Greetings from the Cal-Mum Raider family.

Throughout this season of giving, our students and staff have shown their generosity in many ways, spreading joy here at school and into our community.

Many of our students wrote letters of thanks to local first responders for Patriot Day and to local veterans to thank them for their service on Veterans Day.

Together, our three schools provided Thanksgiving meals for many families in our community.

Our students collected warm mittens, gloves, hats, scarves and gift cards and donated them to Focus on the Children, a Livingston County agency that assists children with their essential needs.

On December 9 the Caledonia-Mumford Senior Class of 2022 prepared over 150 turkey dinners for local senior citizens. The annual event, called Seniors for Seniors, is in its 29rh year at CMCS and continues to be one of the most loved events.

The Covid -19 pandemic has forced us to temporarily discontinue the student performances and in-person dinner at Seniors for Seniors but we truly are grateful to be able to provide the drive-thru dinner option to our valued community and family members. We look forward to inviting the senior citizens back to the auditorium for our program in the future.

There is a lot happening at CMCS so we hope you enjoy this digital newsletter as we love to share our classroom experiences and school activities with you. Enjoy the photos below.

Cal-Mum Raiders - Better Together!

We are grateful to our faculty, staff, parents and the community for all your help and support in fulfilling the Caledonia-Mumford Central School District’s mission to graduate ethical, responsible, lifelong learners, who are college and career ready. Without you, we would not be where we are today, and we’re so thankful for all of your support. We hope you have a joyous holiday.

Please join us in congratulating the new CMCS administrative leaders.

The Caledonia-Mumford Central School District has reconfigured our administrative structure to support the diverse academic, social and emotional needs of every student. These changes will start with the new year on January 3, 2022.

We are pleased to share the new leadership structure.

Elementary School Principal Mr. David Bulter will remain as the elementary principal and Mrs. Michele Meyer will transition from her current position as Director of Curriculum and Instruction to the Elementary School Assistant Principal/Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator.

High School Principal Dr. Rebekah Chenaille will become the Middle/High School Principal and the District will hire a MS/HS Assistant Principal with an anticipated start date of February 1, 2022.

Dr. Chenaille will assume the role of MS/HS Principal effective January 3, 2022 and Superintendent of Schools Mr. Robert Molisani will continue to serve as her Assistant Principal until the position is filled.

CSE Chairperson Mrs. Megan Rogers will continue serving as the Acting Chairperson for the Committee on Special Education (CSE) for the remainder of the school year.

We are grateful for all your help and support in fulfilling the District’s mission to graduate ethical, responsible, lifelong learners, who are college and career ready. Without you, we would not be where we are today, and we’re so thankful for all of your support. We hope you have a joyous holiday.

CMCS won five awards, including four Awards of Merit and one Award of Honor in the 2021 New York State Public Relations Association Communications Contest.

Four of the awards are for photographs taken throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

The Cal-Mum Chronicle Fall 2020 and June 2021 issues also won an award.

Caledonia-Mumford's entries were among the 403 entries judged by communications professionals around the country, with about 30% of those entries receiving awards.

"You should be proud that your work has been honored,” said Monica Lester, 2021 NYSPRA Communications Contest Coordinator.

A photo of a rainbow over the campus, entitled, "A sign that Cal-Mum is going to have a great year!" was taken by Middle School teacher Mrs. Lisa Geary.

The other award-winning photographs were taken by Sarah Santora from the Tech/Communications Department, including:

The Sun Will Come Up – Better Days Ahead
This is a photo taken at sunrise over the campus.

First Day of In-Person School. Have a Great Day, Love, Mom
This photo is of a young elementary school student eating lunch, physically distanced from her classmates, but smiling because her mom placed a nice note in her lunch bag.

Cal-Mum Raiders Stick Together but Stay Apart
This photo was taken in front of the elementary school on a bright sunny day with fluffy white clouds dotting the sky.

Ms. Santora also produces the District's newsletter, which received an Award of Merit. Mr. Dan Farrugia of Genesee Valley Boces is the graphic designer of the Cal-Mum Chronicle newsletter.

Hometown Holidays weekend, December 3 and 4, 2021, was a community celebration to kick off the holiday season in Caledonia. Cal-Mum students helped in many ways over the two day celebration.

On Friday, December 3, National Junior Honor Society students helped by filling the luminary bags and placing them around Monument Park for Friday night’s tree lighting ceremony. Several students from the high school chorus came out for the tree lighting ceremony and entertained the large crowd of families attending by singing Christmas carols.

Mr. Bulter, the elementary school principal and Mrs. Bulter had a nice visit with Santa Claus (thank you to our jolly old board of education member Arnie Rychlicki), and the CM Elementary PTO provided s’mores for all!

Early on Saturday morning, another group of NJHS students arrived at First Presbyterian Church to be helpers for Caledonia Recreation’s breakfast with Santa Claus.

Cal-Mum High School represented their alma mater very well with a float in the Hometown Holidays parade, the band marching alongside Kelley’s Heroes Marching Band, and Cal-Mum Varsity Cheerleaders entertained the large group of spectators gathered all along the parade route.

It was a wonderful weekend of fun and volunteer service. Enjoy the photos below.

Middle School Page Turners
Mrs. Elizabeth Barbour, Advisor

After months of reading, Middle School PageTurners participants are taking it to the next level at competition!

On December 8, 2021, the Middle School Chapter 2 Team worked well in collaborating to show their knowledge and are already starting to prepare for the Spring competition!

Our High School team will be competing on December 15, 2021! Please congratulate these students for working hard and sharing their love of reading.

• Chapter 2 Participants: Amelia Fiscus, Evelynn Sullivan, Ava Pouch, Clara Mulvaney, David Preston, Emmalie Starr, Gracie Schunk, Jackson Benedict, Mya Davis, Olivia Maclauchlan, Rowan Harris.
  
  
• Chapter 3 Participants: Joslyn Curtis, Lily Clement, Rylee Markwitz, Ryann Murdock, Hazell Nickeson.

Elementary School PageTurners
Mrs. Nicole Flint & Mr. Gregg Yaekel, Advisors

The Cal-Mum Elementary School PageTurners team competed on December 6, 2021, at Avon Central School. This was our first competition since March of 2020. The students were brilliant! To prepare they had to closely read five chapter books, a graphic novel, two picture books and a piece of poetry.

The questions were intense! Our team has a one-point lead going into the Spring competition to be held next March.

• Team 1 Participants: Lydia Davin, Lyla Hillman, Avery Grattan, Daniel Preston, Isabella Walther, Gracelyn Watson, Isabella Kresge, Ivan Kiriyak, Rozlyn Streb, Molly MacWilliams, Nora Schuler.
  
  
• Team 2 Participants: Aiden Dolby, Audrey Padlick-Field, Josalyn Patanella, Grant Warner, London Mattingly, Kenzie Nichols, Olivia Kantowski, Caroline Cappotelli, Jesha Paduano.

A lino cut is a type of relief print where you carve into a block of linoleum and take a print from the inked surface of the block.

Here are a couple of examples of lino prints created by her students.

Cal-Mum High School Principal Dr. Rebekah was pleased to present Senior Camden Reed with the 2022 Commended Student recognition in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Camden is among a select 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation who are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Camden placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2022 competition by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

Dr. Chenaille had this say about Camden:

“Camden has always been a student whose academic data stands out to me. He is a contender for the Top Ten in the Class of 2022. This is a proud moment for Camden and his family and certainly for the Cal-Mum community.”

Camden is a three-sport athlete, a member and President of the National Honor Society, a scholar-athlete, Vice-President of the Student Council and the recipient of the 2021 Tom Callan Football Award. He is actively involved in numerous school and community activities.

Congratulations to Camden and his parents, Mike and Erin Reed of Caledonia.

Balancing their hard research, creativity, and digital media skills they were able to explore some of the middle/high school library’s video production and editing equipment to make their research come to life!

Watch Samuel Dietrich and Olivia Maclauchlan’s and Christian Backus, Jaden Leach and Austin Walker's projects below.

Four Freshman students with the highest GPA in their class served as torchbearers for the ceremony. They are Lily Clement, Hazell Nickerson, Mackenzie Pooray, and Julianna Scott.

Congratulations to the newly inducted NHS members:

Lillian Auger, Leah Brabant, Kelsey Curtis, Abrielle DeMarco, Avery DeMarco,
Madison DeVore, Ella Dietrich, Alden Hatch, Aaliya Kocher, Faith Manchester,
Cassidy Mitchell, Kyle Wade, and Ally Walker

The 2020 NHS Members:
Bernard Bazzett, Jacob Cappotelli, Lydia Johnston, Andy Lin, Mitchell Mattice, Taylor Mills, Camden Reed, Sawyer Richardson, Halie VanDyne, Alexzandra Whiteman

Cal-Mum High School Alumni (Class of 2014) Mr. Josh Ingersoll has been working with Mrs. Tedesco's middle school science classes for the past two years. Mr. Ingersoll is a Satellite Regulatory Engineer at Amazon. He earned his Master's Degree in Space Policy and Business Administration from George Washington University.

All of his lessons with Mrs. Tedesco’s classes have been via Zoom teleconferencing until November 22 and 23, 2021, when Mr. Ingersoll visited the classroom in person. The students were over the moon with excitement to actually meet and interact with him!

The lesson focused on rockets and Mr. Ingersoll brought souvenirs for all of the students from his sponsor group, Relativity Space. The Remove Before Launch key tags he brought are used to check the hardware on rockets before flight. The students were impressed that these tags were actually on rockets that have flown to space.

The sixth graders asked many great questions and look forward to Mr. Ingersoll's next lesson, which is about Apollo and Artemis.

Mr. Geary's Biology students dissected the North Atlantic starfish, Asterias.

The students examined their five arms and central disc. They observed the madreporite, their respiratory organ and the starfish locomotion (little suction cups called tube feet that they use to crawl along the ocean floor).

Mr. Geary led a discussion on the starfish's feeding behavior. They wrap their arms around a clam or limpet, pry the shell open, and invert their stomach to start digesting their prey.

The class witnessed the starfish spawning (release of both sperm and eggs,) followed by fertilization where a ciliated larva developed; after 3-4 months it will grow into a small starfish.

Congratulations to the students whose designs will become the front and back covers

Madeline Titus's design will become the front cover of the yearbook.

The back cover will be a collage of artwork created by Avalyn McArdle, Kennedy Williams, Caroline Cappotelli, Lillyana Iacubucci, and Rachel Millar.

Click on the photos below to see them full size!

Elementary School Librarian Mrs. Burns likes to offer STEAM activities to the students. Recently, she had them program Dash robots. The robots teach coding which helps students in the area of computational thinking. Computational thinking helps students break problems down into manageable steps, recognize patterns and develop spatial awareness.

With the assistance of the School Library System at Genesee Valley Boces, Mrs. Burns was able to have the use of several additional Dash robots and Ipads to work with third, fourth and fifth grade students.

Fourth graders built the skills to understand code, sequencing and loops. They coded their Dash to rake leaves and play basketball.

Fifth graders built their skills in breaking down problems, recognizing patterns and creating algorithms; all steps used to problem solve.

Mrs. Burns is working with teachers to expand the STEAM and robotics activities on all grade levels.

NOTE - To comply with NYS Covid 19 regulations for schools, Mr. Womble was positioned
12 feet away from the students and therefore was able to remove his mask while he gave his presentation.

Mr. Womble spent an entire day at Cal-Mum Middle and High School, inspiring our students to follow their dreams, develop their passions and become leaders of their generation.

A large part of Mr. Womble's message was centered around compassion, understanding and empathy for others.

Our students really engaged with Mr. Womble’s excitement for inspiring young people to be their best. He will return later in the school year fr another workshop with students.

“Action leads to momentum…

Momentum leads to confidence…

Confidence spurs us to do great things!” Lamarr Womble

Additional classes are planned for the New Year so stay connected to Cal-Mum Community Education through the school website (www.cal-mum.org) and Facebook.

What time is the concert?

Is the game home or away?

How do I submit an absence excuse for my child?

Find the answers to these questions and many more on the Caledonia-Mumford Central School District Mobile App!

With its integrated calendar feature, finding out what time an event is happening is just as easy as picking up your mobile phone and with one finger, open up the app and find the answer you are looking for.

No more going to your email and searching for the one from CMCS.

With the mobile app, information is quick and easy to find.

The CMCS mobile app is available for Iphone and Android models and is available as a free download in your app store. Just search for Caledonia-Mumford Central School.

When weather or other unplanned events cause Caledonia-Mumford Central School to close, delay the normal start time, or dismiss students early, parents/guardians will be notified by phone, text and/or email using our Mass Notification system.

The information will be posted to our school website www.cal-mum.org, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The notice will be sent to WHAM radio 1180, WBEE 92.5 FM; TV stations 8, 10, 13 and Spectrum News.

No private, parochial or public school transportation will be provided to any student when Caledonia-Mumford CSD is closed.

Please refer to the following school closing definitions:

Closed
School is closed; all events/sports are canceled.

Two Hour Delay
School will open two hours late. Morning Pre-k does not report.

No Afternoon Activities
School will close after dismissal, all after-school events/sports are canceled.

No Evening Activities
At 6 p.m. all events/sports are canceled.