August 14, 2019

Dear Beacon Families:

This letter is to inform you of an incident that occurred in November 2018 involving the unauthorized access of Personally Identifiable Information from the AIMSweb 1.0 system, which is a platform utilized by the Beacon City School District and provided by Pearson Clinical Assessment (Pearson).  The District was informed of this very recently.

The only data of our students potentially affected was limited to just their first and last names.  No other identifying information about our students was shared with this program and again, it was limited to only first and last names.

Please know that the Beacon City School District is committed to protecting and securing educational data. Our team has extensive training in data security and privacy, and our systems have many controls in place to protect your child’s educational records. Additionally, we have also received assurances that Pearson has taken the necessary steps to mitigate the incident and is enhancing protections to guard against similar events. 

Regardless of these actions by Pearson, we are discontinuing our use of the AIMSweb program immediately.  

While it is our understanding that there is no evidence that the information described above has been misused, Pearson is offering complimentary credit monitoring from Experian for 1 year for affected individuals as a precautionary measure. If you are interested in learning more about this option, please click this link to read the letter from Pearson:  Letter from Pearson 

Please contact Erik Wright, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Student Support at wright.e@beaconk12.org or 845-838-6900 x2018 with any questions you may have regarding this incident and our response.

Sincerely, 

Matt Landahl

August 12, 2019

Dear Beacon Community:  

Dear Beacon City School District Community:

I hope everyone is having a great summer.  We have been working on a couple of important things that we wanted to share with you for your information and also to provide opportunities to give input.

District Safety Plan 2019-2020

Mark Thomas, our Director of Security, and I have been working on making revisions to the District Safety Plan with the District Safety Team and Altaris, our safety consultants.  For the upcoming year, we will be adding an anonymous reporting feature on our website for students and community members to report safety issues to us. The state requires a 30 day public comment period for the plan before it is adopted by the Board of Education in late August.  

You can view the plan at this link: https://www.beaconk12.org/domain/474

You can direct comments on the plan to me at landahl.m@beaconk12.org  

Each of our school buildings has a safety plan as well but they are only available to staff, not the public.  Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

Draft Code of Conduct 19-20 School Year

Erik Wright, our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Student Support, has been working with different focus groups and the Board of Education to revise our Code of Conduct.  The newly revised Code of Conduct provides more clarity regarding infractions and the range of consequences, encourages the use of restorative practices, and provides for a more gender neutral dress code.  

You can view the draft at this link: https://www.beaconk12.org/domain/475

There will be a Public Hearing on the proposed Code of Conduct at the August 12, 2019 Board of Education meeting at 7:00 p.m. at Beacon High School.  You can also write feedback to Erik Wright at wright.e@beaconk12.org

Thank you!

The Board of Education and the Beacon City School District would like to thank the voters of the Beacon City School District community!

Proposition One: The Budget

Yes - 749

No -  193

Total - 942

Proposition Two - The Buses

Yes - 727

No - 243

Total - 970

Proposition Three - Capital Project

Yes - 740

No - 232

Total - 972

 Candidates for the Board of Educaton

Michael Rutkoske - 786

Antony Tseng - 678

Meredith Heuer - 814

Beacon City School District School Budget Vote and Election

The Beacon City School District School Budget Vote and Election will take place on Tuesday, May 21, 2019.  Polls are open from 7:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.

There are two polling sites: 

Beacon High School, 101 Matteawan Road, for all registered voters who live within the city limits of the City of Beacon.

Glenham Elementary School,  20 Chase Drive, Fishkill, for all registered voters who reside in the Town of Fishkill and the Town of                                          Wappinger.

Candidates for the Board of Education:

Elect three (3) members to the Board of Education for three year terms commencing July 1, 2019 and expiring June 30, 2022

1. Michael Rutkoske

2. Antony Tseng

3. Meredith Heuer

Propositions    

1. Shall the budget for the Beacon City School District for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2019, in the amount of $73,563,000 be adopted, and the necessary taxes to meet such expenditures be levied and collected?                

2. Shall the bond resolution authorizing the purchase of school buses at a maximum cost of $450,000; authorizing the issuance of $450,000 bonds (5 year maximum maturity) and, with respect to such bonds, providing for a tax levy therefor in annual installments; pledging to the District's faith and credit for debt service; delegating powers with respect to bonds and notes; and providing for an estoppel procedure, be approved?

3. Shall the Board of Education of the Beacon City School District be authorized to increase the estimated maximum cost of the 2017 Capital Project from $8,995,000 to $9,695,000; and to transfer the total additional sum of $700,000 (which monies have been previously levied and collected as taxes) from unassigned general fund balance (in the amount of $200,000) and unassigned capital funds previously approved by the voters in the 2016-2017 school year (in the amount of $250,000) and the 2017-2018 school year (in the amount of $250,000)?

January 3, 2019

Dear Member of the Beacon education community,

Happy New Year!  As many of you know, in November the Beacon Board of Education endorsed and launched a long-range planning process for the district that will result in a focused and aligned community vision of student success beyond school.  Having engaged the community in the identification of the most critical attributes of success for a Beacon graduate, the district now seeks to improve the district’s ability to ensure that every child develops those same qualities.

To involve as many constituents as possible in this process, we would like to invite you to contribute your thoughts to a community conversation on this topic.  Using a platform called Thoughtexchange, you will have the opportunity to share your thoughts, then read those of other participants, and then to assign “stars” (from a low of 1 to a high of 5) to show how important each idea is to you.  Finally, you will also have a chance to discover the top-rated thoughts in the conversation and visit the site often and add more comments throughout the process. The planning team will use the results of this Thoughtexchange to inform the creation and implementation of improvement strategies on a district level.

Notes about this process:

1. It could take you as little as 5 - 10 minutes to participate.
2. You can complete questions at your own pace and come back to review your answers at any time.
3. There are no limitations on what you can write, but any suggestions that are personally hurtful, isolate individuals, or include abusive language will be screened from the pool of reviewable answers.

If you know someone else who would like to participate, you can forward this invitation.

Please click HERE (embed hyperlink to exchange) to participate.

https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#258626618

We hope that you will contribute to this interactive experience to help us ensure that we are reflecting the values and aspirations of our entire community while providing outstanding learning opportunities for our students.  Thank you for taking the time to share what is important to you.

Sincerely,

Matt Landahl, Superintendent

October 25, 2018

Dear Beacon City School District Community Member:

At a recent meeting, the Beacon Board of Education endorsed a long-range planning process for the district that will result in a focused and aligned community vision of student success beyond school.  The first step of this process is to build a consensus regarding the critical skills and attributes we believe are most essential to future accomplishments and to then use them to guide our planning and decision making.

To involve as many constituents as possible in this process, we would like to invite you to contribute your thoughts to a community conversation on this topic.  Using a platform called Thoughtexchange, you have the opportunity to share your thoughts, then read those of other participants, and then to assign “stars” (from a low of 1 to a high of 5) to show how important each idea is to you.  Finally, you will also have a chance to discover the top-rated thoughts in the conversation and visit the site often and add more comments throughout the process.  The planning team will use the results of this Thoughtexchange to help them create “A Profile of the Graduate” that will define our working model of student success.

Notes about this process:

1. It could take you as little as 5 - 10 minutes to participate.
2. You can complete questions at your own pace and come back to review your answers at any time.
If you know someone else who would like to participate, you can forward this invitation.

If you need technical help, please call Thoughtexchange at 1-800-361-9027 ext. 4 or email feedback@thoughtexchange.com.

Participate in this exchange by using the following link: https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#713723496
Alternatively, you can also use the Thoughtexchange app on your iPhone (there is not an app for Android people like me)  or go to thoughtexchange.com and enter the code 713-723-496

We hope that you will contribute to this interactive experience to help us ensure that we are reflecting the values and aspirations of our entire community while providing outstanding learning opportunities for our students.  Thank you for taking the time to share what is important to you.

Sincerely,
Matt Landahl
Superintendent

Dear Beacon City School District Community:

 I am thrilled to be starting another school year in Beacon.  It is such a distinct pleasure and privilege to be serving the Beacon community as the superintendent of schools.  I cannot wait to see all of our students on Wednesday, September 5th!

 My themes for the district this year focus on the ideas of Excellence, Equity, and Communication.  With that in mind, here are some things I am excited about this school year, some of my goals for the year, and meet the teacher night dates for each school.

 Things I am excited about for the upcoming year:

• Fourth grade instrumental music will begin for the first time ever later this fall as a result of the grant we won last June
• Rombout Middle School will have a fully 1:1 learning environment with every student receiving a Chromebook this fall
• Elementary students will experience Physical Education class every other day instead of two out of every six days
• Elementary class sizes are further reduced with the addition of three additional teachers
• Interactive teaching screens will be added to Rombout Middle School and Beacon High School
• Further planning and development of the Capital Project with construction the summer of 2019 on the Turf Athletic Field behind Beacon High School

 My goals for the upcoming year:

• Create and facilitate a student advisory council for the district
• Create and facilitate a strategic planning process including forming a strategic planning advisory committee
• Increase and improve the quality of district communication in a variety of formats
• Help to create building and department leadership teams including the participation of parents and community members
• Facilitate equity leadership work in the district
• Maintain a high level of community and staff engagement through open forums, individual conversations, and online tools

 I will be sharing more about these goals as the year progresses.

 Meet the Teacher Nights

• September 12- Rombout Middle School
• September 13- JVF, Glenham, Sargent
• September 20- Beacon High School
• September 27- South Avenue

Have a great first day and a great year!    

Matt Landahl