Board of Education Meeting Recap

• Wednesday night we are celebrating all of our SHS National Honor Society inductees.
• Five students will be representing SHS at the NYSSMA festival in Rochester, NY on Thursday of this week.
• The FAFSA is now open for college-bound seniors.
• Help is being offered by the National History Honor Society for any HS student taking the January History regent exam.
• STIR students went to a science research symposium today to show off their research.
• Last weekend the Hockey team unveiled their championship banner from last year.
• Paws4Change will have therapy dogs at SHS from the 9th - 13th of December.

Suffern Central is proud to partner with the Village of Sloatsburg and the Town of Ramapo to bring the New York State initiative, My Brother's Keeper, to our community as part of the District's strategic initiative around belonging and well-being.

My Brother's Keeper challenges school communities to design and implement action plans that expand opportunities for all young people, but especially boys and young men of color. Our District has officially accepted the challenge and our next step towards becoming a My Brother's Keeper community is to host a summit with businesses, youth service organizations, civic groups, families and other local dignitaries and partners to assess the needs and determine priorities for action. That meeting will take place at the end of January and more information will follow soon. Dr. Garcia-Mathews, the Associate Director of ENL and Equity will lead this effort.

Keep an eye out in your email this week for a school survey from your building principals. We're asking families to spend a few minutes answering questions related to their experiences so far this year as a way to connect and learn more about what you may need from your schools. We created this survey as part of our district belonging initiative - and we will be sharing the results of that in the new year. The survey is open until December 13, and you can also access it here.

And, in the spirit of our belonging initiative - we are excited to have some of our Suffern Middle School choral students and their teacher, Constance Scherer at the board meeting to perform a piece they've been working on called, "We Belong" by Pat Benatar. These talented students and many other SMS students will be performing their winter concert series over the next few weeks.

As part of the work of learning the song, students have also taken a deep dive into the text of the piece, reflecting on what belonging means to them. Here are some of their responses:

I feel calm when I listen to this song because it reminds me of all my friends where I feel I belong. I can be nice to people to make them feel like they can belong ~DC 7th grade

Belonging feels like you’ve found your people or family. It feels like you have a purpose. You can make other people feel like they belong by including them in games, conversations, and more. ~CV 8th grade

This piece makes me feel like everyone belongs in the group or chorus class. I like the idea that “There’s no moving forward, there’s no turning back” so the thing that matters is right now. ~HRA 7th grade

• Board of Education Meeting: December 17
• Winter Recess Saturday, December 21 - Wednesday, January 1
• Board of Education Meeting: January 7