Weekly Update from the Office of the Superintendent
Volume 1, Issue 31 (February 12, 2021)
Video Update: https://youtu.be/b5iQgz_a8YE
Looking to the Future:

It's been 6 weeks since Winter Recess. We have developed an effective instructional model that meets the challenges of teaching and learning in this environment. Safety will continue to be at the forefront, but we know what works, and will continue these practices which have contributed to keeping our students, staff, and families safe.

As a community, our focus is and will continue to be confronting the instructional impact of the pandemic and making up for lost time. Ongoing analysis of student data has confirmed what we predicted as a community, that the loss of in-person face-to-face instructional time has had a severe academic impact. Our youngest students have been impacted most of all, especially Gr. K-1.

There are two ways we are approaching this. One is exploring opportunities for more direct student/teacher contact time. The other is short-term and long-term academic intervention. We will need to consistently be in this mindset, as we will be confronting the challenges of the pandemic, and the learning gaps caused by the pandemic, for years to come.

One opportunity we are looking at is to increase direct student/teacher contact time. Over the summer, our initial plan was for an every-other-day schedule (students attending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday one week, then Tuesday and Thursday the following week). We adopted our current hybrid schedule (most students attending Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday) based on community feedback. There are challenges to increasing direct student/teacher contact time, such as scheduling. Additional time has been allocated in our current schedule to provide time for necessary targeted intervention as well as instructional planning needed to address the demands of teaching students both in person and virtually, oftentimes simultaneously.

Another opportunity we are looking at is adding days of in-person instruction. The biggest challenge is the NYS social distancing requirement (6 feet). A school’s ability to meet this requirement depends on many different factors such as enrollment, the number of students learning virtually, average classroom size, and facility layout. Currently, we do not have the ability to bring all students back every day while meeting this requirement. Nevertheless, our students need more in-person instruction, so our community can expect additional in-person instruction to be phased in.

We must be mindful that the challenges will be just as significant, and possibly more so, as those we faced when we reopened our schools. We are currently looking at enrollment numbers, staffing, classroom sizes, programming, and other factors at individual grade levels and buildings. We will need to work with our VLA families and understand who intends to remain virtual for the rest of the year as part of our planning.

Meanwhile, our curriculum leaders continue to work with schools to analyze student data to identify priority areas for intervention. We are looking at both short-term and long-term opportunities, leaving no stone unturned, such as:
  • Innovative new programs through partnerships with local colleges/universities
  • Grant-funded programs
  • Summer School programming
  • Continuing and expanding quarter-based intervention strategies (as opposed to yearly)
  • Credit recovery
  • Skills-based intervention
  • Increased support for students who require additional intervention

Until now, our greatest challenge as a school district was reopening our schools safely and developing our safety protocols. Moving forward, our greatest challenge will be addressing the repercussions of the pandemic and making up for lost time.
SleepOut Update:

On Friday, Feb. 5, we held our 34th Annual Jerry Starr Ken-Ton Schools’ SleepOut, which was an enormous success. A limited number of participants slept outside the Administration Building at 1500 Colvin Blvd. to raise money for the Ken-Ton Closet and Family Support Center. A total of $8,604 has been donated so far, the highest amount in many years. There is still time to support this effort and to help Educators Totally Committed (E.T.C.) meet its $10,000 goal. Simply go to www.ktufsd.org/sleepout to learn how you can help. Thank you to everyone who has supported this effort!

Farmers to Families Program:

Ken-Ton was selected as a distribution site for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers to Families Program. This is a new program implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide fresh food directly from agricultural producers to families.

On Wednesday, our Food Service Department distributed 975 Farmers to Families boxes over a period of approximately two hours. Each box weighed 33 pounds and contained an assortment of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meats. This was a herculean effort made possible by the hard work of our Food Service Department led by Kim Roll, along with 7 National Honor Society students and 10 staff from the Administration Building and Buildings and Grounds staff who volunteered their time to help.

This was the first time an operation like this has been undertaken at this scale, and there were challenges encountered such as traffic concerns. We sincerely appreciate the cooperation and patience of all involved. We will look to these challenges the next time there is an opportunity such as this to modify our planning and offer the best possible experience for our community.
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
In celebration of Black History Month, we are continuing to focus on African Americans who have had a significant impact in American history and the Civil Rights Movement. This week, we would like to highlight Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman was born into the horrors of slavery on a plantation in Maryland in 1822. At the age of 27, she managed to escape with her brothers, but was forced to return. Later, she escaped again with the help of the Underground Railroad, traveling by night and guided by the North Star as she narrowly avoided capture by fugitive slave catchers. The specifics of her journey are not well known, because to discuss it at the time would have been to put others in danger. Ultimately, she crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania and reached Philadelphia.

Eventually, Harriet Tubman chose to return to Maryland to help guide members of her family to freedom. She began helping others escape as well, despite tremendous risk to herself. She had to use a variety of clever strategies to avoid detection, traveling only at night in extreme secrecy. She would guide escaped slaves all the way to Southern Ontario. That was the only place they would be safe, since the newly adopted Fugitive Slave Law allowed escaped slaves to be recaptured in any state, including free states like Pennsylvania and New York. Her route passed through Western New York before crossing the Niagara River into southern Ontario, so she was often in our area, helping an estimated 70 slaves escape as part of 13 separate expeditions.

Over time, Harriet Tubman became a leading member of the Abolitionist Movement. During the Civil War, she worked in the Union Army as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy. On June 1, 1863, Harriett Tubman became the first woman in American history to lead an armed expedition into war. She led 150 members of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the nation's second African-American regiment, on a raid along the Combahee River in South Carolina. The operation rescued 750 slaves, many of whom joined the Union Army. After the war, she settled in Auburn in Upstate New York and was active in the women's suffrage movement.

Harriett Tubman is and will always be an icon of courage and freedom, and she inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights.
RECOGNITION: PATRICK FANELLI
This week, I would like to take a moment to honor Mr. Patrick Fanelli, our Community Relations Coordinator. Mr. Fanelli acts as the voice of Ken-Ton and does a tremendous job keeping our community updated on what is happening in our school district and community. His presence on social media, our websites and our Weekly Connection allow each of us to stay connected and take great pride in the Ken-Ton story within our school community. 

This year, Mr. Fanelli has helped our school district communicate the daily and weekly changes of the pandemic, coordinate our COVID-19 testing and highlight the safety precautions that are in place within each of our school buildings. The parent forums, Weekly Connection, automated messages and social media presence could not be possible without his support. Mr. Fanelli is a key member of our leadership team and allows us to continue to engage and inform our community.

Mr. Fanelli has received numerous awards for his creative work and I am delighted to honor him this week for his outstanding contributions to our district.
Thank you for reviewing this information. As always, we remain Ken-Ton Proud, Ken-Ton Strong, and Ken-Ton Moving Forward!

For previous editions of the Ken-Ton Weekly Connection, visit www.ktufsd.org/connection