We’ve been working on the district budget newsletter that includes information about Proposition #3, a capital project to transform the District Office building into a P-TECH center. P-TECH stands for Pathways in Technology Early College High School. Our BOCES, Erie 2, in partnership with Alfred State, planned to open a center for the school districts in the northern end of our 27 school districts and we are delighted to partner with them.

The newsletter has a formal Q&A and lots of information about the details of the project. Following is a more informal Q&A to address some of the questions I’ve been hearing in our community. Please note that all of the answers below are only valid if the SGI community passes Proposition #3 on May 15, 2018.

Q1. Why do we need to build a new school building for this program, when we have so many empty classrooms in the high school? 

This is a full school–grades 9-12, plus 1-2 years for the Alfred State Associates degree. It’s not like the CTE programs we know well–students will receive their entire education in a projects based environment and neither SHS nor any of our other buildings have that kind of open space.

The program will open in SHS in September, 2018. But remember that will just be the first year, the 9th grade cohort. Right now that enrollment is at 21 students from all of our surrounding districts and they will need two-three classrooms at SHS with one office for their principal. In September, 2019, they will need four-six classrooms with one office. This affords us the time to transform the district office into the new P-TECH center through the capital project, planning to open the center in September, 2020.

There aren’t a lot of empty classrooms at SHS either. I suspect some teachers won’t be happy about any disruption to the spaces they call their own. I also know that a program that benefits students–some of these students  might not otherwise graduate or go to college at all–trumps that discomfort. And it’s only for one-two years. I shared a classroom, two teacher desks at the front of the room, for the entire ten years I was a teacher. I know our teachers will consider the greater good and be good sports for a year or two of inconvenience. I also know that SHS Principal Bialasik is working hard to minimize any disruption.

Q2. Will this take students away from our high school electives and lead to a reduction in teachers at SHS?

No. SGI is committing to send only 3-5 students per year to this program. This in fact will be a great way for our technology teachers to collaborate with teachers in a center that’s focused on electrical maintenance and computer information systems—a project based environment. The new center will be SGI owned, yet leased to Erie 2 BOCES at an annual rate that covers the local taxpayer share. This will be guaranteed in our long term lease agreement with Erie 2 BOCES.

That’s another piece to consider. When BOCES does a project that incurs leasing or capital costs, those costs are shared by the 27 component districts, of which SGI is one. IF this P-TECH center were built in another component district, we would still share in the cost through the capital portion of our BOCES budget. We share in the cost of the Dunkirk P-TECH center now, with zero students traveling to Dunkirk. If we share in the cost anyway, why wouldn’t we want to have the center right here on Newman Street?

Q3. How will students be selected?

The SMS staff, including counselors, principal, and technology teachers worked together to first visit the Dunkirk P-TECH center and second to talk with families of students who show an affinity for STEM and for whom they believe this pathway might be beneficial. We had an informational night for families of 8th grade students, with several families in attendance.

I’ve heard the P-TECH student described as someone who you know is smart, but doesn’t necessarily get great grades. Someone who loves project based work and a different way of looking at things. Often, this is a student who we might worry won’t otherwise graduate.  For the 2018-19 school year, we have four students enrolled with a fifth student considering it. We did not have to turn away any student with interest. Check out this video to better understand the program.

Q4. How will it be staffed? Will it be local people? 

As a BOCES program, the hiring decisions will be made by BOCES.  As always, including for SGI positions, the best candidates will be hired. If they’re also district residents, that’s a great bonus.

Q5. Who will determine if it can be used by the public? 

Just like all of our other district facilities, there’s a facilities use request form that needs to be completed and we do our best to accommodate those requests. As with every other aspect of this P-TECH project, this is a partnership with Erie 2 BOCES and Alfred State. Will we open up the electrical labs to anyone who wants to fill out a facilities use form? Unlikely given the equipment within but then we don’t sign out our Technology labs at SMS or SHS to anyone who fills out a request either.

We’ve opened up our facilities significantly since my arrival–to our staff and our community. In keeping with that idea, we will certainly consider and accommodate any requests that make sense.

Please know that the gym/cafeteria spaces planned in the project are NOT full size, they are multi-purpose spaces used for the full education of the students within the program. As with any project, we had to scale it so that the local share/portion being paid in the lease with BOCES was affordable and the state aid on the project maximized. These are likely spaces we will be able to open up to the community, unlike the electrical labs.

Q6. A community resident spoke at a BOE meeting and asked if “this is more of the rich get richer”.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. This program helps some of our neediest families.

Initially I had doubts about sending students to P-TECH. I thought, “why should we pay for a student to attend a program like this?” Then I learned that the cost for a P-TECH student is actually less than the cost we pay to educate an SGI student AND we will receive BOCES aid back on the tuition. Our state and federal taxes also subsidize countless college students every year.

Every student at SGI is our responsibility. Some need a different path to success. I’m proud to be able to offer that pathway right here on Newman Street, if the SGI taxpayers pass the Proposition #3, capital project on May 15, 2018.

Please know that you can always reach me at 592-3230 or via email at kmoritz@springvillegi.org. Or stop by our offices at 307 Newman Street! I’m also pleased to accept any invitations to speak at a community event. 

Dear Families:

Today is the student led National School Walk Out to bring awareness to school violence. Maybe it’s all of the work we’ve been doing in change.school about student agency or maybe it’s because we as a school district cannot endorse or participate in a planned walk out during the school day, since doing so would be in violation of public education, or maybe I worry about the disruption to our school day for every student protest that follows this one–but I did not send a letter to our families informing them of what we, as a district, are doing today. Why? Because as a school district, it isn’t our event and what we planned was to create the conditions under which students could express their voice safely.

I should have sent a letter home.  In addition to the National Student Walk Out, we had a student make a mistake on Friday for which we did everything right–gave our strongest school consequence and worked with law enforcement, continue to work with law enforcement–but for which we can never inform an entire school community about the mistake of someone’s child. Because we are a small town, rumors have gone wild. Families want communication from the school district, from me—for a student led walkout that isn’t our event and on a student discipline issue for which we’re not permitted to share details.

One of the most challenging problems is always balancing the desire people have to know everything with the confidentiality required when dealing with a personnel issue or a student issue. Social media exacerbates that challenge significantly because when we can’t or don’t say anything, others are happy to fill that void.

Here’s an example. Today is a snow day because the weather in Colden and Collins Center was horrible this morning and the advice from our highway supervisors and transportation supervisor was to close due to unsafe driving conditions. I knew when I had to close for snow that some people would make an assumption that it was because of rumors they heard about a student threat. This is not true. Our schools are safe, we investigate every complaint, and we follow through with law enforcement and student discipline when necessary and appropriate.

My communication with families on the student walkout should have been better. I’m sorry. I should have sent a letter to families explaining my thinking and our leadership team’s approach for today, just as I sent an email to our employees. Even if I just explained that we weren’t planning the event, I should have told you we were planning a response.

Instead, I insisted that we spend our time and energy on improving school safety—what should be the result of the student led walk out nationally. We are certainly aware of the walk out, we’ve talked to student leaders, we’ve listened, we’ve planned to have a quiet, respectful response to any of our students who plan to participate. As adults in the school system we always seem to rush to control and plan every aspect of the day–I saw this as a student led event. And if our Springville students chose not to lead anything? Then it is school as it always is for us. For as many of our families who wanted SOMETHING DONE, there were those who said, “I don’t want this to touch my child” and “I don’t want her worrying about this”.

We ARE evaluating all of our practices, consulting with law enforcement experts and moving forward with changes that will take us from a “soft target” to a “hard target”. That’s an adult conversation. That’s been taking place for about a year at Springville, through our safety audit with improved practices, our increased emergency drills to practice our responses, at our leadership tables and at our BOE meeting on 3/20/18. That conversation is OUR RESPONSIBILITY, not a student walk out to get everyone’s attention with an “enough is enough” message. 

We must continue to pay attention to every child, to connect with families, to offer mental health services through our Family Support Center. Those measures are vitally important but I believe we also have to consider our security. We can’t just walk into a museum, an art gallery, a government office, or a small town courtroom without some measure of security ‘clearance’ and yet for years, we didn’t even lock all of our doors.

We do now. And we ask for ID. And we’re learning about a technology that will help us  to better secure our buildings. And there are a number of other measures, large and small–including keeping doors locked to every classroom too–that will help us to better keep our children safe.

As I listen to law enforcement and school security advisors, I believe we have to follow their advice to the extent possible. I also believe we need to listen to our school district employees and their ideas–because school safety and security is the responsibility of every adult in our school community.

Our “see something, say something” mantra is important. We’re a small school and we need to pay attention to each other. No child should go unnoticed or unloved within our doors. We have to support those in need. Our school employees do whatever they can to help and support our children and that includes counseling, strong school consequences when someone makes a mistake that may harm others, and the involvement of law enforcement. Our Family Support Center, designed to help our families in crisis, is an incredible resource.

On March 20, 2018, Sergeant Tom Kelly, NYS Police Emergency Management, and Tony Olivo, retired US Marshal who conducted our security audit, will talk to us at our BOE meeting about the additional measures we can take. We have some money available to us through our current capital project and another funding stream that I believe must be used first and foremost to improve school security–before we use it to put an electronic device in every kid’s hands.

Let’s have that adult conversation about what we’re doing about school safety and security because enough IS enough.

Kimberly Moritz, Superintendent

As you have likely seen by now, there is a national event this Wednesday, March 14, 2018, initiated and promoted by the students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, to call attention to school violence.

Because this is a student event, our MS/HS principals and I have discussed our possible role and response. We want to honor and respect what our students may choose to do Wednesday. In other words, we determined that we wouldn’t make it OUR event.  We made a conscious decision to allow this to be a true student event, if our students decide it’s something they want to do.  We cannot endorse or participate in a planned walk out during the school day, since doing so would be in violation of public education law.

What’s our role on Wednesday then? To respect the rights of all students, whether they choose to participate or not. The role of our staff during this time will be to help keep our students safe and supervised. Our administrative team is planning to be at the MS and the HS at 10:00 to support our students, if they choose to participate. We will be stationed throughout the buildings and we have Erie County Sheriff’s officers joining our SRO, Frank Simmeth, at our school buildings.  We will encourage students to demonstrate within our school buildings, especially given that it’s WNY and the weather is supposed to be bad.

We need to concentrate on what we’re doing about the problem of school violence and improving our school safety. You’ll recall my earlier post http://bit.ly/2CRpgA8 about school safety and a community conversation on 3/20 at our BOE meeting on the topic. I may not have all of the answers, but we plan to listen, learn, and collectively make good decisions about what we can do to improve school safety here in Springville. Please join us.

Following the recent violent attack on innocent lives at a school in Florida, I’ve heard from families, BOE members and employees who have written to me with concerns about school safety here. I’d like to share the work we’ve been doing on this topic over the past year and the changes we’re considering moving forward.

In early 2017 we contracted with Corporate Screening & Investigative Group to conduct a security and climate survey and risk assessment of the district. This was a thorough investigation conducted by Tony Olivo and his team in which he evaluated our school exterior and play areas, our school interiors and our staff and administrative practices.

What we learned from this assessment influenced many of the decisions we’ve made about our security practices. We’ve changed our safety drills from twelve fire drills per year, with one early evacuation drill, to practicing all of our emergency drills. While the topic of a school shooter makes everyone uncomfortable, we believe we must discuss, prepare and practice how to respond so that every member of our school family feels empowered to act responsibly in ways that can save lives.

The truth is that in the event of an emergency such as an active shooter, every person here has to be prepared to think quickly and to make the best possible decisions. Who can call a lock down in the event that they see something is wrong? Anyone. Who can call 911 in the event of an emergency? Anyone.

Please know that we also pay attention to each and every report  about anyone who may be making threats or expressing alarming ideas or thoughts on social media. “SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING” is an important mantra for our students, employees and families to remember. We need everyone acting as advocates for student safety. Are the concerns false sometimes? Sure, but better that we investigate concerns than ignore them. We also have a full staff of school counselors and social workers who work with students who are struggling–please tell an adult if something seems worrisome so that we can get help to those in need.

School safety is the responsibility of every member of our school community. From the security and risk assessment, we implemented the following.

1. All doors are to be locked at all times. In the event of an active shooter entering one of our schools, a quick response is paramount to saving lives. Teachers cannot be fumbling for keys to lock doors. Instead the doors should be locked so they can be quickly closed.
2. All district staff are expected to wear their SGI name badges at all times while on duty and to use them to enter buildings.
3. We have improved morning entry procedures for Boys and Girls Club students so that our buildings aren’t wide open and unlocked prior to the start of school.
4. To the extent possible, everyone should enter through one centralized arrival point.
5. We added a door monitor at SES and we now require all visitors to show and leave ID while visiting our buildings. This is in an effort to verify that people are who they say they are and to be able to quickly identify who is in our buildings.
6. We dedicated time for ALL STAFF to learn more from Tony Olivo and NYS Trooper Tom Kelly about SGI Situational Awareness and Security as part of our staff development days. We conducted follow up training for our door monitors. I believe this kind of training needs to be repeated annually.
7. We have two district level leaders who have school safety as a primary responsibility and are therefore charged with the task of routinely evaluating our practices, keeping current on what we can do better and reminding everyone of our responsibilities.
8. Our building level safety teams are empowered to implement procedures that make sense for their buildings. An example is when the Colden Elementary Safety Team identified that parent pick-up at the end of the day will be better contained and safer if moved from the cafeteria to the front of the school.

We have a School Resource Officer, Erie County Sheriff Frank Simmeth, who we share with North Collins, provided to us through funding from Senator Pat Gallivan. Senator Gallivan is meeting with us next week to further discuss law enforcement’s role in school security.

What else can we do? In our current capital project, the bids were favorable enough that we have some funding to spend on things that weren’t initially planned. We also have Smart Schools Bond money available. I have specified that school safety improvements are our #1 Priority for the use of these funds. Following are possibilities we are considering.

1. Technology solutions that allow us to lock down all doors within a building immediately.
2. Improved security cameras placed where law enforcement and our security audit indicate.
3. Aegis Technology that helps deliver a safer school by working with our existing camera system to provide proactive real-time alerts that will protect staff and students.  Tony Olivo is joining us at our March 20 BOE meeting to discuss this technology with us.
4. There is a film for the glass in our doors and windows that can be applied and would delay entry from an armed intruder.

We will be discussing school safety and security at our March 20 BOE meeting, 6:30 at Springville High School. We invite our employees, students and families to attend.

Will some of the outcomes of our safety improvements make things a bit more inconvenient? Perhaps. Will some visitors feel that the precautions aren’t necessary? Maybe. Is it worth it? Yes.

We want our families to feel welcome when they enter our buildings. We want you to feel a part of what we’re doing at SGI–please visit us! We just want to be smart and safe about it. When you come to my home, you’ll find the doors locked. When I see who you are and determine that I know you, that it’s safe to open my door to let you in, I’ll be warm and welcoming. Isn’t that how you are at home? That’s what we’re attempting to do here in our efforts to keep every child and employee safe at SGI.

And if all of these precautions are unnecessary? I’ll be very grateful. 

 

 

This morning I’m starting my day in the Dunkirk school district where I’m traveling with our capital project team to visit a new P-TECH center that’s opening in February, 2018. P-Tech stands for Pathways in Technology Early College High School and we have the possibility to bring a center to our school district.

What would you think about a P-TECH center right here in Springville? Working with Alfred State University and Erie 2 BOCES, we would offer two pathways for students: Computer Science and Electrical Construction and Maintenance Electrician. Through this collaboration, students would be concurrently enrolled in high school and college course work. Students would complete the six-year program with their Regents diploma from SGI and Associates Degree from Alfred State. This program would be available to our SGI students and other students in our region.

Imagine if we have the chance to build partnerships with area industries and equip our students to fill vacancies in high need areas! A P-TECH center on our campus could also be used for adult learning in the evenings and help to grow our vibrant community. We could renovate  the district office building into a vital P-TECH learning center through a capital project that would allow the local costs of the project to be fully paid by BOCES through rent for their programs.

Renovating the District Office into a student space makes good financial sense for us too. The way state aid on a capital project works is that any non-student occupied space, like our current district office, gets ZERO state aid back for work we have to do to maintain the building like our roof replacement. In our student occupied spaces, work is eligible for 79.8% state aid back. In the case of this P-TECH project, it would be a state aided capital project AND BOCES would pay the 21.2% local taxpayer share through their rent of the space.

1. BOCES programs for area HS students in two viable trades for which industry is experiencing shortages.
2. Springville owned building, renovated with zero cost to the local taxpayers.
3. Springville students can attend the program, right here in district.
4. Adult learning opportunities in the center in the afternoons/evening, possibly with Alfred State (how awesome would that be?!)

As I’ve been researching this opportunity and planning with BOCES over these last few weeks, I can’t come up with a reason for us NOT to do this in Springville. Can you? What an opportunity for a learning center, right here in Springville!

We would look to open the center in September, 2018, utilizing four classrooms at SHS and needing six classrooms in September, 2019. To open the renovated center in September, 2020, we would need to bring the project to a vote in May of this school year. I recommend we do so with our regular budget vote to save on the cost of a capital project vote.

Much more to follow, including public meetings to answer questions and review details. Please contact me with any feedback. As always, I’d love to hear what you think!

Our leadership team and teachers continue to focus on something called Change School, a learning space where we think about redefining rural public education in Springville. For decades our students have received a solid, fundamental education. With the accelerated changes within our world, we see an urgency to transform our school system.

To our solid, fundamental education, we are talking about ways to support and encourage learning opportunities that develop students’ natural curiosity, where they discover, connect, collaborate, contribute and adapt. Interested in re-imagining school and having a voice in what it means to be an SGI graduate? Please call me at 592-3230 or email me at kmoritz@springvillegi.org to join our coalition for change.

Teachers, students, parents, support staff members and community members are all welcome! Our first meeting will be in January, more details to follow.