students. The ASVAB is an aptitude assessment consisting of four parts: Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, and Mathematical Knowledge. Take a look at a very quick video clip: https://youtu.be/S_c588QTR2s  

Our goal with having all 10th graders take the ASVAB is to provide the them with valuable information regarding the connection between their strengths and possible career pathways, but also to provide them with time to take the right courses for them according to their desired pathway. This information will add to the meaningful conversations between the school counselors, students, and parents/guardians. While we are planning to have all 10th graders take this exam, we are still providing the opportunity for any 11th-12th grade students if they are interested,which will be completely optional, and again, at no cost. The high school administration, district office administration, and school counselors will have evening information sessions in September about the ASVAB for any students and parents/guardians that are interested.  

As I mention above, in what seems to be a blink of an eye, students enter the ninth grade and then are graduating, and we need to provide students with not only rigorous course offerings but we also need to provide each of them with as much information regarding their individual areas of strength that most students go through high school never realizing. We feel that the ASVAB (whether or not you allow the military to get the results) will be a huge leap forward in assisting students with the career pathway that best suits them. More to come..

If you are interested in joining our College and Career Readiness Committee, we would love to have you! We meet from 6pm-7:30pm in the PVM High School Cafeteria on the September 19, 2018, November 13, 2018, January 16, 2019, March 14, 2019, and May 15, 2019. If you are interested in joining, please email Pearl Horn at phorn@cssd.org and please write "College and Career Readiness Committee" in the subject line.  Hope to see you on September 19.

Above was the blog from August, and here is the update on our College and Career Readiness focus, including our pathways that we continue to strengthen for ALL of our students so they are "empowered to excel as citizens in a changing world." 

Wednesday, October 31st, our 10th graders will be taking the ASVAB assessment that will provide them with clear strengths that they individually possess, which will be important information for students to have as they look at potential careers upon graduation from PVM, a vocational school, a 2 or 4 year college/university, or post graduate higher ed programs. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, our counselors at PVM High School will meet with every student a minimum of twice per school year.  I am thrilled to frequently walk passed their offices and see students consistently talking with the counselors. The 10th graders' ASVAB results will be part of those conversations, as the counselors will continue to align students' individual interests, their strengths, and the courses that we provide at PVM and CiTi BOCES.  Anyone can take the ASVAB, except for 9th graders, and that is because they will not be exposed to some of the mathematics content until 10th grade. Even though our primary use of the ASVAB is for career exploration and NOT a military recruitment tool, our District has a rich history of military service, and it benefits those students looking to enlist into a branch of the armed forces upon their PVM graduation to take the ASVAB multiple times.  The military cannot even receive the ASVAB results from those students interested in entering the armed forces until 11th grade, but if a student in 11th or 12th grade takes the ASVAB (which is a requirement to determine which program within their chosen branch prior to enlistment) at a recruiter's office then the student can only take the ASVAB once and has to live with that score and that particular program/job in the military, but the student can take the ASVAB as many times as he or she wants if it is administered in a school, and the highest score is the one that counts. The majority of our graduating students each year would use the ASVAB results strictly for career exploration purposes and that is fantastic to graduate informed students, but we also graduate 10-12 students each year that enlist in the armed forces as well, and allowing them to take the ASVAB for free multiple times is great for them.  

More on College and Career Readiness...

Now that we have identified the attributes/competencies of a Central Square learner (https://tinyurl.com/Attributes-Competencies-CS) ...now what???  All 6 schools in our District have a School Action Plan that supports the District's Mission in Action Statements seen on this visual https://tinyurl.com/CS-Mission-Statements  This year, each school is responsible for not only becoming familiar with the four categories of attributes/competencies of a Central Square learner, they are also planning their daily lessons to make sure they are providing students with ongoing opportunities to strengthen these attributes/competencies.  Another HUGE GOAL for the College and Career Readiness Committee is to greatly increase and enhance our job shadowing and internship opportunities for our students.  The Committee will be tasked with connecting with local businesses as well as businesses in Onondaga County so we can have ample opportunities for our students to actually go to a job site and receive first hand knowledge whether or not they truly want to pursue that career.  This will greatly benefit all of our students to have these experiences prior to graduating from high school and spending a tremendous amount of money (or their parent's hard earned money) to pursue a career that they could have realized was not for them before going into debt. 

If you are interested in joining the College and Career Readiness Committee, please email Pearl Horn at phorn@cssd.org. Our next meeting is approaching on November 13 at 6 pm-7:30pm in the PVM large cafeteria.  Hope to see you there.    

Homecoming Festivities...

This year's Homecoming at Paul V. Moore High School (Friday October 5) has grown significantly from previous years and includes more community groups, which we absolutely love opportunities for the District to connect with our community partners. While the actual parade starts at 5:30 pm, all of the participants with start getting lined up at 4:20 pm. This event should be fun for the entire family, so please come out and support our students! 

Safety Upgrades at Redhawk Stadium 

For safety purposes beginning October 5, 2018, backpacks will no longer be allowed in the Redhawk Stadium.  We have had backpacks left in the aisles of the bleachers and in the grassy areas, which are a safety hazard.  We have had situations where students brought in electronic cigarettes and other illegal paraphernalia in their backpacks, which is another reason to not allow backpacks into the stadium.  We recognize that there are students that normally come from their own sports or band practices and have a backpack with equipment or an instrument with them, and we will be able to accommodate those students by allowing them to keep their backpack and/or instrument in a locked room in the stadium.  Another safety measure taken , we will no longer allow students to congregate on the grass areas unless they are accompanied by a parent/guardian.  Students without a guardian will be instructed to sit on the bleachers.  If we have a contest and our bleachers exceed capacity, we will allow students to sit on the hill but we will use ample supervision in those situations on the grassy areas.  Another safety measure we have taken is that we are no longer allowing spectators  to throw balls or any other objects during the game.  If students are throwing objects around, they will be confiscated.  Also, if students leave the stadium during the contest, they will not be allowed to re-enter the stadium.  We do not want students to come to the stadium where there is supervision and then leave the stadium to go to parts of the school grounds or off school grounds where there is no supervision and then re-enter the stadium, while their parents/guardians are left to believe that their students are in the stadium the entire time.  These are safety measures that we have been discussing for several months, and we feel that it is important to implement them at this time.  Thank you for your support and continuing to keep our students safe.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Redhawk Stadium Revival...

REDHAWK STADIUM REVIVAL

The new turf and track at Redhawk Stadium looks AMAZING!!!

Our reopening of the Redhawk Stadium was well attended as we recognized many special people, as well as acknowledging the 75th anniversary of the first graduating class of PVM High School from 1944.

Given our very proud and rich history of military service throughout our wonderful school district, we respectfully recognized those students from the PVM Class of 2018 and the military branch they enlisted in.  They and their parents received a much deserved round of applause from our patriotic students, staff, and community members that were in attendance as our Redhawk Varsity Boys' Football Team took on Carthage.

Nicholas Ackley           Air Force

Wesley Akley                Marines

Casey Brennan            Air Force
Joshua Butera            Army National Guard

Grace Collins              Army National Guard

Austin Hoover            Marines

Alexander Lotito        Air National Guard

Andrew Martin III      Air Force

Douglas Martin         Navy
Mark Maslak             Navy

Brendan McRitchie  Marines

Benjamin Morley      Marines 

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The following link is a video made by Heather Schuss, PR at CiTi BOCES, and she did a great job capturing the excitement on that special Friday night under the lights: https://www.facebook.com/CentralSquareSD/videos/1522630064505101/

The Flock was absolutely in perfect form showing their school spirit as they cheered on the football team, giving them the undisputed title of "The Greatest Student Section in the Country!"
The following links are videos of The Flock representing!!!
https://youtu.be/vm3X8NA49wg 

https://youtu.be/YIS92TH4wWY

Watch one of the greatest touchdowns ever captured on film that truly illustrates the importance of TEAM and working together to accomplish success. It exemplifies our District's motto, which is, "As one we rise, together we soar." https://youtu.be/8KEHL6WUCrM 

We also recognized the continued support and dedication from our teaching assistant, Mrs. Deborah O'Mara, who has played such a key role for the students at Central Square for the last 34 years, specifically, her amazing work with Student Government and our Student Task Force.  Education and leadership is in her blood, as her daughter, Ms. Erin O'Mara is a teacher in our middle school, also involved in Student Government and Student Task Force. On behalf of many former and current students and staff here at our great District, we thank you for all that you do for our students and families, you truly are special, and therefore make those around you feel special as well. 

Preparing our students for college and/or career remains a major priority at Central Square

In the Fall of 2017 we created the College and Career Readiness Committee with a clear focus to identify and continuously work to strengthen the pathways our students can select that will best prepare them for their future following their graduation from Paul V. Moore 
High School. The committee, consisting of over 150 staff, parents, students, local business owners/workers, business partners, college admissions staff, and other interested community members, met several times throughout the 2017-2018 school year and were extremely successful in accomplishing goal number one, which was to identify the attributes/competencies that we want all Central Square learners not only to possess, but also excel in. Students enter at the Pre-Kindergarten level and before you know it, they are entering high school, and we need to make sure that we have done our very best job in preparing them all for college and/or career following their graduation from PVM High School. To better accomplish this, we are taking a systematic approach to strengthen the consistency of our Pre-Kindergarten-12th grade program. The following list of attributes/competencies is the result of many hours of collaboration between the Committee and administration: https://tinyurl.com/Attributes-Competencies-CS  

Besides identifying these essential attributes/competencies, the Committee had several guest speakers, some of whom were former graduates from Central Square, that spoke about the pathway they had selected while at PVM and how the courses they selected at PVM and/or CiTi BOCES greatly prepared them for life after high school.  They also provided feedback and suggestions on other courses we should offer that would further strengthen our pathway options. The goal of the College and Career Readiness Committee for 2018-2019 is to not only continue to strengthen our pathways through rigorous course offerings, as well as requiring all students to meet with their school counselor a minimum of twice each year, but by the end of this school year, we will identify the best approach to provide students with systematic opportunities to develop each of the attributes/competencies according to their grade level.  We fully recognize that being an effective communicator and collaborator, innovative and critical thinker, emotionally intelligent, and a contributing citizen will look different at the primary, intermediate, middle school, and high school levels. 

We are extremely excited about the opportunity to provide students with valuable information regarding their individual areas of strength and the possible careers that would best match their abilities.  We are having all 10th grade students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, better known as the ASVAB.  I am sure many parents will be initially concerned about the ASVAB as many parents do not want their child being recruited for the military and may think this is a recruiting ploy. I assure you it is not, and every parent must provide consent if they want the military to get the results.  In speaking with different branches of the military, they fully understand that the majority of parents check the box that prohibits the military's use of this data and they cannot even attempt to contact students. They understand that most utilize the ASVAB to help students identify which career pathway would be the best fit.  However, Central Square has a proud contingent of alumni that are active and veterans in the United States Armed Forces and providing students with the opportunity to take the ASVAB at no cost as many times as they wish absolutely benefits those students looking to enlist after PVM or attend college on an ROTC scholarship and then enter the military.  The reason why this is huge for those students looking to enter the military (any branch) is because if students go to a recruiter to take the ASVAB (as it is a requirement to enter the military) the students can only take it once and that score literally dictates which type of program they can enter, which essentially leads to a career closely associated with the work performed in that type of program.  If a school district administers the ASVAB, the students can take it as many times as they want starting in their junior year and only their highest score counts, which greatly benefits the students. The ASVAB is an aptitude assessment consisting of four parts: Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, and Mathematical Knowledge. Take a look at a very quick video clip: https://youtu.be/S_c588QTR2s  

Our goal with having all 10th graders take the ASVAB is to provide the them with valuable information regarding the connection between their strengths and possible career pathways, but also to provide them with time to take the right courses for them according to their desired pathway. This information will add to the meaningful conversations between the school counselors, students, and parents/guardians. While we are planning to have all 9th graders take this exam, we are still providing the opportunity for any 10th-12th grade students if they are interested and that will be completely optional, and again, at no cost. The high school administration, district office administration, and school counselors will have evening information sessions in September about the ASVAB for any students and parents/guardians that are interested.  

As I mention above, in what seems to be a blink of an eye, students enter the ninth grade and then are graduating, and we need to provide students with not only rigorous course offerings but we also need to provide each of them with as much information regarding their individual areas of strength that most students go through high school never realizing. We feel that the ASVAB (whether or not you allow the military to get the results) will be a huge leap forward in assisting students with the career pathway that best suits them. More to come..

If you are interested in joining our College and Career Readiness Committee, we would love to have you! We meet from 6pm-7:30pm in the PVM High School Cafeteria on the September 19, 2018, November 13, 2018, January 16, 2019, March 14, 2019, and May 15, 2019. If you are interested in joining, please email Pearl Horn at phorn@cssd.org and please write "College and Career Readiness Committee" in the subject line.  Hope to see you on September 19.

A look back at a major highlight of the 2017-2018 year...

2018 GRADUATION 

Our 2018 graduation ceremony was extremely special and we were delighted with the number of very supportive parents, family members, and staff that came to see this milestone event.  We have students going into colleges and universities, the military, and some going directly into the workforce. We are so very proud of all of their accomplishments, and we wish them all the best as they enter the next stage of their lives. 

View the link below to see the students taking their seats to begin their commencement  

ceremony:  

https://tinyurl.com/2018-    graduation-walk    

To view the entire ceremony, click on the following link: https://youtu.be/u-zCzDuuXVo