The following letter was sent by Valerie Henning-Piedmonte, Brewster Superintendent of Schools on August 30, 2018
Dear Parents, Families and Students,
Welcome back! I hope that you are well rested and ready for a new school year. On September 5, we will welcome the 2018-19 school year with the same hopeful enthusiasm and anticipation that children should feel when they start every new school year. All staff will return on September 4 to prepare to welcome students back.
Our summer was filled with projects that added value to the school District and community. The JFK Elementary School parking lot was repaved and the reconstruction of the baseball and softball fields is underway. We are very excited about adding these important enhancements to the campus, not only because they improve the overall appearance of the campus, but because they ensure the safety of students, staff and parents. As always, we thank our community for supporting these improvements.
As you know, our focus on implementing 21st century academic and social emotional skills (critical thinking, collaboration/communication, adaptability, perseverance and civic responsibility) into curriculum, instruction, assessment, the learning environment and professional learning that all students will need in life, work and future learning continues to be a priority. I sound like a broken record at this point, but after students graduate from Brewster, they will be judged in work, college and life not on what they know, but on what they can do with what they know. We are dedicated to the goal of preparing all of our students to succeed in their chosen path in life, whether it be college, work or the military. To achieve success in an ever changing, global society, our graduates will need to be able to adapt quickly to change, learn new information, content and technologies to solve problems, innovate and create, and engage in ongoing learning to keep pace with the expectations of their employers. We are not waiting until students enter high school to start this process. Students in kindergarten will soon be able to describe, in their own way, how they used a particular skill to identify and solve a problem, why it is important to be able to work well with others to accomplish a common goal,how to stick to a project or task until it is accomplished or why it is normal to admit mistakes and view failure as an opportunity to learn.
We also used this summer to offer professional learning opportunities to educators and administrators that support the implementation of the 21st century academic and social emotional skills outlined above.
- A trainer from the Buck Institute worked with 25 educators and administrators on how to implement Project Based Learning (PBL), which operates on the principle that students work for a specified period of time, ranging from a week to a semester, on an authentic problem or a complex, multifaceted question that emerges from study in a content area or subject. To demonstrate their knowledge and skills, students develop a public product or make a presentation to a real audience.
- Ms. Jackie Fego and Mr. Steve Coshal of CV Starr trained their K-5 colleagues in Project Lead the Way (PLTW), which is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum that incorporates the five academic and social emotional skills that are the focus of our Strategic Coherence Plan. Educators at JFK Elementary will start using PLTW this year.
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Ms. Michelle Gosh convened the K-5 Math Committee that is piloting two math curriculum resources this year with the goal of selecting one that all K-5 educators will use in the 2019-20 school year. The first training session for each curricular resource will take place before the school year begins, and ongoing professional learning and analysis will occur throughout the pilots.
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Ms. Gosh also worked with a group of K-5 teachers and administrators as a Word Study Taskforce, who will explore ways to more effectively integrate word study, which includes vocabulary, grammar, phonics, spelling, and comprehension into literacy instruction.
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Ms. Christian (DeJesus) Hernandez facilitated a Strategic Coherence Plan rubric development work session with Ms. Deb Elk (CV Starr), Ms. Deb Velazquez (HH Wells), Ms. Deb Romaine (HH Wells), Ms. Allie O’Connor (CV Starr), Ms. Kathy Brower (JFK), Ms. Lynn Olsen (JFK), Ms. Patty Taylor (BHS) and Ms. Janet Tallevi (BHS). We will be using the draft rubrics this year as a way to monitor the integration of the five SCP skills into curriculum, instruction, assessment, the learning environment and professional learning. After feedback from educators and administrators, we will incorporate suggestions that will make the rubrics more effective guides.
Mr. Paul Stellacci (CSE Chair and Behaviorist), became a certified Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Schools (TCIS) Trainer. As a result, we no longer need to hire a trainer to work with teachers, teaching assistants, administrators, aides and monitors.
- Mr. Michael Hennessy, a school counselor at HH Wells, became a trainer in restorative practices. As a result, we no longer need a trainer from outside to offer this training. Restorative practices will become a part of our Code of Conduct.
- All leaders participated in our annual Summer Leadership Council Institute to strengthen our leadership skills so that we continue to improve student outcomes and implement 21st century teaching and learning practices. We also read and discussed a book to assist our SCP integration work called The Internal Coherence Framework: Creating the Conditions for Continuous Improvement in Schools by Michelle L. Forman, Elizabeth Leisy Stosich and Candice Bocala. The culminating experience was a visit to IBM in Armonk to see how an industry with global reach incorporates critical thinking, collaboration/communication, adaptability, perseverance, and civic responsibility into the workplace and how employees in a 21st century workplace function and operate.
- Ms. Michelle Gosh and Ms. Kathy Culligan invited new employees into the District as part of our annual New Educator Institute. They started their work by reading and discussing Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. We used this text to help new staff members understand the expectations for students in this century to be successful in life, work and future learning.
- Along with administrators and teachers, Ms. Michelle Gosh convened a K-5 Report Card Committee to upgrade the report card to reflect the new standards and skills.
We welcome new staff members who are joining us and offer our best wishes to them as they start their positions. New students have also been enrolled and we will make sure that they get acclimated and are comfortable in their new school. During the summer, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department made a few personnel changes. Deputy Keith Simone replaces Deputy Mike Neuner at HH Wells. We will miss Deputy Neuner, but I am certain that we will quickly grow fond of Deputy Simone.
Two new Board of Education Trustees were sworn in at the July 3 Board meeting. Please join me in congratulating and welcoming Mr. Daniel Heintz and Mr. Erik Grutzner to the Brewster Board of Education. In addition, Ms. Sonia Mesika became the President of the Brewster Board of Education and Ms. Kerry Cunningham became the Vice President of the Brewster Board of Education. Congratulations to them as well. We appreciate and thank the Board for all that they do on behalf of the children, families and staff of Brewster.
The Board of Education approved a residency verification plan that started in July. This action was taken as a result of reports from some community members that residency fraud was being committed by some families who were not legal residents of the District. All students, including kindergarteners, will be re-registered. Information can be found on our website or by contacting our Registrar, Ms. Donna Morey at registrar@brewsterschools.org .
We celebrate the many wonderful events that take place throughout the school year on our website and through social media. A growing number of professionals are sharing information about their classrooms on social media. Please follow all of us. I am on Twitter at #bcsdsupt, on Instagram at @bcsdsupt, Facebook and maintain a Superintendent’s Blog on our website.
On behalf of the Board of Education and all employees of the school District, we look forward to a successful 2018-19 school year and to greeting children on September 5.
Warm regards,
Valerie Henning-Piedmonte