It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the start of the 2006-2007 school year. As the summer winds down, the excitement of the new school year already permeates our schools. The upcoming year will bring new and exciting challenges.

Once again, there was much activity in our schools over the summer. Our summer sport camps, music and YES programs were very successful, providing our students with extended learning opportunities and much fun. Many students attended our summer high school program and our SCOPE pre-K program. Fourteen new teachers participated in an orientation program. The orientation included training for both new teachers and senior faculty members who will serve as their mentors. I commend all of our administrators, teachers, staff members and students who worked so diligently this summer.

We continue to move forward with our curriculum mapping project. Our teachers and administrators have been working collaboratively to ensure that our curriculum is aligned with the New York State Standards. Our social studies curriculum was completed this summer. Thus far, our curriculum has been completed in the areas of English language arts, mathematics and social studies. During the upcoming school year, we anticipate completing the mapping of our science curriculum. We will also be supplying our students with new earth science textbooks at the high school and social studies textbooks in various grade levels. This spring, we will also select new mathematics textbooks for grades K-4 to address the changes that are being made by the State Education Department.

During the upcoming year, we anticipate working on meeting some exciting goals. One goal relates to safety and security. We want our children to be safe and secure and we want to protect our buildings and grounds as much as practicable. The board of education has provided direction in addressing concerns regarding the rising amount of vandalism that we have been experiencing throughout the district. As of this writing, we are sending out a bid for video surveillance cameras for the exterior of each school, with the hope that this will help to address this issue. We will also provide additional security during the weekend evenings and improve the exterior lighting at each school.

Much work has been done to prepare our buildings and grounds for the new school year. Our custodians and maintenance personnel have worked hard to ensure our buildings are ready for our students, faculty and staff. I commend them for a job well done. I am also happy to report that our lead remediation project at the high school has been successfully completed.

I congratulate our administrators, faculty, custodial, maintenance, clerical, nursing and food service personnel for all their hard work that will ensure a smooth transition to the new school year. I look forward to another year filled with wonderful educational opportunities for our children.