Anatomy of a snow day

I don’t believe in snow days. There I’ve said it. Of course I loved them when I was a kid, but as an educator, I hate to lose a day where we can be teaching students. If a student catches me on a day where bad weather is in the forecast and asks me if we’re going to have a snow day, you can bet my answer is going to be a resounding “NO!”

However, since the upstate New York winter has arrived with a vengeance, we know that some snowy or icy days are on the way. And despite what I would hope, it is inevitable that some inclement weather will eventually affect our school schedule.

So, contrary to what I want all of our students to believe, I probably will have to call the occasional snow day.

The historic ice storm that hit our region on Friday, December 12 is a perfect example of a time when I felt there was a definitive need for an emergency closing of our school. But often, the decision to close school is not that clear cut.

The Wednesday following the storm, December 17, was a bit more complicated. On these types of days there is a great deal that goes into making the decision to close, delay or maintain our regular schedule.

When the weather’s bad, my day starts at about 4 a.m. with a call to our head of maintenance, John Szkopiec. Mr. Szkopiec is always the first one on school grounds during bad weather. He gives me an update on the conditions of our buildings, parking lots and the roads leading to our schools. He also frequently talks with the plow drivers for the City of Watervliet to get a read on the condition of the rest of the roads in the City.

My second call is to our Director of Transportation, Mrs. Yanni. Mrs. Yanni has a report from the transportation companies we contract with on the conditions of the roads and the readiness of the bus fleet. Next, I call the superintendents of our neighboring districts in Cohoes and Green Island. The three of us will review what we have learned so far that morning and discuss any ways that we may be able to assist each other during the weather emergency. In very serious situations, such as the Valentines Day storm in February of 2007 that forced the schools to close for two consecutive days, I will call the Mayor, Fire Chief and Chief of Police to look to coordinate our response and pool resources.

When all of the information is collected, a final determination is made and the notices go out to the media, gets posted on our district website, www.watervlietcityschools.org, and the phone trees begin for faculty and staff. My last step is to contact the Board of Education members informing them of the decision that was made and why.

So, if you ever wonder how I decide to close, delay or remain on our regular schedule, now you know. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not kids are wearing their pajamas inside out, or sleeping with a spoon under their pillows, as I have heard many students have started to do as a “night-before-a-snow day” ritual. I rely heavily on the input of others and do what is needed to ensure the safety of our students and staff.

Respect and Integrity

The final of the four shared values and beliefs held by the Watervliet City School District is Respect and Integrity.

A community of learners must be a community of respect. Positive results can’t occur in an atmosphere that lacks respect. As a school district we must be respectful of our students, our community and each other.

This holds true not just for our intentions, but for our actions. We must treat each other with respect on an everyday basis. It is important to remember that please and thank you is not only polite, but it works! Try it.

Most of us think of integrity as being honest and doing what is right, not only for ourselves, but for everyone. However, integrity is much more than that. At its core, it is consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles, Cheating on a test, copying homework or using sick time to go shopping are actions that not only break the rules, but show a lack of integrity.

Failing to push ourselves to do our best can be a seen as a lack of integrity as well. In failing to strive to be our best, we are not being honest with ourselves, we’re selling ourselves short and cheating the rest of the community out of our potential contributions.

We cannot allow that to happen.

Every student must be shown the way to act with respect and integrity every day. Not because we say so, but because failing to do this robs both the student and the rest of us of the greatness that each student has inside of them.

Good is the enemy of great

The third shared value and belief of our district is Continuous Improvement. Good is always the enemy of great. We can never be content to be just good enough; we must always strive to be our best. As educators we must encourage our students and ourselves to continuously improve everything we do, we must aim higher, dream bigger and shoot for the stars.

We cannot look at our school improvement process as a plan to jump over a bar set at a specific height, because the bar keeps rising. We must set both short and long term goals for improvement and put systems in place that provide for constant upward movement.

The current goal of the New York State Department of Education is 100% proficiency of all of our students on all state assessments by 2012. This is an ambitious goal that the Watervliet City School District fully supports and intends to meet. In order to do this we must push to improve every day.

Even when we meet this goal, there will still be a need for continuous improvement. There will always be areas in which we can improve. Aside from 100% proficiency, we are working to see more students graduating on time, more students attending four year colleges and universities, more students making greater contributions to our community and country just to name a few.

As I said before, good is the enemy of great. It’s a little-known fact that a great white shark must always be moving forward or it will die because it is not getting oxygen from water flowing through its gills. I want all of our faculty members and students to “be the shark” and keep their forward momentum going throughout their lives.

Continuing our discussion on the shared values and beliefs of our school district, I’d like to address the second value:

High Expectations

Expectations for students, parents and staff are clearly defined, understood and communicated. Students, parents and staff are empowered, supported and trained to meet high expectations.

Our expectation is that “every student” will find success here in the Watervliet City School District. We expect that all students will reach a high level of academic achievement and develop into socially well rounded individuals. We also expect that every adult; teachers, staff, parents and community partners understand the expectations that we have of ourselves in accepting the responsibility to provide a high level of support.

While we expect a great deal of our students, we must expect a great deal of ourselves. High expectations must be held and maintained for all. However in order to make this a reality we must also realize that as educators our job is to provide the high level of support that our students need to meet these expectations. A “high expectations” / “high support” learning community gets things done, grows and finds a great deal of success.

A nice example of how Watervliet CSD has a history of rising to meet the challenge of high expectations was the recent induction of over 20 members into the New Watervliet Athletic Hall of Fall. All of the inductees, whether coaches, supporters or athletes, met and exceeded high expectations during their athletic careers and their lives beyond WCSD. And we have had many students throughout the years who have done the same in the classroom.

Expectations alone will not get the job done. Support, understanding, patience and hard work are needed to help us as we rise to meet these high expectations. As our mission statement says we must be ready to do so, “Every day”. High expectations should never take a day off or go on vacation. We expect every member of our school community to “bring their A game” in everything they do.

Shared Values and Beliefs

Last week I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet with every elementary school student and discuss our new mission statement. During these meetings we discussed the shared values and beliefs of our school district. Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing my personal insights on these shared beliefs, through a series of blog articles. Today, we’ll be discussing the first point:

Success of All Students

All staff members are focused on student success. Students have many avenues and opportunities to learn, achieve and celebrate academic, personal and employment success. All students will leave the Watervliet City School District prepared for college, career and citizenship.

The shared value of success for all students is one that I feel very strongly about. This statement makes it very clear to everyone that our job as a school district is to ensure that every student who attends school at Watervliet and walks across the stage to graduate at the end of their senior year will be prepared for a happy and productive life.

So, what exactly is “happy and productive?” How will we determine if we are successful in this endeavor? We all define success differently but I define it in one word: choices. The staff, teachers, administrators and Board of Education of the Watervliet City School District have fulfilled their mission if every student who graduates from our school has choices.

We want our students to have myriad choices. Students could choose to attend college and will be academically prepared to do so. Students could also choose to attend a vocational school, join the military or enter the job market. We will have done our job if they leave here prepared to excel in the complex world of the twenty first century through their ability to think, problem solve, and work collaboratively and cooperatively.

The key is that our students will not only have all of these options open to them, but they will have the confidence and readiness to make important decisions about their future. Possessing the skills and abilities to choose to do what we want in life is the ultimate success.

Watervliet City Schools has a new mission for 2008-09!

Welcome Back!

The start of a new school year is always very exciting. Although we’re forced to say goodbye to the hot weather and freedom of summer, we gain the opportunity to see friends that we’ve missed and get back into the swing of things here at school.

While school has been out for the summer, things have been hopping at Watervliet City Schools. Our construction project at Waterlviet Elementary school is on-going and we are beginning the preliminary steps toward the renovations at Watervliet Junior – Senior High School. Although construction projects can be unpredictable and sometimes inconvenient, the pay-off will come when these projects are complete - we will have two newly renovated school buildings to be very proud of. I am pleased to report that the projects are on schedule moving forward as they should.

Also this summer, the Watervliet City School District Board of Education has adopted a new mission statement for the district. This mission statement is the result of a great deal of hard work by our Mission Statement Committee. The committee is made up of teachers, support staff, administrators and community members.

We will spend a lot of time this fall promoting and discussing this new mission statement with our students, staff and community. We hope that the entire school community will support us as we seek to fufill this new vision and mission for our district.

The mission of the Watervliet City School District is to inspire, educate and challenge every student, every day!

Please visit our website to read about the shared beliefs and values that will support this new mission

I hope that the summer was enjoyable and relaxing for everyone and I look forward to spending the next ten months continuing our efforts to achieve excellence for every student, every day!

There's no reason to be bored...

There are many things you remember that, at the time, seem unimportant. Sometimes you don’t even know that they stick with you, but they do. One of these things for me is the advice that was given to my ninth grade English class on the last day of school by our particularly large and intimidating teacher.

He very simply said, “You have ten weeks off of school, and there is no reason for any of you to find yourselves bored during that time."

He did not elaborate; he left it to us to figure out what he meant. I still think about that teacher and that statement every year when the calendar gets to June.

As a student, I thought he wanted us to do extra homework and keep up our studies over the summer - but as I got older I realized that maybe that is not what he meant. Maybe he meant that we had freedom and free time that we should not waste or take lightly. Maybe he meant that we should be outside playing ball or exploring, hiking or going to museums. Maybe he meant we should spend this time with our families and friends. He purposely left it open to interpretation for us to figure it out. He hit so many New York State learning standards with that one statement it is amazing. (Pretty much every ELA standard... view here)

So, as we head toward the last day of school I want to encourage all of our students to use the next ten weeks wisely. Be sure to go and do something that you have always wanted to do but didn’t have the time. Read a book or two, go to a museum, make a new friend and enjoy yourselves. In the words of my ninth grade English teacher, there is no reason for you to be bored this summer.