ELCS Superintendent’s Report for February 2016 Page 1 of 3

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT FEBRUARY 10, 2016 CHASING EXCELLENCE Our school district’s mission calls for the Board of Education, Administration, faculty and staff to provide excellence in education that enables all students to achieve their full potential in an ever-changing world. When considering our public service to students and their families in this context, an important question to consider is, “What is excellence? How do we define excellence?” Excellence is not a set level of quality, quantity or perfectionism. Excellence is ever-changing, dynamic and growing. As we strive to perform our duties with excellence, our capacity increases – we gain more skills, knowledge, tools and competence that could strengthen the pursuit, and create an even better version of our service and what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s about growth and maturity in skill and tradecraft, and putting aside our current perceptions to improve. Excellence, then, should be a moving target of sorts – the quality of our craft and serving the community today should not be the same as the quality of our service yesterday. It should be increasing and moving forward, not stagnating! Attached you’ll find the set of P.R.I.D.E. Points I suggested at the opening of the current school year – such points of emphasis are practical ways to demonstrate increased collective focus on our mission. I challenge all of us – support staff, teachers, teaching assistants, administrators, Board Members and myself – to continue taking Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence as we’ve entered the second half of the school year. I’m calling for increased emphasis on P.R.I.D.E. to ensure that we finish strong in service to students and the community, and I’ll thank all of us in advance for that increased focus! MOVING AHEAD WITH GOALS Tonight I’m offering the School Board a set of District Goals to frame our work for the 2016-17 school year. Since last month’s preliminary draft I’ve received 25 suggestions, comments and feedback items – many of which helped to shape this final proposed set of goals. Establishing goals now is crucial at the onset of the budget development process, to ensure that we’re ‘budgeting with vision’ to advance our mission and vision. Administrators will engage with me this summer to create the specific actions to advance these goals, if adopted by the Board tonight. Moving forward with a specific plan promotes our collective focus on excellence!

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CHANGES TO NEW YORK STATE’S TESTS State Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia sent out a memorandum to school districts late last week outlining important changes to the English/Language Arts and Mathematics exams set to be administered this coming April. Earlier in December, Governor Cuomo’s Common Core Task Force release a final report summarizing findings from interviews and feedback forums across the state pertaining to the Common Core Learning Standards and other educational reforms in our state. Three (3) significant changes will be enacted for this spring’s exams for students in grades 3-8:

§ Greater involvement of educators in the test development process; � § Decreased number of test questions, and � § A shift to untimed testing. �

The Department will be providing us more specifics as we move closer to the month of April. The English/Language Arts examinations are to administered April 5-7, while the Mathematics exams will be given April 13-15. With rising numbers of students opting-out of taking the state’s examinations to gauge learning, these adjustments are a logical starting point in attempting to restore some form of trust to the assessment program. Assessment of performance helps to inform instruction – which ultimately differentiates learning in a diagnostic way. However, any useful information is eventually at the mercy of assessment quality; I’m encourage that NYSED is making efforts to improve that quality.

THUMBS-UP FROM THE COMPTROLLER After an extensive fall 2015 investigation into our financial policies and procedures associated with

internal claims processes, the NYS Comptroller has made the following determination:

“We commend District officials for establishing and

implementing effective procedures over the District’s claims processing function.”

As part of tonight’s agenda the School Board will officially receive

the final report.

Strong internal controls – set forth by updated District Policies and adherence to applicable laws – is part of our district’s Fiscal

Accountability Framework for ensuring proper stewardship over our finances. That proper stewardship promotes a sound budget plan from year-to-year, and positions ourselves well for the next set of “rainy days” ahead related to statewide funding of public

schools! FISCAL STRESS REPORT PUBLISHED New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released the 3rd annual results of the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System. DiNapoli began shining a spotlight on the fiscal stress of municipalities in 2012

Division of LocaL Government & schooL accountabiLity

o f f i c e o f t h e n e w y o r k s t a t e c o m p t r o L L e r

report of ExaminationPeriod Covered:

July 1, 2014 — September 30, 2015

2015M-297

Elizabethtown-Lewis Central School District

Claims Processing

thomas p. Dinapoli

ELCS Superintendent’s Report for February 2016 Page 3 of 3

after his office noticed a number of alarming trends among local governments, including operating deficits, inadequate cash on hand, and overreliance on fund balance utilization as a revenue source. �For the second year in a row, Elizabethtown-Lewis CSD was designated as ‘No Designation’ on the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System - meaning, according to this one indicator, we’re not in immediate danger of experiencing overall fiscal stress. The data used to create this score involves fund balances, operating deficits, cash ratios and short-term debt. This system does not address our main problem: revenue. While this finding is a good one, it does not indicate ‘easier’ budgeting and it doesn’t analyze the real issues with how to fund public education.

NYS Office of State Comptroller – Fiscal Stress Monitoring System Year 3 Fiscal Stress Score Environmental Stress Score

6.7% “No Designation”

20.0% “No Designation”

Based on year-end fund balance; operating deficits; cash position; use of short-term debt. Point-based scoring system: 21 points total

Based on property values; enrollment; budget votes; graduation rate; free & reduced price lunch

Susceptible (25%); Moderate (45%); Significant (65%) Susceptible (30%); Moderate (45%); Significant (60%)

SPRING SPORTS: EAGLES + LIONS = GRIFFINS Considering a course of action for organizing spring sports for the upcoming season is important work. Currently we’re working in continued partnership with Westport CSD to ensure that both community’s students have an opportunity to participate in interscholastic athletics despite declining enrollments and participation rates. In examining preliminary rosters, the following configuration will serve as our spring sports offerings for the 2016 spring season:

§ Modified and Varsity Baseball merged as the ELW Griffins; § Modified and Varsity Softball merged as the ELW Griffins; § Continue our participation in the EKMW Track and Field merger. § Each school would maintain a separate golf team.

Specific plans and logistics will be engineered when students return from Winter Recess as the spring sports season launches in early March. Respectfully submitted-

2015-16 PRIDE Points at Elizabethtown-Lewis CSD

ELIZABETHTOWN-LEWIS CSD

P.R.I.D.E. PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE IN DELIVERING EXCELLENCE

1. Deliver our instructional program and support operations more efficiently

than last year, to help sustain our instructional programs to the full extent possible, in the face of diminishing state aid revenues and restrictions on property tax levies.

2. Hold high expectations for quality academic work by students – and each other.

3. Celebrate student and staff success a little bit more than we do now.

4. Model civility in our interactions with ELCSD colleagues and others we work with.

5. Expect more of ourselves, in regard to using whatever time and resources

we can put together, for professional development and continued improvement of programs and services.

6. Expect more of ourselves, in regard to ‘boosting’ the percent of lesson time we actively engage students using practical, proven, research-based instructional strategies.

7. Increase our efforts to actively engage parents via telephone, email, and/or face-to-face conversation.

8. Model resilience during times of change. 9. Place our Mission, Vision, and Belief Statements at the forefront of our

day-to-day decision-making and actions.