Superintendent Blog Post October 18, 2019

Dear Beacon City School District Community:

Thanks

I just wanted to say a huge thanks to our faculty and staff yesterday at Beacon High School, Rombout Middle School, and Sargent Elementary for dealing with temporary power outages.  Things stayed calm for our students during the outages and it is due to the professional work of many people. Thank you!

Upcoming Dates in November

I wanted to take a moment and remind everyone of some upcoming dates in November.

Tuesday, November 5th- No School For Students- Professional Learning Day for Staff

Thursday, November 14- Half Day for Parent/Teacher Conferences- BHS Dismissal 10:30, Rombout 11:15, Elementary 12:15

Friday, November 15- Half Day for Parent/Teacher Conferences- BHS Dismissal 10:30, Rombout 11:15, Elementary 12:15

Tuesday, November 26- Go Home Early Drill (State Required)- All Schools end 15 minutes earlier than usual.  We will send reminders about this.

 

District Diversity/Equity Committee:

The District will be holding its first Diversity/Equity Committee of the year on Thursday, October 24 at 7:45-9:00 in the Community Room at Beacon High School.  At this monthly meeting, attendees will have a chance to share their thoughts about district initiatives and action steps and will also have a chance to learn more about the different things we are doing to promote equity and diversity in the district.  All are welcome!

 

Beacon Schools on Instagram

You can find different Instagram accounts related to our district. Here is a partial list:

beaconcityschool

romboutms

southaveelem

bhschorus

beaconplayers

I am sure I am missing some so I will keep updating you on new ones to check out!

Have a great weekend!

Matt Landahl

Dear BCSD Community:

I hope everyone is doing well.  We have had a great start to the school year and I want to thank everyone for their support this year.  Attendance at all of our schools’ meet the teacher nights has been outstanding and I want to thank our teachers and staff for putting so much energy into a great first few weeks of the year.  I wanted to take a moment to provide you with a couple of updates on some things.  

Homecoming Reminder

On September 25, 2019, John Giametta sent an email regarding Homecoming activities.  We would love to see you there! The fireworks on Friday, October 4th after the football game are being provided by donations from the community.  Thanks to Beacon Xtreme Softball for helping to lead those efforts and thanks to all who donated. We have better temporary bleachers now in place at the field so more folks will have a better view of the events.  We are still working on some longer-term solutions for seating but the newer bleacher seats should help. It has been so much fun to see our student-athletes and PE classes use this facility the past month. We even have had our pep band performing at our home games and they have been amazing!  Thanks to the community for supporting this work and see you next Friday!

Ways to Follow Our Work

I have been working to provide regular updates of the amazing work in our district through our new district Instagram account “beaconcityschool”, our Beacon City School District Facebook page, and my twitter account at @mlandahl.  Our principals/schools, athletic teams, Beacon Players, and some of our clubs are on twitter and Instagram as well.

New courses at BHS for the 2019- 2020 school year

One of my goals this year is to show our 19-20 budget work in action.  One of our goals for this year was to increase the course offerings at the high school.  While we are still working on hiring a person to start the Business program at the high school and we are either targeting second semester or next year to do that, we are offering a wide variety of new courses this year at BHS, most of which we are accomplishing with existing staff.

Architectural Design-This is a second-semester course.

Computer Science Essentials- Project Lead the Way-This course is our first course in implementing the Project Lead the Way Computer Science offerings at BHS.

DIA & Contemporary Art II- This is a second-semester course.

Science Research Literacy- We are offering two sections of this course this year.

Italian 1-We are offering two sections of this course this year.

Media Literacy- This is a first-semester course.

Magical Realism- This is a second-semester course in the English department.  

AP English (English 11) -We are offering three sections of this course in its first year.

Networking: Help Desk- We have twenty students at Beacon High School who are helping to run the Help Desk for students and their Chromebooks.  

We will keep working with our staff and students to improve and increase the offerings we have at our schools.  Thanks for your support of this work!

Smart Bond Application Process

I will be sending an update to the community next week on our Smart Bond proposal.  We are focusing on upgrading the technology we use for building security. I will send this information next week and also post it on the website.

Have a great week!

Matt Landahl

Welcome Back!

We are so excited to get this school year started.  I wanted to give you an update on some important summer work that has taken place and how it positively impacts us at the start of the year.   We developed a strategic plan last year and I have found myself focusing on the words “Care, Connect, Engage” as a way to summarize our work with the plan.  We will be continuously working on ways to increase the power of learning experiences in our district and to also increase the sense of belonging we want all of us to feel.  Thanks in advance for partnering with the district to achieve these goals.  

Capital Project Update

Our new athletic field behind Beacon High School is complete and students will begin playing on it in the next few weeks.  It is beautiful and we can’t wait to see our student-athletes in action on it. We will update you soon on the schedule of events on the field so you can check it out as well.

The renovated classrooms at Rombout Middle School have come down to the wire.  Work crews have been working all weekend to complete them and they are ready for students.  We will still need to finish some plumbing work and electrical work in the rooms but it will be done at night and completed in the next few days.  We can’t wait for our students to see the new Home and Careers classroom, the new ADL classroom, and the new Science lab.

The one delay we have experienced with this project is with the installation of unit ventilators in about 80 of our classrooms.  These unit ventilators are slated to be installed in South Avenue Elementary, Sargent Elementary, and Rombout Middle. The delay occurred because both of the major suppliers of the units have closed factories in the U.S. and have delayed producing and shipping the units as a result.  The classrooms are safe without them and they should arrive in the next week or two. When they arrive, they will be installed at night so the instructional day is not disrupted.

I want to personally thank the community for supporting this work.  It positively impacted all of our schools and will make a difference in the experience of our young people.

The Summer of Professional Development

We worked strategically with the 19-20 budget to include powerful professional development that supported our different Board/District goals, namely our Excellence, Equity, and Culture of Care goals.  

This summer we had:

• 40 educators attend the Engagement Institute at BHS to learn about increasing higher order thinking and engaging strategies in the classroom.
• 40 educators attend the Dignity Framework Institute at BHS to learn about ways to build a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment for all in our district.
• 20 educators attend the Responsive Classroom Institute at BHS to learn about an elementary classroom model that builds community and positive behavior through relationships.
• 2 educators attend the Sustainability Institute to learn about ways to implement a systems thinking approach to our curriculum development.
• 1 educator attended the Project Lead the Way Institute to be trained in implementing our Computer Science PLTW classwork at the high school.
• 7 educators attend the Restorative Practices Institute in Poughkeepsie to learn about ways to build a restorative culture in the district.

All of this professional development will help us increase levels of learning and a sense of belonging in our district, schools, and classrooms.

Revised Code of Conduct

Last year our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Student Support Erik Wright worked with different stakeholders in the district to review our Code of Conduct.  He developed a short version of it which is on the home page of the District website under the “Our District Tab”. I encourage you to read it and discuss it with your child(ren). You will find changes to the dress code making it more gender-neutral and levels of infractions which we believe will bring more clarity to the process.  

New Technology at Beacon High School

In the 19-20 budget, we provided for funds to allow Beacon High School to catch up with the rest of the district with technology.  Beacon High School will implement a 1:1 Chromebook program with all of its students and all of the classrooms in Beacon High School will have interactive whiteboards.  We feel these changes will positively impact the learning experience now for all of our students.

Menus

Here is the elementary menu: https://www.beaconk12.org/Page/1692

Here is the middle school menu: https://www.beaconk12.org/Page/1693

Here is the high school menu:  https://www.beaconk12.org/Page/1694

Have a great first day of school!