March Celebrations and Updates...

When we say that our students at Central Square excel in sports, music, clubs/activities, and in the classroom, we are not exaggerating. Our students are simply amazing!!! 
Below are only a few of the examples... 

Music and Fine Arts Celebrations

Congratulations to the members of the Cadet Guard, Junior Varsity and the Varsity Winter Guards who had outstanding performances on Saturday, March 2, 2019 at the Home Winter Guard Show. 

The Cadet Guard placed 6th in their class while the Junior Varsity Guard placed 3rd in their class out of 6 competing Guards.  The Varsity Winter Guard placed first in their class among 5 competing Guards and the

Varsity Guard also had the highest score of all 36 Guards who competed on Saturday. The picture at the top is celebrating our seniors on the Winter Guard as they are being recognized for all of their hard work throughout their years in the program.  We were so happy to see their parents and family members standing with them because they played such a key role supporting their children and the Guard program.

Congratulations to the Central Square Varsity Winter Guard for placing 1st out of 27 groups at the Winter Guard International Regional Competition this past weekend in South Brunswick, NJ. Out of 91 guards across the country, the Varsity Winter Guard had the highest score of the weekend!”
Come see them and the other Central Square Winter Guards this Saturday in the Paul V. Moore gym at 2 o’clock.

Currently in week four of the Winter Guard season the Central Square Varsity Winter Guard based on competition scoring is ranked #1 in the Country!!!

The Sound of Music

Our student performers were absolutely amazing during each of their performances at PVM High School.  Our auditorium was packed for every showing of The Sound of Music.  Our students are so very talented at Central Square!

Central Square wins sectional rifle title

The Central Square Rifle team continues to shine, carrying on a long standing tradition of success under Coach Paul Menjik's guidance for several decades at Central Square. Here are the results from the Section III Rifle match. Central Square vs. South Lewis.  Central Square wins with a 1158 3 position v 1085 South Lewis. For International (all standing) it was again Central Square with a 1123 v. 1024 South Lewis.
Scores for 3 position (3 targets shot in the prone, standing and kneeling positions) were as follows:

Kamille Zakereski 295 Central SquareMaryann Sobel 290 Central Square
Ian Shaw 287 Central Square
Allen Tennant 286 Central Square
Bri Purdy 286 Central Square
Elise Penrod 282 Central Square
Alyna Munn 281 South Lewis
Gabriella Earl 274 South Lewis
For International (All Standing) - 3 targets all standing scores were as follows:
Kamille Zakrzeski 287 Central Square
Bri Purdy 283 Central Square
Elise Penrod 282 Central Square
Alyna Munn 273 South Lewis
Ian Shaw 271 Central Square
Allen Tennant 270 Central Square
Maryann Sobel 268 Central Square
Gabriella Earl 254 South Lewis

Central Square Rifle Team Wins States!!!

The Central Square rifle team placed first in the state championship held at the West Point Military Academy on Saturday. The team first for 3 position and for the sectional team title and placed second in the state championship for all standing, also placed second was the sectional team.

Scores for the 3 position match were:
For the high school teams: Central Square first with a 1161, second was Pioneer High School with a 1133 and third was Willsboro High School with a 1127. For the Sectional Teams: Section III took first place with a 1730, 2nd was Section VI with a 1701 and third place was Section VIII with a 1697.


Taking home metals for the Central Square team were:
Maryann Sobel: First place prone with a 100 with 9 centers, breaking a state record
Kamillle Zakreski: Fourth in kneeling and second in standing
Allen Tennant: Second in kneeling and Fifth in prone
Ian Shaw: Third in kneeling
Elise Penrod: Second in prone and Third in standing
Overall scores and placement in the State were:
Maryann Sobel 5th with a 290
Kamille Zakreski 3rd with a 292
Elise Penrod 2nd with a 292
Allen Tennant 7th with a 287
Brianna Purdy 6th with a 287
Ian Shaw 12th with a 282
Gabriella Earl with a 275

Congratulations to Kole Malhauser, CNY Wrestler of the Week

Kole is a freshman at PVM High School and is a Class A Champion, Most Outstanding Wrestler and has achieved his 100th career win! Click on the links below to see more on Kole's success https://tinyurl.com/Kole-Malhauser-1

https://tinyurl.com/Kole-Malhauser-2

Congrats to the entire Central Square wrestling team for your success throughout the season!
Kole was crowned Section III Champion on Saturday, February 9. His coach, Mr. Tim LaRose, received the Coach of the Year Award by his coaching peers, which is an incredible honor.

Robotics at Central Square

This year, the RoboEagles have won an award at every event:
- 1/12 - Excellence Award at Liverpool
- 2/2 - Excellence Award at Baldwinsville
- 2/9 - Tournament Champions and Skills Champions at Fulton

They also had two new teams in their club competing this year. The middle school team competed 2/2 and 2/9 and did extremely well for their first time! At their first (ever) competition they qualified for the State Championships! They are competing in the High School Division at these competitions!
Here is team info:

Heavy Metal - Two high school students who are very busy, but wanted to build and compete! Hats off to Janis Jiempruekwattana (exchange student) and Megan Mitchell (freshman) for an awesome job!
Redhawk Middleschoolers:
- Campbell Bagley (6th)
- JD Bean (6th)
- Landon Drought (6th)
- Zach Jessie (7th)
- AJ Nichols (6th)

- Nick Rodriguez (6th)
- Sam Strupp (7th)
- Tyler McWeeny (7th)
RoboEagles:
- Forest Kerr (12th)  Sawyer Mitchell (12th)

- Ethan Rhinehardt (10th)   - Spencer Wells (12th)
- Matt Stewart (12th)  - Ethan Wells (10th)
- Noah Toleson (10th)

                                             
Our team, the RoboEagles, realized our 3^rd consecutive invitation to the Robotics World Championships at the NY State Championships, hosted at the SRC Arena on Saturday. Winning both the Robot Skill Champion along with our division, making us a tournament finalist, we are actually doubly qualified to compete in the World Championship competition. We also won the Think Award, for impressive and effective autonomous programming and sensor use, as well as the Teamwork Award for creating, mentoring and inspiring multiple teams both at our school and in the area, along with our friendliness and respect towards all other teams. There were a total of 74 high school teams present at the competition, randomly separated into two divisions, and teams each compete 8 times, paired randomly with a team to score more points than 2 randomly-selected opposing teams. Teams compete in 8 matches each, then the top teams play tournament-style to determine the winner of the division, which was us. Finally, the champions of the two divisions play a final match to determine the Tournament Champion. Unfortunately, we lost that match by a mere 2 points (the final score being 15-17), making it the first and only match we lost all day. Matches are 2 minutes long, where the first 15 seconds the robots operate autonomously, and the remaining 1:45 is driver-controlled. The autonomous winner earns a bonus of 4 points, a bonus our team enjoyed every match, including the finals, and probably a large contributor to our earning of the Think Award. We made sure that for this competition, the driver of the robot was very well practiced, and drove phenomenally all day. We even won a match in which our partner didn’t show up, and our robot single-handedly beat the 2 robots on the opposing alliance. Middle school teams compete in a separate division than the high school teams, and our middle school team also had a great day competing. This was their first-ever State robotics championship, as well as their first year competing at all, and they ranked 5th overall in the middle school division, capping off a great first season for these 6th and 7th graders.  They are a great group of students who each have unique skills and innovative ideas that will certainly allow them to become State Champions in the future! The next competition for the RoboEagles is the VEX World Championships in late April where we will be competing with 550 high school teams from all around the world. The competition runs Wednesday, April 24^th, through Saturday, April 27^th in Louisville, Kentucky. (Thank you to Ethan Wells for this detailed update)

Congratulations to Nick Ransom for receiving the CNY National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete Award. This award goes to high school athletes throughout Section III who excel in the classroom as well as on the football field. This is a well deserved honor!

2019 College Signing Day at Central Square
Tom Hunold – Boys Lacrosse – Division II Mars Hill University
Joshua Leavery – Boys Lacrosse  Division II – Wilmington University
Courtney Fox – Girls Lacrosse – Division I – St. Bonaventure
Mason Hoyt – Football – Division II – Seton Hill

                 The Fine Arts at Central Square
At this year’s 2019 CNY Scholastic Art Awards over 2,500 student artists, representing over 100 area schools, submitted 5,673 pieces of art! Paul V Moore HS winners in Photography, Jewelry, Ceramics & Glass were: Brent Tyrrell, Haley Earls, Isabella Heath, Kierstin Lorranie, Seth Morse, Jasmine Neddo, Mirra Osier, Mark Rio, Bernard Volpi, Conner Colesante, Joseph Cook, Allison Forderkonz, Sami Lamb, Madison Zacholl, Angelina Bellows, Skyla Cieslik, Jenna Countryman, Tyler Elderbroom, Morgan Foland, Isaac Geesaman, Hailey Peck, Cayley Sundet, and Dakota Wright.

The Boys Varsity Basketball team was named the SCAC December Team of the Month, and continued on to have an amazingly competitive season before falling to J-D in the 4th quarter of a hard fought game.  The Flock was at SRC Arena cheering on the boys, as always! The Girls Basketball team also had great success and again, made the playoffs.

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.

  

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."