Dear Members of the Briarcliff Community:

I hope you are enjoying these few days of warmer weather and the break from the snow and frigid temperatures.

This past Saturday, I was pleased to join nearly 30 residents at the Community Forum on School Facilities and Infrastructure held in the High School's Maresca Center. This was the first of two important round table discussions designed to get community feedback on how best to attend to our schools' capital needs moving forward. These conversations are always better when attendance is robust. So, thank you to all who attended. The next opportunity to participate will be tomorrow, Wednesday, February 6th from 7- 9 PM. Please RSVP to Theresa Joannou at tjoannou@briarcliffschools.org or 914-488-8324 or, if you are able, just come and join us.

I wanted to share information from recent Board of Education meetings in case you were not able to attend, watch on your cable network station or steam live and archived meetings online. I strongly encourage our school community to review upcoming agendas attend meetings in person or stream them online.

A few highlights:

The Board and I had a conversation about vaping and its impact on students. Did you know that 72% of the U.S. vaping market is occupied by middle and high school students? I encourage you to review the data on the subject provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse filed in their report dated December 2018. The statistics are alarming. For its part, the District will continue to research the best ways to address this latest threat to student health and our school environments. The Partnership for Drug Free Kidshas developed a guide to help parents become better informed about what is now regarded as a national epidemic - Click Here. The Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Club and the Briarcliff PTA sponsored a visit yesterday from recovery speaker Stephen Hillat which he shared his personal story of making bad decisions and the negative consequences he faced as a result. Additionally, an informational presentation for parents on vaping is planned for April 1stat 7 PM (more info to follow). Please try to attend. This is an evolving topic about which I expect to provide frequent updates as we attempt to gain a better understanding of the problem and marshal the resources to help students make healthy decisions.

Budget season is upon us and, at the last Board meeting, the Interim Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, Kathy Ryan, led a Preliminary Budget Discussion and review of our State Aid Projections. The next several public meetings have a budget work session component. Please consider reviewing the materials posted as part of each meeting announcement and join us in the budget development process. Following are upcoming Board Meeting dates: Thursday, February 7th; Thursday, February 28th; Thursday, March 14th; and Thursday, March 28th. The full budget calendar can be viewed here.

The Director of Instruction and Human Resources, Duncan Wilson, updated the Board on presentations he is preparing for the remainder of the year. On February 7th, he will present a white paper on School Start and End Times which will include information on schools in our region who have explored changing their start times along with some analysis. Two other presentations scheduled for this year are Physical Education on March 28th and Trends in K-8 Literacy on May 7th.

Finally, we would like to thank the BMEF for two grants funded this month - one to Ellen Mager for a Mindfulness Fundamentals course offered by Mindfulschools, and one to Taylor Reno to attend the National Art Education Association meeting from March 14th– 16thin Boston, MA. We appreciate their continued support of the District.

Thank you for taking the time to stay informed. I hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Community Forum, on Thursday at the Board of Education meeting, or at one of the many upcoming school events and activities.

Sincerely,

Superintendent Dr. James Kaishian
Every student, every day…