Schools

Beacon School Board Update March 2008

By Bill Zopf ⋅ February 25, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Communicating with Parents and Residents
Sometimes we hear people say that they aren’t finding out about events or news in the school district. We want to make sure everyone is aware of what is happening and able to take advantage of the many opportunities offered to students and residents. To do this, we use many different methods to communicate news to as wide an audience as possible.

Where To Find Out What Is Going On in the Schools
For all district residents, a district newsletter is mailed a couple of times each school year. This newsletter reports on events happening in the school and reminds people of important dates. The school district continuously submits articles and news stories to the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Beacon Free Press and Southern Dutchess News. School events and the board meetings are televised on Channel 22 for anyone who lives in the city limits. The district website is a great source of information. Go online to review find information on any one of the schools, dates for upcoming events and board meetings, homework assignments, sporting events, policy documents, and even streaming video of the board meetings. I encourage everyone to visit the website at www.beaconcityk12.org and become familiar with its contents. If you do not own a computer, free access to a computer is offered at the public library.

For parents, each school sends home announcements and newsletters regarding events and upcoming dates at the school. Annual school calendars are handed out which list all planned school closings, and all of the district contact information. A new telephone announcement system was started last year and has been successful. Most parents are familiar with this system when they get a call about school delays or closings due to inclement weather, but some of the schools are starting to use the system to let parents know about upcoming events. The phone numbers used by the system are those given by the parents when their student is enrolled within a school, so it is important to make sure that you inform the district if you change phone numbers. You can also sign up on the district website to receive e-mail. To do this go to the “Parents” section of the website and enter your e-mail address.

Vote on March 4th to Dispose of Old Beacon High School
As a reminder, there will be a vote to dispose of the old Beacon High School on Tuesday, March 4th. The proposition declares the building as surplus and no longer needed for district purposes. The proposition is not specific to any offer to purchase the building. Voting hours are from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. Residents of the city will vote at Beacon High School. Residents outside of the city will vote at either Glenham Elementary School, the Bus Garage or the Chelsea Fire House.

Provided the vote is in favor of disposing of the building, the school district will conclude negotiations with interested buyers and move forward with a sale.

News of the Superintendent Search
The search for a new superintendent for next year is ongoing. The deadline for receiving resumes is the end of February and to date we have received many resumes from very good candidates. The search committee has been poring over these, and is whittling down the list. Once we have the top candidates we will be conducting interviews, checking references and visiting the candidate’s home school district. To help us in our selection we would like your input on the characteristics that you feel are important in a superintendent. We have prepared a form which can be filled out and/or e-mailed. You can find the form and instructions by going to the school district web site, go to the “Our District”, “Central Administration”, “Superintendent” section and look under “Current News”.

School Budget News
Discussions on next year’s school budget are under way. We have already had one committee meeting and a board workshop on the budget. Our next committee meeting on the budget is scheduled for Monday February 25th at the high school. The public hearing on the budget required by law is scheduled for Monday, May 12th at the high school.

When the budget for the current school year was voted on last May by the district residents, it was estimated the tax levy would increase by 3.93%. By the end of the summer all of the state aid figures and the revised property assessments were known, and we were very pleased to determine the actual tax levy increase was only 2.04%. The school district business office is conservative in the budgeting approach, and this means we should not see any unpleasant surprises once the actual factors affecting the budget are realized.
One of the questions we ask ourselves is, “How does the Beacon City School District compare financially to other districts in the area?” Every year, Dutchess County BOCES publishes a fact sheet which compares the expenditures and state aid figures for all thirteen public school districts in Dutchess County. A few facts from the BOCES document illustrate how our school district administration is managing the school budgets.

1. Total expenditures per student for the 2006-2007 school year were $12,834, placing Beacon twelfth out of the thirteen school districts. The five year percentage increase placed us eleventh.
2. Over the five year period, the costs of employee benefits in Beacon increased at a lower amount than in eight of the thirteen school districts.
3. Over the five year period, the costs of operating the buildings in Beacon on a per pupil basis increased less than in all of the other Dutchess County school districts.

A Great Deal for Good Exercise
Have you seen the state-of-the-art facilities available for your use? The school district offers both individual and family memberships to use the high school pool and exercise facility. The pool is indoors, heated, has a shallow end for the non-swimmers and is watched by trained life guards. The exercise room is equipped with all sorts of exercise equipment. Both six month and yearly memberships are offered and the price is very reasonable. For further information about joining and the hours of operation visit the school district web site, go to the “Athletics” section and look under “Community Use”.

Highlights of Our Schools

Sweating, Striving and Succeeding
Congratulations to all of our winter athletes for their efforts and the end of another successful season. We especially want to congratulate those individuals and teams moving on to the post-season: Derek DeCandia and Ryan Tompkins in Wrestling, Tejorn Davis, Chris Morales and Max Schmidt in Track, and the Varsity Girls Basketball team who are having a tremendous season.

Much Ado About Something Coming Soon
The high school drama club is putting on a production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Friday March 14th and Saturday March 15th at 8:00 pm in the theater of the high school. Set in the 50’s and 60; the play will feature such classics as “At the Hop”, “Venus”, “My Guy” and “Chapel of Love”. This will not be your standard Shakespeare; it will have more than the usual love and fantasy, including song and dance. Support the Drama Club and have an evening of fun by buying tickets for friends and family! Please contact Mrs. Pat DeLeo at the high school for tickets by calling 838-6900 x3321 or e-mailing deleo.p@beaconk12.org

More Community Service News
Rombout Middle School has once again held a successful blood drive while as per their annual tradition, students at Glenham and Sargent Elementary Schools in the Beacon City School District created hundreds of Valentine’s Day Cards for vets residing at the Castle Point Campus of the VA Hudson Valley Health Care System.

National Engineers Week
On February 20 and 21st, scientists from IBM visited science classes at Rombout Middle School as part of the 2008 Mid-Hudson Valley National Engineers week. Students learned engineering principles as they designed a package that would protect the raw egg in its fall from the top of a six-foot ladder. While some students opened their packages to see a bit of a mess, other teams were able to apply what they learned and keep their egg from breaking!

World Beats for Peace Rocks Beacon City Schools
Students from Glenham and JV Forrestal Elementary Schools and Rombout Middle School and Beacon High School were moving to the rhythms and spirit of African music as interpreted by Ugandan musician Samite and Beacon resident, Jeff Haynes, in the January performance of the World Beats for Peace Series: A Percussive Journey Through Genres of Music. Each month percussionist Jeff Haynes brings a new genre of music to Beacon City School District students, ranging form American folk to the blues. Samite played the flute, the kalimba (a thumb piano) and the litungu (a harp) and entertained the students with stories and song. In one sequence, the auditorium darkened, the instruments reflected the sounds of the rain forest, and Samite’s photographs of endangered mountain gorillas appeared on stage.

South Avenue Magnet School Wins Award
The Chase Multimedia in the Classroom Awards Competition celebrates the achievements of teachers and students who are transforming learning environments through technology. South Avenue Magnet School was one of only ten schools winning an award with all of the others in either New York City or Long Island. Kudos to all who were instrumental in winning this very prestigious award.
If you have any suggestions for future columns you may e-mail me at bzopf.bcsd@gmail.com.

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