Consultants from the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education will hold a community forum in Skaneateles next week to discuss with and receive feedback from local residents as they begin the process of working with the district to hire a new superintendent.
Lead consultants Stephen J. Uebbing and Henry J. Peris also will spend an entire day in Skaneateles meeting with district administration, teachers, staff and students, as well as members of the board of education, to get input from all district shareholders on the superintendent search process.
The district visit and community forum was announced by BOE President Evan Dreyfuss at the Nov. 5 BOE regular meeting.
Dreyfuss and interim Superintendent Judy Pastel also announced that an online survey, where district residents can voice their opinions on what sort of superintendent the district should hire, is now active on the district’s website and urged all residents to log on and participate in the search process.
The home page of the district’s website currently has a notice that states, “Let your voice be heard! As the district moves forward in selecting the next Superintendent of Schools, your voice is necessary to assure the right person is selected.” It then provides a link to an online survey that asks residents what qualities they seek in a new superintendent, what are the most important issues currently facing the district and what suggestions residents offer on the search process.
The school board officially hired the Warner Center for Professional Development and Education Reform, which is housed within the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education, on Oct. 23 to lead the superintendent search. Lead consultant Uebbing is a professor and a former superintendent of the Canandaigua City School District, consultant Peris is a former superintendent of the Brighton Central School District. Together the two men have the combined experience of more than 80 years running successful school districts in Central New York, while the Warner Center has completed successful superintendent searches for a number of school districts, including Geneva, Sodus, Lyons, and North Rose Wolcott.
The community forum on the superintendent search is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19, in the Waterman Elementary School auditorium.
To access the district’s online survey about the superintendent search, visit skanschools.org.
Electronic school news notifier
Also at the Nov. 5 meeting, the BOE discussed the new School News Notifier (SNN) system, which automatically sends news and information on any and all aspects of district happenings to the email or telephones of subscribers.
The SNN system has been up and running on the district website for six weeks and “it’s working out very, very well,” district technology manager Paul Blair told the BOE during his annual district technology update.
The system allows users to create a free profile online and choose from 14 different subject categories as to which ones the user would like to receive news updates via email. School closing information also can be received via cell phone text messages.
The subject categories include BOE news, athletic news, news from all four district schools, both PTC groups, fine arts, nurse’s office, special education and school closings and delays.
Interim Superintendent Pastel said the SNN system is working well, but the district as “more work to do” to notify residents of the system and get more users. The SNN currently has 161 subscribers. “We should have over 1,000 people,” Pastel said.
To sign up for the SNN system, visit the Skaneateles CSD website at skanschools.org and click on the SNN link.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
