November 2008 Volume 12, Issue 1

www.sidneycsd.org

District Newsletter

Central Schools

SIDNEY

Join Us In Rachel’s Challenge

On November 4, our Middle and HighSchool students experienced a movingassembly program about a girl namedRachel Scott. Rachel Joy Scott was thefirst person killed at Columbine HighSchool on April 20, 1999. Rachel’s acts of kindness and compassion coupled withthe contents of her six diaries have become the foundationfor one of the most life-changing school programs inAmerica,

Rachel’s Challenge.

Rachel’s Challenge, designed to motivate our studentsto positive change in the way they treat others, wassponsored by the Sidney Middle School PTSO andsupported through generous donations from MWV, SidneyUnited Way, Sons of the American Revolution, Elks Lodge,Rotary, and VFW. Powerful footage of Rachel's life and theColumbine tragedy held students, as well as communitymembers, spell-bound during school assemblies andduring an evening presentation.Students were asked to accept Rachel’s Challenge toeliminate prejudice, dare to dream, choose their influences,to use kind words, and to start a chain reaction withfamily and friends. Members of the Middle School PeerMediation and Student Council were also trained on howto continue the momentum from the assemblies and forma Friends of Rachel Club.Rachel encouraged people to not prejudge others.She felt that if you looked for the best in others, that youwould indeed find it. Often times we look for the worst inothers and too often find it. Rachel believed that you couldeliminate prejudice by looking for the best in others.A Harvard study was cited in reference to goal setting.Only 3% of students actually wrote their goals down vs.97% that did not. Ten years later, the same 3% of studentsearned 10 times more than the other 97% combined andwere considered to be people that clearly were making adifference in their world. Students were encouraged todream and set goals to accomplish those dreams and tokeep a journal so that they could reflect upon the progressthat they had made towards their dream.Students were asked to carefully choose their influencesas the input often determines the output. If our studentssurround themselves with positive influences, it isreflected in their actions.Rachel firmly believed that small acts of kindness canhave a huge impact. Rachel, in fact, went out of her wayto be kind to students with disabilities, new students,and students that were picked on or put down. Severalexamples of how her kindness made a huge impact onothers were provided.Finally, Rachel believed that if one person were to goout of his/her way to show compassion, that it would starta chain reaction of the same.People will never know how fara little kindness can go.The Sidney Middle SchoolPTSO would like to thank our generous supportersfor enabling us to bring thispowerful program to Sidneyand encourage our studentsand community to continue thechain reaction of kindness.More information aboutthis program can be found atrachelschallenge.com.

Sidney Central School District2

Autumn Textures

Poetry

At the Elementary School,teachers Ms. Neal (art) andMrs. Fisher (fourth grade),are collaborating with writingand art. Mrs. Fisher's studentshave been learning to writefree verse poetry with the theme being

Autumn Textures

. They have done a beautiful job learning about two of the importanttraits in good writing:

word choice

and

voice

.To illustrate their poetry, they are workingwith Ms. Neal to sketch landscape drawingsand then using watercolor paints to completetheir illustrations. They learned about usingforeground, middle ground and backgroundin their landscape to createthe illusion of distance.They also learned to mix thepaints with water to makethem transparent. Here is anexample of one student's poem:

Autumn Textures

By Alexis Palmeter

I like the feel of fall…Fall, like shivering, wilting,colorless, flowers in the coldautumn wind.Fall leaves, yellow, brown and differentshades of orange and red crunch andcrackle beneath my feet as I walk alongthe sidewalk.Orange and dark shades of red chipmunksand squirrels scurry along the yard to gather brown, crunchy acorns for winter.Colorful birds and their beautiful babychicks fly south for winter.Fall winds bring cold white frosts.Bright colorful leaves, bring bundled upchildren with tan, oak handled leave rakes. Juicy, tan, and white smoked turkey andchicken dinners bring in people for the jolly holidays.Fall, brightly colored season.

We all share the same priority—the education of ourstudents. They are our future, and it is our responsibility togive them the best education possible. Our District’s missionis

challenging students to achieve their greatest potential

, and westrive to continually improve how we meet their needs bothin and out of the classroom.

Today we are faced with troubling economic times. Familiesare struggling to make ends meet, and the school district isfacing the same problems. The state budget is in crisis, andthere are concerns that our state aid will be impacted. An articlein the New York State School Boards Association’s publication

On Board

reported the following on November 3:

Governor David Paterson says the potential budget gap facing New York next year has soared to $12.5 billion. That’sup 95% since an official July 30 budget update and representsalmost 10% of the total budget. Paterson, in an October 28 fiscal update, said that to deal with the projected deficit,“there will be hard and painful (spending) cuts. There is nosegment of this budget that will not be cut.” Thus far, schoolaid has escaped budget cuts. It had been scheduled to growby $2.2 billion next year. Meanwhile, state officials said that the Employee’sRetirement System, which covers most non-instructionalschool employees, has lost about $30 billion since March whenit was worth $154 billion. The state’s Teacher RetirementSystem fund has lost $7 billion since June when it was worth$95 billion. Those losses could eventually lead to higheremployer contributions.Paterson has ordered the state Legislature into session onNovember 18 to make further cuts to this year’s budget thathas already been trimmed by about $1 billion. The governorhas said that he wants another $2 billion in cuts to this year’sbudget.

As we said last year, we have a responsibility to find balance between the cost of providing an outstandingeducational program and anticipated revenue. While it wasa difficult year last year, our budget forecast for this yearis worse. Our preliminary review identifies a deeper gap between expenditures and anticipated revenues than we haveever experienced before looking at the possibility of no stateaid increase for next year.Therefore, we will once again have to face some difficultdecisions. We will examine our budget closely andstrive to find balance without impacting our programs.However, we anticipate that programs may be impacted nextyear due to the gravity of the situation. If you have ideas onpossible budget cuts, I would welcome your input. We will bescheduling community forums in the future, and I encourageyou to attend.

—Sandra M. Cooper,

Superintendent of Schools

Superintendent’s Message

Finding Balance . . .A Continuing Challenge!

Sidney Central School District3

Board Corner

It takes an entire community to raise a child

—African proverb

Many of us have heard this adage before. But at thistime of year, we find it to be particularly relevant. Anotherschool year is underway, and this year we have our firstclass of pre-schoolers under the new Pre-K program. Forthem, it is just the start of an exciting journey. At the otherextreme, we have the class of 2009. For them, this will betheir final year in high school before they move on to work, join the military, or continue their education elsewhere.In between those two groups are over a thousand otherstudents. Each and every one of them with hopes and fears,special talents and most of all, dreams for the future.Each of us has an important part to play in helping ourchildren realize those dreams. No one would deny that agreat teacher can forever change a life. But even the bestteacher cannot do it aIl alone. It takes parents, teachers,administrators, support staff, neighbors, communityleaders, board members and friends all working togetherto help make sure that those dreams are realized.As the recent financial crisis has pointed out, it canindeed be a cold, cruel world out there. Resources are being stretched at every level from families trying to affordfood, to those watching their college savings evaporate . . .all of us are feeling the impact of tougher times.As a district, we are not immune to many of thosesame challenges. Costs for transportation and heatinghave seen significant increases despite wise purchasingand conservation efforts. Health care costs are continuingto rise.And as we all know, New York State’s finances are indisarray as well. The crisis on Wall Street and its impacton the State’s fortunes have made a bad situation evenworse. Governor Paterson has flatly stated that significant budget cuts must be made across the board. That iscertain to translate into less State aid for our district goingforward.But all is not lost if we keep that old proverb foremostin our hearts and minds.

Confdential Reporting

TROOP C of the New York State Police remindspeople of the creation of the toll-free line for theconfidential reporting of potentially dangeroussituations. This system, housed at Troop CHeadquarters, is answered by a machine whichis regularly checked by police officials. Thissystem is not designated for callers reporting animmediate threat; such calls should be reportedto “911” or other appropriate emergency serviceproviders. The phone number, 1-866-535-5599 isavailable on posters placed in the school districtsand also through school district publications.

Riders o the Month

September Outstanding Riders of the Month are:

Elementary School

Cody RowdenZaniel BurrowsKevin BockusDanika HarveyGlennda GobleDaniel CalkinsHailly GopelMaggie SchottCrystal BivarRandy Hughs

Middle School

Shana Gascon

High School

Josh TaftNam Kim

For it is in difficult times such as these that wecome to realize the true value of the collective humanspirit. It is a value far greater than any amount of money. If we continue to work together to help eachof our students realize his or her potential, there isno obstacle that cannot be overcome.Although the school year has only just begun,in a few short weeks we will be starting the budgetprocess once again. We feel that last year’s effortsto solicit input and communicate recommendationswent extremely well. Many of the suggestions madein staff and community presentations were reflectedin the final proposed budget. Some decisions weremore difficult than others, but no one can deny thatit was a collective effort made after considerablediscussion. Most importantly, the voters supportedthe output of that process.As representatives of the community at large, theBoard of Education’s role is to put a budget before thevoters that is fiscally responsible while at the sametime allowing us to achieve our shared goal of helpingeach student realize his or her full potential.Looking ahead at what is certain to be an evenmore challenging year, we ask for you to again become engaged and participate in the process.Community presentations will be held in the comingmonths well in advance of any final proposed budgetand your participation is critical.It is our collective responsibility to make thedecisions that will help turn our children’s dreamsinto reality. No one group, including the Boardof Education, can accomplish this alone. Today’seconomic crisis will make it even more important forus to work in concert with that shared objective asour ultimate goal. As another old adage states, twoheads are better than one.

—Gary Schoonover,

Board of Education