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Weekly E-Newsletter from the Superintendent of Schools
Volume 3, Issue 28 (March 31, 2023)
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UPDATE FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT | |
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RESPONDING TO 'SWATTING' REPORTS FROM ACROSS THE STATE
I would like to share with the entire community some important information which was provided for families and staff yesterday. In recent days, we have been advised of numerous false reports of active shooters or shots fired at schools across New York State. These are referred to as "swatting" incidents. Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic in which a caller deceives emergency responders into dispatching police or emergency services to a location. These incidents have caused significant undue alarm and disruption to several communities throughout the state.
As soon as these reports began to surface, out of an abundance of caution, we worked in close partnership with the Town of Tonawanda Police Department resulting in an increased police presence in and around our schools. Normal operations are continuing in each of our schools.
Please be aware that all statements or actions that suggest a threat to the safety and security of our schools are taken extremely seriously. Any time a report like this is received, school district staff and law enforcement agencies will always respond as if it is a real and credible threat.
Any false information regarding a potential threat comes with significant consequences, even if it is made jokingly and is deemed not credible. It is our paramount responsibility to continue to work together as a school community to ensure the safety of all students and staff. As a reminder, you may use the following links to read about all of our recent additional safety measures which we have added to our schools:
SPRING RECESS: APRIL 3-10
As a reminder, there will be no school from Monday, April 3rd through Monday, April 10th. We look forward to seeing students return on Tuesday, April 11th.
This is always an exciting time of year. When we return, we will be in the final stretch of the 2022-23 school year. There are so many art shows, concerts, athletic competitions, recognition ceremonies, graduations, celebrations, and other special events to look forward to. With the fourth marking period starting on April 17th, everyone should concentrate on finishing the year strongly. Please have conversations with your children about how important it is to stay focused and make sure they are finishing everything they need to complete, especially our graduating seniors. When we come back from recess, let's hit the ground running.
I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing break next week and has an opportunity to rest, recharge, and spend time with family. You deserve it.
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The month of March is Save Your Vision Month, which was founded in 1927 by the American Optometric Association. Johns Hopkins provides the following tips on how families can play an active role in your child's vision development and eye health:
- Boost visual engagement through high-contrast colors/patterns, encouraging your child to focus on things around them from all angles when in new environments, and playing games that enhance hand-eye coordination.
- Provide a balanced diet including fruits with vitamins C and E, omega-3 fatty acids, leafy greens, and non-meat proteins.
- Protect eyes with appropriate eyewear and limit use of digital screens.
- Look out for warning signs such as disinterest in distant objects, squinting, head tilting, holding objects very close to the eyes, eye rubbing, sensitivity to light, poor hand-eye coordination, and disinterest in reading or viewing distant objects.
- Attend regular eye exams. March is a great time of year to schedule an appointment with your eye doctor.
Click here to learn more about how you can help your child safeguard their vision and promote eye health.
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SCHOOL & DISTRICT HIGHLIGHTS | |
Each week, we will highlight some of the exciting things taking place in the district. Be sure to follow the Ken-Ton School District on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@ktufsd) for more school highlights! | |
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Join the Winners at Kenmore East Raises Thousands for WNY Renaissance Campus
The annual Join the Winners celebration brought hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and administrators to Kenmore East High School on Friday, March 24th for an evening of fun and camaraderie, and all for a wonderful cause. For years, Join the Winners has been one of the biggest events of the year for Kenmore East as students in Grades 8-12 come together for a fun night of activities and friendly competition in the Kenmore East gymnasium. It's the culmination of a school-wide initiative to benefit the WNY Renaissance Campus. This year's event is expected to have raised approximately $3,000. It's a homegrown initiative spearheaded by science teacher Bob O’Connor and has been a Kenmore East tradition for nearly three decades. Special thanks go out to Mr. O'Connor as well as Nate Bourke, Steve Viglietti, Stephanie Cleary, Nicole Pauly, Jeff Diegelman, Tina Cavese and all of the advisors!
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Kenmore East Celebrates 15th 'Wing Ding' Street Hockey Tournament
The cold weather and wind didn't stop Kenmore East High School from holding its 15th annual Mid-Winter Wingding Classic street hockey tournament on Saturday. The event is named after the NHL’s annual outdoor game, which first took place in WNY in 2008, and the word "wingding" which stands for a loud, lively celebration. The event was originally scheduled for February 4th but had to be postponed due to extreme cold. The tournament included more than 100 students in the Kenmore East parking lot. It is specially designed to accommodate players at all skill levels and promote fun rivalry. This year, the "Upper Deckys" team came in first place and MVP for the tournament was senior Ryan Kates. Kenmore East Student Congress expressed its appreciation for the National Honor Society and other student volunteers who made this event possible. Special thanks also went out to Anderson's, Sweet Beginnings, Ted's, and Bocce Club Pizza for all of their generous donations which provided food for the day. This event would not have been possible without all of their support.
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Nearly 100 Students Participate in Selective All-County Ensembles
The Ken-Ton School District was proud to see nearly 100 students invited to participate in the Erie County Music Educators Association (ECMEA) all-county music festivals over the past few weeks or named as alternates. This included a total of 92 students including 11 who participated in more than one festival. These extremely selective ensembles bring together the best musicians from across Erie County. Many students from Franklin Middle and Hoover Middle took part in the Elementary Music Festival band, orchestra, and chorus concerts on March 18th. Dozens more from the middle schools as well as Kenmore East and Kenmore West took part in the Junior High North Music Festival orchestra, band, and chorus concerts on March 11th. Students from both high schools also took part in the Jazz Festival vocal and instrumental jazz concerts on March 18th and the Senior High Music Festival band, chorus, and orchestra concerts on March 25th. You can see the full list here.
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Hoover Middle School Students Continue '147 Cafe' Tradition
On March 23rd, a Hoover Middle School class transformed their room into an Italian cafe and provided an authentic dining experience for dozens of staff. It's an annual tradition in Room 147, the classroom of special education teacher Kristen Coley. Each year, Mrs. Coley and her team lead their students in serving a homemade Italian meal for lunch which staff from across the district are able to enjoy. They can take their meal to go or enjoy it in the classroom which is beautifully decorated like a real Italian cafe. The students spend weeks preparing for the event and carrying out all aspects of the operation from ordering food and preparing ingredients to cooking, serving, and cleaning up. Through this activity, students learn a variety of real-life workplace skills. Read the story here.
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Holmes Elementary Teacher Invited to Present at National Professional Development Conference
Tracy Caruana, special education teacher at Holmes Elementary School, was recently invited to present at the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Conference in Jacksonville, FL in partnership with Buffalo State University. The title of the presentation was “A Stellar Trip: Taking our Love of Science and Literacy to the Moon… and Back!” Presenters showcased a NAPDS grant-funded project designed to promote K-4 students’ content-based literacy strategies and science skills through experiential learning, which featured a field trip to Buffalo State's Whitworth Planetarium and visiting an engineering lab where students created their own “space transporter.” The presenters shared how the partnership between Holmes Elementary and Buffalo State University continues to evolve, which is ultimately benefiting our students. You can read more about this partnership here.
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Board Members Visit Hoover Middle School
On Wednesday, Board of Education members were at Hoover Middle School as part of their monthly visitations. Board members and district administrators held a meet-and-greet with staff members in the school's library before students arrived in the morning and then enjoyed a walkthrough led by Principal Elaine Thomas and Assistant Principals Michael Haggerty and Michelle Jaros. They visited several classrooms to see our students and staff in action and then took a look at some of the construction work that is taking place on campus. They also had the opportunity to observe a "student engagement circle" which has been an extremely effective way of fostering connections among students.
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Kenmore East and Kenmore West Students Study Abroad in Germany
Approximately 20 Kenmore East and Kenmore West students currently enrolled in the German Language Program are traveling alongside a handful of Ken-Ton teachers to Germany. The Ken-Ton School District has had a long-standing partnership with the Franken Gymnasium, a high school in Zulpich which is near Cologne, Germany. Through this partnership, students from each school visits the other. Ken-Ton welcomed a group from the Franken Gymnasium in October as Ken-Ton families hosted several students and teachers who made the trip to Buffalo. Our Ken-Ton students will now be the ones studying abroad and staying with their German friends and families. This is the program’s first trip to Germany since the 2017-2018 school year. Read the story here.
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Lindbergh 2nd Graders Perform Earth Day-Themed Concert For Students & Families
Lindbergh Elementary second-grade students did an amazing job performing for their families and classmates on Monday. The performance's theme was "Every Day is Earth Day!" as students sang songs and recited tips on how to make the Earth a better place by recycling. The performance was coordinated by music teachers Jamie Holden and Julie Beiter while music teacher Miranda DelBello assisted with playing a musical instrument. You can view a recording of the performance here.
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Big Picture Program Students Tour Historic Martin House
Thanks to a NYS Connect-Kids-to-Parks Field Trip Grant, students in the Big Picture Program recently had the opportunity to tour the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Martin House and enjoy an educational woodblock printing class at the estate. The Martin House, located in Buffalo's Parkside neighborhood, was built in the early 1900s and was commissioned by Buffalo business executive Darwin D. Martin for his family. The 4,400-square foot Martin House is considered one of the greatest achievements of Wright’s career.
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Hoover Middle Students Enjoy PTA-Sponsored Board Game Night
Thanks to the Hoover Middle School PTA, sixth-grade students recently had the opportunity to come together for an evening "Game Night" in the school's cafeteria. Students were able to enjoy two hours of board games and card games as well as pizza and snacks. Games included Candy Land, Connect Four, Checkers, Hedbanz, Life, Uno, Battleship, Clue, Scrabble, Bingo, Apples to Apples, and many more.
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Erie County SPCA Visits Holmes Elementary Classrooms
Students at Holmes Elementary School are getting a hands-on look at the Erie County SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and all it has to offer. The partnership between the Erie County SPCA and Holmes Elementary began years ago but took a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions. The partnership picked back up again this school year, offering students a chance to learn about animals and acts of kindness. Over the last five weeks, Erie County SPCA Educator Tabish Shah has been visiting 10 classrooms (three 1st-grade, three 2nd-grade, and four 3rd-grade classrooms) with a different lesson plan each week. Some of the lessons have involved the proper care of animals, hands-on creations, and general knowledge of wildlife and household pets. Later this school year, students will be taking a field trip to the SPCA in West Seneca where they’ll see the animals in-person and understand the different roles and jobs in an animal shelter setting. Read the story here.
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CELEBRATING WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH | |
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In our final profile for Women's History Month, we celebrate a pioneering inventor named Nancy Maria Donaldson Johnson, who developed a method of making ice cream which revolutionized the industry and is still in use to this day.
Mrs. Johnson was born in 1794 in New York State. Ice cream was able to be made at the time even without electricity and refrigeration. However, it was extremely difficult and labor intensive to prepare, making it a very rare and expensive treat limited to only the wealthiest of Americans. In 1843, at the age of 49, Mrs. Johnson patented the very first hand-powered ice cream churn which made it much easier and quicker to make. She called her invention the Artificial Freezer. It used a hand-powered crank to churn the ice cream mixture while a tub of salt and ice reduced the temperature of the mixture below freezing. It was able to create two different flavors simultaneously in a matter of minutes instead of hours.
Thanks to Mrs. Johnson’s invention, ice cream was able to be made in homes and businesses all across America and enjoyed by people of all classes. This seemingly simple technique of churning ice cream was the foundation for how it has been made ever since and improved versions of her hand-operated invention are still used to this day. She was paid $1,500 for her patent over the course of her lifetime, the equivalent of approximately $50,000 today.
What makes Mrs. Johnson's achievement especially impressive is that women at the time were not allowed to control their own finances, own property, or enter into legal agreements. Mrs. Johnson showed women of the era that they could make their own way for themselves.
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RECOGNITION: MEALS ON WHEELS | |
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This week, I wish to recognize all those involved in an incredible organization that has a wide-reaching impact on our community: the Ken-Ton Meals on Wheels.
Ken-Ton Meals on Wheels is an independent non-profit organization. It is the only operation of its kind servicing the Ken-Ton School District community. It is a service offered to individuals in the Town of Tonawanda and Village of Kenmore which is mostly supported by client payments as well as donations. Clients receive up to three affordable meals per day (a hot meal, an optional cold meal, and optional breakfast for the following day) and there is no age or income requirement. Anyone who is unable to shop regularly or prepare their own healthy meals is eligible for the service.
Meals on Wheels provides an affordable meal service for hundreds of homes in our community all thanks to the selfless volunteers who devote their time and energy to making sure no one has to go hungry. Their dependability and reliability is amazing. Led by Executive Director Jessica Nowak and Assistant Director Dan Wiles, dozens of volunteers begin as early as 7 a.m. each day to prepare and package hundreds of meals and then deliver them to homes throughout the community, all in a matter of hours. For many clients, their interactions with the compassionate and caring volunteers of Meals on Wheels is often the only social interaction they experience on a regular basis. The simple act of bringing a meal to their homes can have a tremendous impact on their social-emotional well-being while also being their only source of food.
I've seen first-hand the extraordinary nature and scope of this operation. The volunteers of Meals on Wheels, which include many current and retired district staff as well as students and family members, deserve our thanks for the vital role they play in our community. Meals on Wheels allowed me to volunteer for an afternoon and observe and participate in this astounding work. They are nothing short of inspiring and truly demonstrate the power of community. They deserve our thanks and I encourage everyone who has never experienced what takes place there to take the time to volunteer. You can learn more about Ken-Ton Meals on Wheels and how you can support them at kentonmealsonwheels.org.
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Visit www.ktufsd.org/calendar to access website calendars and Google calendars with
up-to-date event information for the district and each of its schools.
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Monday, April 3rd - Monday, April 10th
Tuesday, April 11th
- Board of Education Meeting (6:30 p.m. Kenmore Middle School)
Friday, April 14th
- End of 3rd Marking Period (Gr. 5-12)
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Thank you for reviewing this information. As always, we remain Ken-Ton Proud, Ken-Ton Strong, and Ken-Ton Moving Forward!
Sabatino Cimato,
Superintendent of Schools
For previous editions of the Ken-Ton Weekly Connection, visit
www.ktufsd.org/connection
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