SCHOOL SCENE A Special Supplement to the Sullivan County Democrat
A look at activities in the Fallsburg Central School District
SECTION F, JANUARY, 2014 • CALLICOON, NY
FALLSBURG SCHOOL SCENE
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chool officials today are called to stretch the budget, embrace the community and squire students, teachers and families through channels of change. Fallsburg Central School District is doing all that in earnest. Come summertime, an $11 million project okayed by community voters will replace windows in aging buildings, repair restrooms and locker rooms, and fix heating systems. The Junior-Senior High School will see part of its roof repaired. Flooring damaged by groundwater at the Benjamin Cosor Elementary School will be replaced. Repairs to the swimming pool, which is also used by Fallsburg’s Parks and Recreation Department for swim lessons, will include special lifts for people with disabilities and locker room repairs. Most notably, the facilities improvement project will pay for a large new emergency generator for the JuniorSenior High School. “The generator will operate the whole building in case of power loss, keeping the building warm and the electricity working during weatherrelated disasters like Hurricane Sandy,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ivan Katz. In effect, the school would then serve as an emergency shelter for the Fallsburg community. Voters agreed to the improvements in May, due in no small part to the price tag for taxpayers: zero. “We took $4.5 million from the fund
SULLIVAN COUNTY DEMOCRAT
Fallsburg educators, community join to make changes
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ivan Katz says he’s proud to head up a school community so focused on student academic success.
balance and, coupled with the state building aid we will receive, we put this project forth at a 0 percent (tax
increase},” said Katz. The District had been saving into the fund balance for the past few
JANUARY, 2014
years from grants it had won and from other state and federal revenue streams. It’s looking for early spring approvals by the New York State Education Department and work to begin in the summer.
NEW TEACHING MATERIALS
Front and center in Fallsburg are the dual challenges of the revised teacher and principal evaluation system (APPR) that for the first time uses student performance on standardized tests as a significant portion of the scoring, and the Common Core Learning Standards, which define the knowledge, concepts and skills students must acquire in reading and math. After finally meeting the state’s compliance requirements for APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review), the District implemented the system speedily last year. “We are now making sure it’s implemented as agreed to,” said Dr. Matthew Evans, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction. “And we want to make sure it’s measuring what it’s intended to measure.” Another task was upgrading teacher and student workbooks and other classroom materials to reflect the Common Core. To do that, the District convened a selection committee of parents, teachers and administrators who reviewed the best teaching materials for kindergarten through eighth grade ELA and math. The State
Credits: All photographs and stories for this special School Scene are by Sullivan County Democrat Photographer/Reporter Kathy Daley. The Democrat would also like to thank the Fallsburg Central School District for all its cooperation in this project.
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CHANGES: Joining forces to get ready CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2F
Education Department offered appropriate lessons, called modules, as did leading publishers. The committee recommended the purchase of educational programs offered by McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin and Glencoe. The group agreed those programs met the criteria: that they be aligned with the Common Core, field tested in schools, and have strong appeal. The new materials also have online features invaluable for parents assisting their children with homework. The District is now conducting quality reviews of the curricula, said Dr. Evans. He explained that teachers do that by designing a unit to be taught and then implementing it. Finally, along with the District’s literacy and math coaches, they measure the unit against the Tri-State Rubric, which is a scoring tool developed jointly by New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
So far, Dr. Evans said, the Fallsburg units are scoring in the top two categories: either exemplary or exemplary if improved. “We’re grateful for the Board of Education and the community in providing the resources to adopt these (new) materials,” said Dr. Evans.
QUESTIONING STATE EXAMS Still, as a national debate rages about the merits of the Common Core and whether it really benefits students, educators like Drs. Katz and Evans argue the buzz may be about the wrong thing. “The larger question is about the state assessments and whether they’re really measuring what we want to measure,” said Evans. The state exams that students undergo and upon which both kids and educators are measured, he said, test concrete knowledge rather than abstract problem-solving skills, also called fluid knowledge, that are important in a changing world. “These are the discussions we need
A selection committee of parents, teachers and administrators made decisions on the allimportant new classroom teaching materials, noted Assistant Superintendent Dr. Matthew Evans.
to have,” Evans said. Meanwhile, Fallsburg stays in step. “Our staff members are working very diligently to keep pace with the
reforms being handed out from Albany,” said Evans. “And our parents are trying to keep pace with them too.”
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.S. Postal Service workers might have a hard time delivering mail to Responsibility Avenue, Cooperation Square and Caring Place, but for the “workers” in Benjamin Cosor Elementary School’s own postal system, it's no sweat. Run as a third grade project overseen by sixth graders, the Wee Deliver postal program encourages students, teachers and parents to write letters that are then delivered to students in their classrooms or to staff members throughout Cosor. “We want to promote reading and writing skills in our students,” said Patricia Schmahl, who serves as advisor for the program and is also Cosor’s In-School Suspension teacher. “And we encourage teachers to incorporate letter writing into their classroom activities.” Wee Deliver was launched by the United States Postal Service in 1991 to promote literacy in elementary schools across the nation. The Postal Service is no longer involved, but that hasn’t stopped Cosor Elementary School from jumpstarting the program this year. The school is divided up into postal zones, with each hallway bearing a designated street name. The names are based on character traits, such as Honesty Avenue or Patience Place. A regulation U.S. Postal mailbox sits in the main lobby of the school, and anyone sending a letter must drop their mail there. Letters should be positive in nature and envelopes must be properly addressed and affixed with “stamps” that are either stickers or hand drawn. Trained third and sixth grade postal “employees” collect the mail for processing and delivery. Jobs, which are three-months in duration, include postmaster and letter carriers, along with “facers/cancellers” who turn the envelopes in the right direction and cancel the stamps. Sorters divvy up mail by streets, rubber band letters to a specific street, and place them in mailbags. Letter carriers deliver the mail on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Sometimes, mail must be returned
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The workers in the Wee Deliver postal system change every three months. Currently they are, left to right, back row, students Aliyah Pacheco, Rebecca Patterson-DaCosta, Cindy Granados, and advisor Patricia Schmahl; middle row, Hunter Doty, Lucas Parisi, Alyssa Slater; front row, Lawrence Whipple, Andrew Rein, Yadhier Tejeda, Trinity Brown, Gopi Patel, Adam Turner. Absent from photo: Isabella Frunzi, Michael Batista, Angelique Murcia, Tulsi Patel and Bradley Delgado.
LEE FELDMAN to the letter writer, said Schmahl. That happens if the sender has failed to include a last name on the envelope or has forgotten to put on the stamp in the upper right-hand corner. It is important for students to learn the proper way of addressing an envelope, she pointed out. “Because of the way children are communicating – by cellphones and texting – they are not spelling words correctly or using proper punctuation,” she added. “They are not capitalizing correctly.” All the more reason for Wee Deliver’s lessons – which Schmahl drives home to parents as well. “We encourage parents to write their child a letter or a postcard,” she said. The program also fosters a sense of responsibility in the children who work in the project and encourages more communication throughout the school in general. Schmahl herself receives mail. “You gave me an opportunity to be a sorter,” wrote one student. “You are very nice. Thank you.” “You are the best,” wrote another. “You gave me a wonderful job.”
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Students work to make life easier for arthritis sufferers with writing.” So the students set about designing tools that would help arthritis sufferers with everyday tasks. In Product Design and Innovation, which is an elective that attracts tenth and 12th graders, students learn in depth each step in designing new things. “They really have to explore everything from the idea to a working prototype,” Garritt said. “This class involves a lot of research. Time is spent on thinking and on ideas – and on working them through to fruition.” They had to research ergonomics, which studies the relationship between a task, the environment in which it takes place, and the tools used to perform the task. First, the class wanted to experience what it was really like to have a weakened sense of mobility. “We put band-aids on each of our fingers and knuckles,” said Justin Cohen. “Even though we couldn’t sim-
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ulate the pain of arthritis, we could simulate the limited range of motion.” David Kruger and others decided to work on helping the arthritis patient to hold a pen, pencil or paintbrush. “Another student decided to address the issue of holding a key and manipulating it in a lock,” said Garritt. “Another worked on a product that would help with opening soup or soda cans.” Using air-drying silicone that comes out of a tube and looks like Play-doh, they made models of their implements. For instance, David Kruger fashioned a hardened tool that twists around a ballpoint pen, adding more bulk to the pen and making it easier to grip. Students also used Friendly Plastic, which are pellets they melt in hot
water, are molded and then allowed to cool. “Now they have rough prototypes,” said the teacher. “They will go to the (Fallsburg) senior center and get feedback from people there and then make modifications.” In preparation for the trip to the senior center, students have developed writing and drawing tests involving the implement they designed. They also developed questions and answers to ask about the efficacy of their tools. Garritt said the entire experience has been valuable to the class. “Students don’t often get the chance to problem solve, to think creatively,” she said. “I think it’s been a fabulous opportunity for them to really push themselves to explore a problem and its solution.”
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Students Justin Cohen and David Kruger invent writing tools to help people with crippling arthritis.
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he assignment was simple. As a class, the students were asked to discuss and come up with an innovation for a particular population in need. They then had to design that new product. “I sat back and let them talk,” said technology teacher Pam Garritt. The course was Fallsburg High School’s Product Design and Innovation Class, and the students soon learned that the process toward a new invention was more complex than they expected. “We brainstormed and researched,” related student Justin Cohen. “We saw pictures of people with arthritis, with swollen knuckles, and we decided to work on something that would help them.” Several students knew close relatives who suffered from the debilitating joint disease. “My grandmother has arthritis,” said David Kruger. “Because of that, she has a hard time with opening jars and
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Like a rocket the Comet Chronicles hits the stands
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he signs are posted all over school. “Showcase your talents – Send us your poetry and short stories!” It’s fun starting a newspaper, say the students of Fallsburg Junior-Senior High School about the Comet Chronicles, which was unveiled last month. The first edition is 22 pages long and crammed with articles, helpful information and color photos of students at work and having fun. There are photos of students playing music, donating blood at the annual blood drive, and shooting hoops. “Who doesn’t love seeing their picture in the paper?” asked newspaper advisor Laura Moriarty, who teaches eighth grade English Language Arts. “I am proud of everyone involved,” enthuses Principal Michael Williams. “Laura pitched the idea to me at the beginning of the school year. We had made other attempts in the past to get a newspaper going, but this group has already exceeded those efforts.” “I knew that we needed a good place to showcase student work and interests,” added Moriarty. First, the students chose a newspaper name. “They know that alliteration has always appealed to me as an ELA teacher,” said Moriarty, noting that the word Comet is the nickname for the school’s sports teams. “We were just brainstorming, throwing out names. (Student) Brendon Sapolsky threw ‘Chronicles’ out there, and we all loved
Newspaper advisor Laura Moriarty consults with workers on the Comet Chronicles, from left, Johnni Brown, Wendy Fuentes, Brooke Sapolsky and Sydney Melendez. Not pictured: Brendon Sapolsky, Emily Daleo, Lamera Palmer, Dominick Holmes, Emonni Thomas. At left is the first edition of the Junior-Senior High newspaper, published last month.
it. As soon as he said it, we knew that was our new name.” The Chronicles team meets every Thursday after school for an hour or more in Moriarty’s classroom “over a lot of snacks, noise and ideas,” the teacher said. The students make sure they’re at every school event, snapping photos with their cell phones and scribbling down notes. “I’ve started showing up at more events, and going to basketball games,” agreed student Wendy Fuentes. “We want to show other kids what’s happening in our school,” added student Sydney Melendez. “We wrote articles, went and interviewed the Athletic
Director and took pictures.” “It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it,” said student Johnni Brown. Studies show that teens who participate in high school journalism get better grades and tend to be more involved in civic affairs as they mature into adults. Already, Moriarty is seeing growth in her Chronicles team. “They’ve become more text savvy and are learning to figure out what’s going to look good, what will capture people’s attention,” she said. They are engaging in healthy editorial debates over design issues, such as which piece of student artwork will adorn the cover. For this first edition, they chose an illustration by student Abigail Langeland of a girl seated under a tree, holding her headset away from her ears, as she seems to listen to the flurry of snow falling around her.
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“Students are also learning about various technologies available when getting the paper out,” said Moriarty. “And, of course, don't forget the proofreading.” The Chronicles, which will be produced at least once each quarter, is definitely a work in progress. “It’s still forming – we are leaning more towards student literary arts,” said Moriarty. The next edition is slated for the end of January. “The students are super-excited, and as a principal that’s all I can ask for,” reflected Michael Williams. “The quality of the paper is excellent, and it gives our students a voice of their own, allowing them to showcase their talents and improve communication both in and outside of the school. Their work is directly supported by the motto of our school this year, which is ‘Effort Equals Excellence!’ ”
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