Board of Education Meeting Recap

Some highlights from SHS include:

- It's spirit week! Staff and students have been dressing up and participating all week. On Thursday, students will have an extended lunch with snacks, games and fun in the circle. Friday the students will celebrate with a pep rally and football game, and homecoming will be Saturday pm.

- Monday, September 30 is Senior Parent Night - for parents to learn about how to help their seniors prepare for life after graduation, including college applications and options.

- October 2 is the SHS Club Expo - students will have an opportunity to see all of the clubs available to get more involved.

- October 5 - SHS will host an SAT exam

- October 7 - Financial Aid Night to showcase opportunities in college

There is a lot of positive energy in the District and the schools and it's great to see the enthusiasm of all our staff and students in this new year. Tonight we celebrated our new staff members in a welcome reception with the Board of Education, prior to the general meeting.

To address some of the challenges we've had with transportation, Dr. Gundersen spoke about some of the solutions we've been making to create new routes including hiring new drivers and adding busses, and we are seeing results each day. Dr. Gundersen encourages anyone still having issues to reach out to the transportation department. He stressed that safety is our top priority. We transport roughly 6,000 students to more than 100 schools in this District and our transportation department works diligently to be sure we exceed state laws. We've added monitors to buses where we needed them and have made adjustments to a handful of routes to help make changes.

Lisa Weber, Assistant Superintendent for C&I gave an overview of Suffern's literacy instruction. As a review, Suffern is working with several literacy resources, including UFLI, Syntax Project and CKLA Knowledge Building. She shared photos and videos of classroom work being incorporated this year and discussed the various professional development opportunities the District is providing our teachers and staff.

You can view the entire presentation here.

This is important work and Suffern Central is a step ahead of other districts in the state, who will soon be mandated to incorporate Science of Reading into curriculum.

• No School, Rosh Hashanah Observed: Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4
• Board of Education Meeting: Tuesday, October 8, 2024
• No School, Columbus Day: Monday, October 14, 2024
• Board of Education Meeting: Tuesday, October 22, 2024