SUPERINTENDENT'S MESSAGE
Since President Biden has taken office, there has been a great deal of discussion coming from Washington regarding a third stimulus package for the country. Governor Cuomo has been advocating for $15 billion in aid from the federal government to help off-set costs from the pandemic. The Governor’s initial executive budget proposal for school aid includes an assumption the state receives $6 billion over two years, although he has proposed spending all of that funding in year one (2021-2022). District leadership and the Board of Education (BOE) continue to work on building a budget that holds to our mission, vision, and core beliefs while also being conservative in its approach to best position Groton fiscally in a time where determining future revenue projections are more difficult than ever. To that end, we continue to draft a budget proposal that provides the best possible opportunity for our school community while being fiscally accountable to the taxpayer. To help inform decisions in this work, we try to keep at the forefront of our mind how budgetary decisions will impact our ability to have students meet with success, as outlined by the guiding principles of our district Strategic Plan:
Technology: Utilize technology to ensure equitable access to content, instruction, and communication regardless of whether the student is in school or at home.
Social & emotional: Build a student-centered response system that seeks to understand and support students’ social and emotional needs across all settings.
Instruction: Establish consistent, universal instructional practices K-12. Differentiate instructional practices to equalize learning expectations and effort for all.
Innovative programming: Align engaging, innovative K-12 programming that graduates students who are agile problem solvers and future-ready.
Health & safety: Operationalize best practices to ensure health and safety within and outside of the classroom.
Continuous improvement: Identify metrics at each grade level to track and measure ourselves against the best and constantly seek ways to improve across our entire system.
Communication: Implement a plan that ensures regular staff engagement with all stakeholders
The Board of Education will continue to develop the budget as part of their regular BOE meetings scheduled for March 1st, 15th, and 29th. Updates to the community on this work will be forthcoming as it is completed.
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Mission
Empower all students to reach their fullest potential and thrive in a diverse, ever-changing world.
Vision
Ignite the passion for learning and inspire unique pathways to success.
Core Beliefs
Students are our first priority. No exceptions.
All can learn and grow.
We encourage creative and innovative thinking.
Data informs our decisions.
We act with integrity, professionalism, trust, and fairness.
All deserve a safe, secure, and nurturing environment.
We treat each individual with respect, compassion, and dignity.
We promote family and community involvement.
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HAPPY 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL |
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RETURN TO SPORTS
The return to school sports has been fast and furious, which has meant a lot of scrambling on the back end to build schedules and figure out the logistics, but it has all been worth it. "It's great having sports back. I love playing sports. Everyone loves it. We are just happy to be back doing something we love," reports Omari Riley Isreal, junior. Jeter Neff agrees, "I'm just excited to get back to playing sports and it feels like it is one step closer to COVID being gone."
Even though there will be no postseason play, it has been such a privilege to just be able to play again and to be back out on the court and mat with their teammates and coaches. Senior, Jackson Slade, is thankful. "I was worried at the beginning of the school year that I was going to spend my senior year without playing the sports I love. Although sports are not completely back to normal, I am glad we are given the opportunity to build and compete as a team." Senior, Emma Dematteo, is also "super excited to have more of a routine and something normal in my schedule again." Annie Felko, junior, says sports also help her with school. "Playing a sport has helped me focus more in school on my grades knowing they need to be good to play."
Good luck to all of our athletes! Remember, you can view the contests held in the HS gym live on our Groton Athletics YouTube channel!
The upcoming seasons are rapidly approaching. Below is the outline for each of the seasons. If you have any questions regarding Groton athletics, please contact the athletic director, Mark Triolo, at mtriolo@grotoncs.org or by calling the Jr-Sr High main office.
UPCOMING SEASONS
JV & VARSITY
- March 1 - Football (ends April 17)
- March 8 - Volleyball, Soccer, and Cross Country (ends April 17)
- April 19 - Softball, Baseball, Track, Golf (ends June 12 or 19)
MODIFIED
- March 1 - Volleyball and B. Basketball (ends March 27)
- March 29 - Football (ends May 1)
- April 5 - B/G Soccer, Cross Country (ends May 1)
- May 3 - Softball, Baseball, Track (ends June 5)
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SENIOR NIGHT 2021
With the understanding that all of our senior athletes should be recognized, we are planning a night to honor all senior athletes in May at Ross Field. This celebration will be a unified event that will be put together in collaboration with all varsity coaches and any parent who would like to have input in the planning.
Having the celebration outdoors will allow us to have more than just two family members attend the event and will allow us to safely follow any guidelines regarding COVID that are still in place at that time. Please be looking for further communication following our spring break at the beginning of April, as that is when we anticipate beginning the planning for this event to recognize and celebrate our senior student athletes.
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UPDATE ON STATE TESTING
Earlier this week the federal Department of Education announced that states would be required to give all testing related to federal accountability measures. For New York State, that includes the grades 3-8 ELA/math, the 4th and 8th-grade science, and some Regents exams. Therefore, we are moving forward with our preparation for these exams in our classes. Students in grades 3-8 will be scheduled for the ELA exam the week of April 19th, with the math exam to follow the week of May 3rd. Information on dates for the science and Regents exams will be forthcoming in the near future.
We at Groton view the administration of these exams as an opportunity to assess our instructional model and its effectiveness on student learning. We look forward to gathering data on how our students are doing with learning during these challenging times and will use the results of the exam to inform our decision-making over the summer for the upcoming fall. We value the ability the exams provide to see where the gaps are in student learning in specific content areas at both the grade and individual student levels. Please be looking for building-level information regarding these exams from the building principals over the course of the next couple of weeks.
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Click on the picture above or below to watch the video from Mrs. Berry at the Groton Public Library to hear about this exciting collaboration between the library and Groton Elementary School! |
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CONGRATULATIONS
To all the students who met their goals for the Math and ELA Quarter 2 Challenge. Special shout out to who went above and beyond! Great work and good luck on the next challenge!
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UPK
Meara Cummings
Nolan Neff
Nicholas Justice
Kindergarten
Adam Bishop
Agent Haskell
Lauren Ingram
Evelyn Botsford
Belle Brockway
Addison Gallow
1st Grade
Richard Bishop
Lyric Chamberlain
Fiona Cummings
Bentley Faber
Aaliyah Frost
Wyatt Nye
Lucas St. Clair
Carter Volbrecht
Lauren Belcher
Alida Converse
Evan Hodge
Vincent Marks
Lincoln Martinez
Isabella Miranda
Maddox Persichilli
Troy Randall
Mason VanEtten
Julia Dah
Joshua Gustafson
Natalie Mejia
Austin Parsons
Julia Powers
Charlotte Scott
2nd Grade
Luke Scaglione
Declan Downs
Anthony Justice
3rd Grade
Alison Belcher
Aoife Cummings
Dyson Downs
Trinity Lane
Silas St. Clair
Tracer Strange
Natalie Townsend
Trey Dwyer
Kamryn VanHorn
Phoebe Bishop
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4th Grade
Jacob Aikins
Justin Berry
Carter Foster
Zackery Goodwin
Caleb Johnson
Nattalie Lombardi
William Smith
Colin Wilkinson
Leah Allen
Carmen Bishop
Logan Correia
Michaela Durkee
Marcus Gaines
Alexander Howell
Arihanna Myers
Violet Nye
Harmony Reyer
Randy Rose
Bradley Rosenbush
Violet Santspree
Ann Seamans
Ayden Sholar
Mariah VanEtten
Selena Neiss
Madelyn Weeks
5th Grade
Adrianna Bindhammer
Colin Brockway
Mariah Canady
Asher Ford
Jacob Jandrokovic
Jaxon Scaglione
Blakemyn Spencer
Hannah Neville
Jack Ingram
Olivia Graham
Jonathan Hinkle
Tristan McCracken
Elissa Norton
Torianna Toro
Remote Learners
Lily Hubbard
Coco Jiang
Jayden Jiang
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Special Shout Outs
Lauren Ingram
Kindergarten
Miss DeLia
8 bonus tickets
Dyson Downs
3rd Grade
Miss Swenson
12 bonus tickets
Nattalie Lombardi
4th Grade
Miss Sharpe
16 bonus tickets
Carmen Bishop
4th Grade
Miss Sharpe
21 bonus tickets
Lincoln Martinez
Torianna Toro
Raffle winners of Amazon Fire Kid's Tablet
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GROTON CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
WWW.GROTONCS.ORG
400 PERU ROAD, GROTON, NY 13073
(607) 898-5301
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