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Ask the Superintendent - June 7, 2006
In a recent article on May 24, 2006, I wrote: A
good school district is one of the most important
resources of a community. Good schools have a
profound impact upon every resident, but they do not
just happen. They are the result of a positive and
productive effort by the community and the school
district working together to provide the best
educational experience for all students. Within two
weeks of writing that article, I received
correspondence from Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt, our
New York State Assembly Representative and Task
Force Chairperson, Frederick W. Thiele, Jr., from
the New York State Assembly Republican Task Force on
Successful Schools. Selected Republican Assembly
members have established a Task Force on Successful
Schools and are traveling the state hosting
roundtable discussions to gather ideas and
recommendations from school officials,
administrators and parents from successfully
performing schools. The mission of this task force
is to understand the programs and techniques that
exemplary school districts are using and to discover
what the New York State Assembly can do to foster
similar programs in similar school districts across
the state. The Goshen Central School District has
been recognized by the New York State Board of
Regents as an outstanding school.
Why the Goshen Central School District?
The Board of Regents created a methodology to
identify successful school districts throughout the
State. This methodology identifies actual districts
that meet a defined standard and then calculates per
pupil spending in those districts.
The Regents standard selects districts where
students have achieved an average of 80 percent
success on seven required examinations (English and
Math at the elementary level and five Regents
examinations — Math A, Global History, U.S. History,
English and Earth Science) in 1999-00, 2000-01 and
2001-02. This standard reflects student achievement
at both the elementary and secondary school levels,
avoids atypical results from any one-year by
averaging data from three years, and provides
evidence that a large number of students are offered
the opportunity to achieve Regents standards.
Applying this standard, the Regents can identify
what successful districts are spending per pupil for
general education instruction.
The Assembly Republican Task Force on Successful
Schools will visit our District on Friday, June 9th,
from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Invitations from this
organization have been sent to members of the Board
of Education, all district instructional
administrators, and the officers of our three PTO’s,
which will serve as representatives from the
community. The afternoon will commence with a
one-hour tour of the Scotchtown Avenue Elementary
School, followed at 2:30 by a roundtable discussion
at the Main Street School.
There are five pre-selected agenda topics:
• Agenda Topic #1 – School Finance
• Agenda Topic #2 – Community/Parental Involvement
• Agenda Topic #3 - Regents Learning Standards
• Agenda Topic #4 – Technology in the Classroom
• Agenda Topic #5 – School Construction
In next week’s article I will elaborate on each of
the subjects discussed at the roundtable forum. We
are looking forward to this event so we may share
our successful programs and techniques with others.
Equally important, I believe we can learn a great
deal from this exchange, which will further enable
us to make our schools even better. We are very
proud of our schools, honored to be selected, and
view this as another opportunity in which we can
learn and continually improve.
Roy Reese
Superintendent of Schools |
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