Bird's Eye View

Hello Larries Community,

Welcome to the April edition of the Bird’s Eye View. Each month's information will continue to give you small snapshots of the great things that are happening here at SLC. Our hope is you will continue to follow us every month, so we can continue to connect our great community with the students, staff, and programs that are here to help maximize our students’ futures.

Budget season is winding down as we wait for our NYS Governor and Legislature to present us with a final budget. As a staff, we continue to look at community survey suggestions for programs that will occur both during and after school, as well as during the summer months. As a reminder, another survey will be coming shortly to the community asking for any other suggestions of programs that you feel could be beneficial to our district. We are currently looking at how to set up our K-8 summer school as well as looking at a new structure for our 9-12 summer school. We have also set aside some federal money to help sponsor students that attend summer camps. Details on how to apply for those have been shared, but if you still have questions, please feel free to contact your building principal and/or counselors.

A Few Shout Outs and Reminders:

• Congratulations to all those that have been recognized for the outstanding work you are doing and fun you are having!

• Thank you to our 1st and 2nd grade students, teachers, and Mr. Haun, our music teacher for a great concert this past week. Support from the community was great as seating was limited for sure!

• Congratulations to our entire Elementary School as during Read Across America Week, they read a combined 2,179 total books! (A special thanks to Mr. Snyder for helping “track” this important challenge.)

• This month, you will have the opportunity to see some great Regional Artwork on display in many places. Congratulations to all of our ES, MS, and HS participants and their teachers for some outstanding work that is being recognized around the county.

• Best of luck to all our spring athletic teams as they have been practicing daily to get ready for a great Spring season!

• One last reminder to all families with a “little one” getting to be school age. Both Pre-K and Kindergarten registrations are now open. Information can be located on our Brasher Falls Central web page under community/registration. Please get your child registered as soon as possible please, so we can budget for accurate numbers next year.

Please consider sharing this edition with any neighbors, relatives, friends, or alumni you may know that would like to keep updated on what goes on at SLC.

Thanks for following us.

On March 13th, 2020 our school went remote due to the COVID pandemic. This date has drastically changed the landscape of education for our students, and their families. Over three years later, we are still adjusting to life in our post-pandemic world. As educators we have seen a drastic change in our students' ability to interact with their peers, a reduction in school attendance, and an impact in overall student mental health and well-being.

We know that these impacts are not unique to students at St. Lawrence Central High School, and these trends are found across our nation. In addition to these challenges, we understand that families are doing their best to support their children, and find resources during these times of stress. Limitations to mental health providers have been expressed by our families, and we wanted to provide a list of free options that are available to families to help manage things at home. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our school counselors for other tips, strategies, and resources to support your child.

Reachout of St. Lawrence County:

• Phone: (315)265-2422
• Website: Reachouthotline.org
• Reachout is a free, confidential, non-judgmental crisis and information hotline serving residents of St. Lawrence County. They focus on crisis services and supportive listening, although they provide a host of other services as needed. The staff answer after-hours for many other human services agencies in St. Lawrence County, and they connect callers with staff from other programs. Reachout operates a mobile crisis team that sends trained counselors to meet, and assess people at risk at locations all around the county. They teach suicide intervention skills all around New York, and have developed many programs to help make communities safer from suicide.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline:

• Phone: 988
• Website: https://988lifeline.org
• The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you and your loved ones and best practices for practitioners to help support.

Crisis Text Line:

• Text: 741741
• Website: https://www.crisistextline.org/
• How it works: Text “HOME” to 741741 from anywhere in the United States. A live, trained counselor receives the text, and responds from a secure platform.

Finally, to receive a list of practitioners available locally, please reach out to your pediatrician, medical provider, or your child’s school counselor for more information.

Mrs. Zender

High School Principal

Mr. Chris Normile was the High School "Golden Apple" award winner for the month of March. He was nominated by one of his colleagues for this honor.

"I would like to nominate Mr. Normile for the 'Golden Apple'. He has embraced his dual role as teacher and dean admirably. He teaches high quality Civics and Economics classes while expanding our forays into the Career and Success Programs. At the same time, he helps maintain discipline during a very troublesome period of time. Students consider him fair and just, but also that he holds them accountable. On top of this, Mr. Normile also serves in an 'Elder Statesman' role in the Social Studies Department, dispensing wisdom, guidance, and wit to others freely. He is a staple in this district and well loved and respected by peers and students alike."

Congratulations, Mr. Normile!

Would you like to recognize a staff member? Stop in and see Mrs. Zender or email her at kzender@bfcsd.org.

Students in Senior Career Academy have had the opportunity to experience several careers within our community. The goal is to help students develop employability skills, and to expose them to a variety of fields. They have also considered what happens if the career someone chooses isn't what they expected, or hoped it would be. Part of that was interviewing people in the school community who have come to their careers in an unexpected way. For the remainder of the school year, Bird's Eye View will feature one of those interviews. This month's interview was conducted by Lyndsay Bond. She interviewed Officer Daggett, SLC's School Resource Officer.

When I was young, I didn't actually want to go to college. I think I was sick of school. After high school, I worked for a while on a farm milking cows. That's when I decided that wasn't something I’d want to do for the rest of my life. I enrolled in communications at SUNY Potsdam because when I went to SLC, I did a lot of work with AV club, and I enjoyed it a lot. I briefly had a second major in Studio Art. I dropped that because my advisor gave me some good advice. He said, “Finish one first. You can always come back and finish the other. If you ever have to leave for personal reasons, then you won't have a degree in either.” I went to college for one semester. I couldn't afford to go back because of the tuition, and I wasn’t getting much financial aid. I mistakenly used all my tuition for the spring semester, and had nothing left. I had no idea what I was going to do.

I decided I was going to go into the Army because they had a two-year enlistment. I thought I’d join the Army for two years then I’d use the money I got to pay for college tuition. But I got into a car accident; I was T-boned by a police car. I was supposed to sign up for the Army that day. By time I had finished dealing with all the legalities of the car accident, I had changed my mind and decided to join the Air Force instead. That car accident figuratively, and literally changed the course of my life. I went into the Air Force, and took college classes. As long as I passed or maintained a certain GPA, they would pay a majority of it with tuition assistance. It was a six-year enlistment; I got out six months early with honorable discharge to finish my education. I then went back to SUNY Potsdam to get my bachelor’s degree in communications. I did have to leave college a few times because I was going to have a son. While I was working, I took a civil service exam. Three to four letters of interest later, I got an interview to become a SUNY Canton university police officer. I worked for 22 years, then I transferred to SUNY Potsdam, where I worked until I retired. The funny thing is that I never wanted to be a police officer. When I got the job, I thought it was mostly going to be security. I almost wasn’t going to stay with it, but I found I enjoyed helping people, maybe changing somebody's day or someone's life. It ended up being a good career for me, probably what I was meant to do. Sometimes your career comes to find you.

When you are in the military they teach you how to deal with challenges. They teach you to build up your confidence, and to not give up. Suddenly you're taking on challenges you never saw yourself doing. Basic training puts you in the mindset of, I’m not sure if I can do this, but I’m still going to try and push forward. When you hit a brick wall, sometimes it is easiest to go around rather than through. It’s sort of life’s GPS rerouting your life to put you where you are supposed to be. I was surprised about my career choice because I never pictured myself doing it. It was so much more rewarding than anything I would have picked because life doesn't always go the way you planned. When someone messages you years later and says that you helped them, or straightened out their life, or they are where they are because of something you said, that is a huge reward. It made me feel like I didn’t just collect a paycheck, I really did something worthwhile.

High School Guidance Counselors

Andrea Martin A-K

Rachel Roldan L-Z

Hello Families,

It has been an exciting month in the High School Guidance Office. We have been continuing to meet with our Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman students and families for their yearly scheduling meetings. Junior scholarship applications were shared with students, and are due back on April 6. If you require any help with your application, please feel free to reach out to your school counselor. Seniors are encouraged to stop into the Guidance Office to check out the different scholarship opportunities that are coming in. Senior scholarship applications will be coming out later this month.

In March, our seniors who attend programming at Seaway Tech and the Senior Career Academy participated in the Gateways Career Fair. Included are some pictures from the event. All of our participating seniors did an excellent job representing SLC at this event while networking with some of our local businesses and colleges.

Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Roldan

The music department has enjoyed a busy time in the last few months.

In March, the Music and Drama Programs presented The Wizard of Oz. Thank you to all who joined us at the show! The Cast and Crew had a wonderful time working together to create this production. We were proud to perform it for our families, friends, and community. We had 68 students in grades 5-12 participate in the production this year.

Two weeks after the musical, in mid-March, 36 students in the music department traveled to New York City where they saw 2 Broadway shows, visited many museums including the 9/11 Museum, The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, The Natural History Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and several other important sites. The students had a wonderful time, and learned a great deal along their journey.

This spring brings more music department events. Here are important upcoming dates, and times.

High School Spring Concert

• HS Auditorium
• Tuesday, May 9 at 7 pm

Middle School Spring Concert

• HS Auditorium
• Thursday, May 11
• 6 pm for grades 7-8
• 7 pm for grades 5-6

NYSSMA Solo Festival

• Crane School of Music, Potsdam
• Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13 with the Times TBA

Third and Fourth Grade Concert

• HS Auditorium
• Thursday, May 25 at 7pm

Coffeehouse hosted by Tri-M Music Honor Society

• HS Front Patio or Auditorium
• Thursday, June 1 at 6 pm

Congratulations to Brionna Foster, Ava Johnson, Stella Todd, and Brianna Williams for having their artwork on display at the 26th Annual Middle and High School Art Exhibit at the Frederic Remington Art Museum's, Richard E. Winter Gallery. There was an opening reception on Saturday, April 1st for students, families, teachers, and the public to attend. The show will be on display through May 7th. We hope you can make it out to see their artwork along with many others from across St. Lawrence County. Click on the link for more information www.fredericremington.org.

Mr. Brown & Mrs. Warner

At the last mentoring session, two of the groups were challenged to work together to build a structure with marshmallows and toothpicks. The goal was to see who could build the tallest, and longest standing structure. It was fun to see the students all working together!

Congratulations to the Fab Four's Melanie McLean on the prestigious "Gym Class Hero" award for the Floor Hockey Unit!

The Fab Four floor hockey team consisted of Emma Stevens, Emily Taylor, Melanie McLean, and Berkleigh Bordeleau.

The baseball teams are selling some baseball and Larries gear. If you would like to order, the link is below. Everything is paid right on the website, and will be mailed to the purchaser after the fundraiser is completed. https://fancloth.shop/4EGCP

Clarkson University's Horizons Summer Programs offer middle and high school students the opportunity to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) concepts in a fun, and engaging atmosphere surrounded by like-minded peers. Click here to learn more.

Spring sports are fully underway. As a reminder, Section X will no longer charge for any regular season or Sectional playoff games. Any state playoff games though, there will be a charge to attend.

Lack of officials in every sport continues to be a problem. If you have any interest, you can contact me or go to www.sectionxboces.org for more information. The website is also handy for scores and schedules. You can also download the "rSchoolToday' App for your phone for hand held info at the click of button.

Fall Sport sign-ups will be on May 1st-5th with PE Teachers. From that list, we will inform all students who need a school physical. The Fall is our biggest issue for having kids ready to start on day one with a physical. Please do your best to make sure your child has a physical before their season starts in August.

Hi SLC Larries,

It is hard to believe that it is April. The next couple of months will be very busy in middle school as we wrap up the year. This month we will have our ELA state testing. There is a change to the original dates that I shared with you last month. Our grade 5 students will have their second day of ELA testing on April 24th. All other grade levels and dates will remain the same.

We are looking forward to some fun field trips and in-school fun days this spring. Students will earn these privileges through positive behaviors, and work ethic in school. Our staff appreciates your support from home in helping with this, so all of our students can participate.

We are excited to welcome some new members to our middle school staff over the next few months. I would like to welcome our new instrumental music teacher, Mr. Lashomb. We are very excited to have him working with our students.

Please reach out with any questions, or concerns and have a wonderful spring break!

Mrs. LaBarge

The SLC Middle School now has a Book Exchange to use when the library is not available to them, thanks to the SLC Education Enrichment Grant. The Book Exchange was a dream of four of Mrs. Alissa Austin's 8th grade students from the Class of 2022. They decided how it should be run during their class together, which is along the lines of a Little Free Library, and in a space that the students would always have access to when in the building. We thought it would be up and running by the end of 2020 with the help of Mr. Rick Newtown’s Tech class, but the pandemic put the kibosh to that.

Now, through a generous donation to our school district, the space was able to be completed this year, and beautifully furnished for our middle school students. SLC's very own, Mark Allen made, and installed the shelving to display the donated books.

The students can:

• TAKE a book to read
• BORROW & RETURN a book
• DONATE a book

The Extended Day Program took 82 kids and chaperones to Titus Mountain to go tubing. They then stopped to McDonald's to eat dinner. The weather was beautiful and there so much laughter! The kids enjoying the outdoors.

Thank you to all the chaperones!!

The Brasher Falls Extended Day Program would like to thank Clarkson University students, Yasmeen Langdon and Dana Peters for teaching our students! Our students learned about civil engineering, scaled drawing, and model building.

The 5th grade Extended Day students recently went on the nature walk through the district trails and enjoyed the fresh spring air.

Students will have artwork on display at the North Country Art Teachers Association (NCATA) 9th Annual Regional Art Show at St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES in Canton, NY. This art show showcases the best of each district with only 16 pieces of artwork from Kindergarten-8th grade being selected. Therefore, it is an honor for these students to be chosen. We are able to showcase one senior as well, our senior is Brionna Foster! On Tuesday, April 4th from 5:30-8pm there is an opening reception for all students, family, and community members to attend. There will be henna and face painting, live music by Andrew LaMora, and lots of amazing artwork to view! Please congratulate the following Elementary School students for having their work in the show: Emica Arquette, John McGuire, Sophia Shippee, Makayla Trimm, Zaharia Swearengin-Peffly, George Thompson, Andrew Arquiett, and Sadie Lincoln. Please congratulate the following Middle School students for having their work in the show: Nadia Cootware, Jaxon Gardner, Thomas Liberty, Avery Marcil, Makala Richards, Abe Snell, Leah Stauffer, and Ryder VanSleet.

The art show will be on display through Friday, April 28th, and open to the public to view during building hours: 8am-4pm. We hope you have a chance to see the show!

Mrs. Warner, Mr. Brown, and Ms. VanBrocklin

Hello SLC Family,

On March 23, we hosted an "Outer Space Math" family engagement event. I want to thank Mrs. Hahn for her efforts in preparing for this event, as well as the many other staff members who helped plan and prepare. A special thanks goes out to Ms. VanBrocklin, Ms. Mulligan (student teacher), and our art students for preparing neon artwork to be displayed for the event. We are lucky to have such amazing staff here at SLC, who truly go "to infinity and beyond" for our students. Thanks to all who joined us for an evening of fun!

Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten registration is now open. Please do not wait to register your child. Spots are limited in UPK and much of our planning for kindergarten hinges on numbers. In order to best prepare for your child's kindergarten experience, we request that you register them sooner than later. We have also begun scheduling screenings for UPK and kindergarten. Register today to schedule your child's screening!

Third quarter report cards will be sent home on April 28.

I'd like to share the March edition of the SLL BOCES Parent Engagement Newsletter. Click here to access this document.

The NYS Assessment Schedule at SLC Elementary is as follows:

• Grade 4 ELA - April 20 & 21
• Grade 3 ELA - April 25 & 26
• Grade 4 Math - May 2 & 3
• Grade 3 Math - May 4 & 5

Dates to Know:

• Spring Break will take place from Friday, April 7 through Friday, April 14.

Respectfully,

Mrs. Colterman

Little Larries enjoyed an Outer Space Math Night this month. Throughout the week prior, several classes made glow in the dark artwork to be displayed at math night. During the family fun night, students were able to practice math concepts, make a math game for home and eat cotton candy under the glow lights. Family nights are a great night to learn how to incorporate concepts that are learned in school, at home, while having fun with fellow community members.

Thank you to Flossy’s Fairy Floss for providing the cotton candy!

This year, the elementary school did STEAM themed activities each day for Read Across America Week. For Monday, students were able to explore the wonders of science through different experiments. Some experiments were successful and others were not, which is the fun of learning through science. On Tuesday, students got to play with technology either through hands-on coding activities, or games on their Chromebooks. An engineering challenge was given to all grade levels on Wednesday, and everyone was successful in building the tallest popsicle stick tower possible. A school-wide bookmark contest was the activity for Thursday. All the bookmarks were unique, and well-designed. Mrs. Colterman had a tough decision, but she was able to select winners. The winning bookmarks will be printed for the whole school to keep to remember this week. To end the week, it was fun with numbers hung around the school.

Along with all of the activities, each class participated in enhancing the love of reading! Students were able to read books about the topic of the day, or by their favorite authors. Reading was the most important thing, and SLC elementary students were very successful with this.

The Larries Spotlight Award was created to recognize Elementary Staff who demonstrate a specific trait each month. This award is voted upon by peers who want to give a shout out to one of their colleagues for doing an outstanding job!

Tanya Brothers was the Larries Spotlight Award winner for the month of February. February’s trait was friendship, and Mrs. Brothers received the award from her peers based on her kind heart, and friendly personality. She always has a smile on her face, and is willing to help any student, or colleague in need. Mrs. Brothers always has your back, and is willing to listen to anyone. Almost everyone said that her ability to be supportive, and friendly was what made her perfect for this month’s award!

Thank you, Mrs. Brothers, for being so friendly!

Happy spring all, and congratulations on making it through another winter. We truly know about perseverance when those dark days of January seem to last forever. Speaking of “Perseverance”, that was our value of the month for March, and we had a great time exploring perseverance. We used our ClassDojo program to watch and discuss a video about perseverance. You can check out the great videos they’ve created for kids here https://ideas.classdojo.com/. Posing questions to the students about how to generate perseverance was interesting, and it was widely agreed on that we all need faith in someone, or something to believe in, so we can get through tough times. It was further agreed upon that above all, we must believe in ourselves.

For April, we will be exploring “Cooperation”, which is a precursor for June’s Word of the Month on “Teamwork and Sportsmanship”. People have been forming “teams” since the beginning of time for basic survival needs, and more recently to put a human on the moon. Ironically, it’s the same year (1969) of the “Amazing Mets”, they’d never been a winning team and then magic happened, or did it? Perhaps the Mets tapped into the power of “Cooperation”, and so will we in the Month of April.

Please talk to your children about cooperating, I’m afraid they’ve seen too much of our society not cooperating. It is essential that we build a culture where we can hear one another and feel safe expressing our thoughts and feelings. Booker T. Washington said it well, “In all things social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

Have a great Spring and enjoy the warmer weather!

Mr. Dinan

Pre-K students have become quite the world travelers lately with their exploration of different habitats, and the animals, and plants that survive in them. So far, we have explored the arctic, a farm, woodlands, savanna, and tropical rainforests. During our exploration of the rainforest, the students were able to learn about the climate, and understand plant life a little more. One of the days we learned about the Venus Fly Trap, and it was a fan favorite! Some of the students were glad that the Venus Fly Trap is not found in our area, and some were very disappointed. Along with learning about the plants, we learned about why plants grow so well in the rainforest! After studying the average rainfall, we had lots of fun making rainsticks.

On March 21st, Mrs. Powers' Pre-K class celebrated World Down Syndrome Awareness Day. Check out their socks!

Spring is here and it's Hula Hoop time! The students Mr. Dow's Physical Education class are having fun with the new unit.

Be Your Unique Self and Be Kind!!

Before February break, Perry’s Pals were so excited to receive their February Scholastic Book Sponsor book, Mouse Loves Love by Lauren Thompson. Mrs. Perry had the honor of reading this great reminder of the love between siblings!!

In March, Mrs. Nancy Hammil returned to read Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. Perry’s Pals were encouraged to “be yourself” even if you are the odd one out! You never know when your special talents will save the day!!

📚💙Thank you Mrs. Hammil and all of our Scholastic Book Sponsors!!! 📚💙

This month we would like to circle back to a subject that has been introduced in the past, and remind our community of the Affordable Connectivity Program. For those who may have missed this message, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a U.S. government program run by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help low-income households pay for internet service and connected devices like a laptop or tablet.

You are likely eligible if your household’s income is below 200% of the Federal Poverty Line, or if you or someone you live with currently receives a government benefit like SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, WIC, Pell Grant, or Free and Reduced-Price Lunch.

If your household is eligible, you could receive:

• Up to a $30/month discount on your internet service

• Up to a $75/month discount if your household is on qualifying Tribal lands

• A one-time discount of up to $100 for a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer (with a co-payment of more than $10, but less than $50)

• A low cost service plan that may be fully covered through the ACP

To see if you are eligible you can visit https://www.affordableconnectivity.gov/ to fill out an application or to find a participating internet service provider in our area.

Catch up with the latest student stories, events, and news updates. It’s everything Brasher Falls Central School District, in your pocket. Download the app on Android or iPhone it is the best way to get notifications of school closings, delays, and cancellations.

Email: crose@bfcsd.org
Website: www.bfcsd.org
Location: 1039 State Highway 11C, Brasher Falls, NY 13613
Phone: 315-389-5131
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrasherFallsCSD