Bird's Eye View

Hello Larrie Community:

Thanks for checking out our May issue of Bird’s Eye View. It feels great to be “almost” back in full swing with student activities, and events here at school. Each month's edition of Bird’s Eye View will continue to give you small snapshots of the great things that are happening here at SLC, along with things we may need to ask for a little help with. Our hope is you will continue to follow us every month so we can continue to connect our great community with the people, and programs that are here to help maximize our students’ futures.

The 2022-23 budget has been created, and accepted by the Board of Education for your vote on May 17th. We have spent the past many months taking a “forward thinking” look at our district now, and in the future. We are going to focus heavily on rebuilding and creating programs that will first, and foremost address the following:

1. The gaps in learning that have occurred since the pandemic in March of 2020.

2. The new age of technology and preparing ALL of our students (K-12) for the necessary, and safe uses of it (both educationally, and socially). This includes the continued support, and maintenance of 1-to-1 computing for ALL students, and teaching staff.

3. The reintroduction of work based skills, and socialization skills, so our students have the tools they need to again be successful both in, and out of the classroom.

• Congratulations to all those that have been recognized, in this May issue, for the outstanding work you are doing!

• We want to recognize our 3-8 students, and staff for giving maximum effort on the 3-8 NYS Math Testing (first time being fully given in over two years).

• Best of luck to all of our 5-12 Band and Chorus members as they gear up for some great performances here in May.

• Athletics: Best of luck to all our Spring teams as they continue to find ways to “squeeze” games in around the not so friendly weather we have had to this point. Section X website.

• Reminder: We have set aside some federal money to help sponsor students with attending summer camps. Details on how to apply for those opportunities will be out shortly.

• Our BOCES CTE Center will be offering a Summer Academy for middle school students, grades 6-8. This is an amazing opportunity for students to explore the programs and encourage skill development, and career exploration with a focus on project based instruction to include Math, Science, and ELA! To learn more about CTE and the programs offered visit, Career & Technical Education - Career & Technical Education - St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES (sllboces.org)

• A 5-Hour Pre-Licensing Course will be offered through SLL BOCES: The pre-licensing course will be offered from 10 am - 3 pm on June 4th. It will be the last class for the spring. The cost of the course is $50, you must pre-register, and pre-pay for the course. To register, go to Online Registration link, or for more information call 1-888-360-7693.

Thanks for following, and have a great May!

In our efforts to increase our safety measures at school, we are in the process of installing blue lights throughout our buildings. The blue lights can be found particularly in areas that are loud, and where students may not always hear announcements such as cafeterias, gyms, music rooms etc. The lights will go off during shelter in place or lockdowns to give a visual notification to students and staff that there is a situation they need to be aware of.

Our school district was also recently recognized by our insurance company for our outstanding safety measures.

Our community was in support of using federal funding for summer enrichment programming for our students. We will be offering various summer opportunities and camps for students this summer!

Please be on the lookout for more information that will be coming out this month!

It is hard to believe that there are only eight weeks of school remaining in the school year! With the limited time left, there are a few important reminders from the HS building:

• The Junior and Senior Prom will occur in a more normal fashion this year. We encourage all parents and guardians to be aware of the prom expectations for SLC HS located here.

• We are excited to announce that an in-person National Honor Society and Awards Ceremony will occur this year on Tuesday, May 17th. For those students who will be inducted to NHS, the ceremony will begin at 6:00 PM. Students invited to the Awards Ceremony will be asked to arrive by 6:45 PM. The ceremony beginning promptly at 7:00 PM. Students who have won an award, will be sent an official invitation in the coming week! Be on the lookout in our June edition for all awards winners! Please also make sure you plan enough time to vote for our school budget on this day!

• Final Exams for all High School students will be in class on June 13th and 14th. Students are required to sit for all exams. Please have your child communicate with their teacher if they have any questions about what to expect, and for staying after school for extra support. The last scheduled day of regular classes is on June 14th.

• Regents Exams will be mandatory for all students again this school year. Regents Exams begin on June 15th and will conclude on June 23rd. Please see the schedule for exams here. Any student enrolled in a Regents Course will need to pass the exam to be awarded course credit. No makeups will be given for any absences. Busing will be available for any student who needs it. Please be on the lookout for transportation information from Mr. Redmond in June. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher, guidance counselor, or myself.

• Finally, we are working through the details of our high school graduation ceremony for the Class of 2022! We will celebrate the Class of 2022 on the SLC HS Turf Field on Friday, June 24th.

High school PE classes enjoyed some indoor Top Golf prior to Spring Break. We used a number of different targets with varied point values, foam golf balls, and real irons!

We saw a lot of good, and bad swings, but more importantly shared a lot of laughs :)

NYSSMA

Numerous students in middle and high school will be participating in Zone 5’s Spring NYSSMA Solo Festivals on either:

• Saturday, May 7 at Carthage Middle School

• Saturday, May 14 at Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam

For the Spring NYSSMA Solo Festival, students prepare solo repertoire, sight-read music examples, and demonstrate proficiency on fundamental skills on their instruments (instrumental only). This is a huge task, and great accomplishment for students to have performed at these festivals. Mrs. Burnett and Mr. Snyder are so proud of the work these students have put in, and we wish them great success in the next few weekends.

Spring Concerts

Spring Concert time has come! Please join us for the production of SLC’s Middle School and High School concerts.

• High School Concert - Tuesday, May 10th @ 7:00pm in the Auditorium.

• Middle School Concerts - Thursday, May 12th @ 6:00pm for Grades 7-8 and 7:00pm for Grades 5-6 in the Auditorium.

Coffeehouse

For the first time since 2019, SLC’s Tri-M Music Honor Society will be bringing back their IN-PERSON Coffeehouse. Please join us on Friday, June 3rd at 6:00pm in front of the high school entrance, rain or shine! We will have many refreshments, concessions, raffles, and of course lots of community musical entertainment. Potential “storm date” to be determined.

Tri-M Music Honor Society will be holding a jamboree event on Friday, May 6, 2022 at 7pm in the High School Auditorium to raise scholarship funds for Andrew LaMora to attend the Berklee School of Music Summer Program. Any additional funds raised will be used for scholarships for SLC music students attending summer music programs, or higher education in the music field.

We will have a night of live music, a raffle for 5 guitar lessons with Andrew, and a raffle for an hour set of guitar performance time by Andrew to play at your special event. There will also be a light concessions for sale.

We hope to see many of you there!

Students in the Liberty Partnerships Program went on a college field trip over spring break. They visited Buffalo State, Canisius College, and Daemen University. They were able to participate in a college class while at Daemen. They also participated in their first Escape Room game and were able to escape with 40 seconds left to go.

LPP is planning to take another college tour field trip in June to the Utica area!

The month of April saw a lot of activity with our spring sports teams.

The Lacrosse team took an overnight trip to play a couple of teams that were from out of our Section. They stayed in Cortland and played at and beat Dryden High School on Friday. Then headed up to Westport High School to play Tully Central on Saturday.

The Softball team returned from a trip to Disney World in Florida after a 5 day-5 game trip during spring break. They had great weather, and enjoyed all the sights, along with some great softball competition.

Thank you to everyone who donated, in any way, to the money needed to make those two trips a reality for our student athletes. The kids really appreciate it!

Fall sports sign ups will be from Monday, May 2nd to Friday, May 6th. Students should sign up with their PE Teachers, or they can send me an email.

The CanVan donations for the next six months will go towards the Athletic Department. Please feel free to donate your bottles, and cans by placing them in the CanVan which is located in downtown Brasher Falls.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Reome at jreome@bfcsd.org.

Dear Middle School Parents/Guardians,

As we get closer to the end of the year and into summer where there is more unstructured time, I wanted to share a resource with you on online safety.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/cellphones-and-devices

We are continually seeing unsafe online practices occurring with students, and learning of situations in our area of children who have died, or been in really scary situations surrounding online safety.

Reminders:

• Make sure your child is not talking to strangers online.

• Review what your child is sending/receiving in private and group messages.

• Remind your child never to send pictures of themselves or personal information to others. Once something goes online, it is ALWAYS there.

• Remind your child to use THINK in their interactions with others:

• T is it True?

• H is it Helpful?

• I is it Inspired?

• N is it Needed?

• K is it Kind?

• 5 Internet Safety Tips for Tweens & Teens

Stay safe, and if you ever have any concerns or questions Mrs. LaVoie and Mr. Niles are here to help you as well.

Mrs. LaBarge

Please visit our local Post Offices (Brasher, Helena, North Lawrence, and/or Winthrop), they have kindly welcomed our student artwork again this year. The fifth graders worked hard to create a piece of artwork that they are proud of and that will be on display at a local Post Office of their choosing. The artwork has been on display in the month of April and will remain on display through the week of May 9th.

If you get the chance please stop in to see the talented artwork and thank our Post Offices for this opportunity.

Mrs. Warner

SLC Middle School Art Teacher

Thank you to the SLC community for your support in the Middle School Playground Improvement Fundraiser! We exceeded our fundraising goal of $1000 (by more than $500!), thanks to your generosity! Keep an eye out for the improvements we will be making to our Middle School playground area in the near future! A very special congratulations to SLC's 5th Grade, who collectively raised over $1000 on their own!

Great work, everyone!

SLC Families,

We are very excited to invite families in to celebrate our third quarter character education awards. If you receive notification via mail that your child is receiving an award, please join us at the time indicated on the letter. We look forward to our return to this practice and including families in these celebrations once again.

Nachos and Numbers - Our teachers have been working hard to prepare some fun math related activities for this evening. It will be held on Thursday, May 5 in the elementary building from 4:00 to 5:30. We encourage all of our little Larrie families to join us for some nachos and numbers!

The Pre-K Program - We are excited to announce that we will be offering a full day UPK option, in addition to the half day option next year. If you have a child turning 4 by (or on) December 1, 2022, they are eligible to register for UPK for the 2022-2023 school year.

Kindergarten registration has opened. Please do not wait to register your child, as 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 rather than later. Any child turning 5 by (or on) December 1, 2022 is eligible to register for kindergarten for the 2022-2023 school year. Please call the district office at 315-389-5131 for more information.

Dates to Know:

• Friday, May 13 will be a FUN FRIDAY! Wear your lucky socks, shirt, or number!
• The third and fourth grade concert will be held on Thursday, May 19 in the high school auditorium.
• Progress Reports will be sent home on Thursday, May 26.
• Friday, May 27 may be a give back snow day, *AS LONG AS WE DO NOT USE ANOTHER SNOW DAY BEFORE THEN.

Respectfully,

Mrs. Colterman

Third graders participated in cleaning up the Elementary School yards for Earth Day. Between the four classes, they collected a garbage bag full of garbage items. Each class took around 15 minutes of their time, and broke off to cover more area. One student said "we shouldn't have to clean up garbage because you shouldn't litter!".

Great job, third graders!

With the St. Lawrence Central schools being a major contributor to our community, we want to remind everyone that you need to stay vigilant when using the internet. While cyber attacks have always been a threat to internet users, the combination of the rise in the number of cyber criminals, and the current global political arena, have heightened the need for awareness.

Here are some tips everyone should follow:

• Don’t share personal information.

• Double-check and verify all links.

• Use secure public Wi-Fi.

• Use a VPN.

• Only log into sites that start with https://.

• Be careful who you chat with online.

• Turn off your Bluetooth.

• Use antivirus software.

• Use secure passwords.

• Backup your data regularly.

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, cancellations, and events.

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