As we develop our school budget for the 2025-26 school year, we recently launched a ThoughtExchange to seek input and feedback from our stakeholders. Parents, faculty, staff and residents participated in this, and their insights were valuable and appreciated. One comment, however, sent me into problem-solving mode.
In response to the question, “What has been your primary source of information regarding our upcoming budget?” A respondent replied, “Social media. Since my son graduated in 2020, I have not received any newsletters or emails from the district.”
As we strive to increase and improve our communications, we will be offering another way for you to stay informed and connected to our schools. Anyone can join our community email group. We will share information to this email group regarding events of community interest such as ticket sale information for school musicals, East vs. West athletic events, etc. We will also keep readers informed of our ongoing work to improve our school facilities, our school budget, and our current redistricting process to balance enrollment in our schools. Whether you have preschool aged children and are not yet receiving information from your future school or children who have graduated, our community emails will share information with residents who want to stay informed.
To sign up to receive our community emails, please send an email to
communications@wscschools.org. In the subject line please include the words “community email”. Alternatively, you can complete a digital form to be added to our community email list by visiting our website to sign up: www.wscschools.org/email.
We recently held our second community forum to update residents on the work of our Redistricting Committee. All of the meeting agendas, meeting minutes and presentations of our Redistricting Committee can be found on our website(www.wscschools.org/redistricting). Additionally, as we prepare for our 2025-26 school budget and annual vote, we are maintaining transparency in our process. We launched a Budget Advisory Committee this fall, and the committee’s resources including meeting agendas, meeting minutes and resources can be found on our website(www.wscschools.org/budget). Furthermore, at every Board meeting a budget update is shared. Our Board meetings can be viewed via live streaming, or can be viewed later. A recording of our school board meetings can be found on our website www.wscschools.org/BOElivestream.
There are exciting things happening in our schools, and our future is bright. With the support of the community through our May 20 school budget vote, we anticipate making much-needed upgrades to our failing sound, lighting and rigging systems in our high school and middle school auditoriums. Presently, we must rent supplemental lighting equipment for our school musicals. Due to the age of our equipment, replacement parts are becoming more difficult to find and repairs are becoming more expensive. Our proposed improvements will provide our two high school and two middle school auditoriums with safe, functional and reliable equipment. More detailed information will be shared during our Budget Presentations at School Board meetings and in our Budget mailing to residents.
West Seneca’s music department is one of the greatest points of pride for our school district, and the replacement of our outdated and failing equipment will allow our students to continue to shine on stage.
Thank you for your continued support of our music program and the West Seneca Central Schools.
