Dear North Colonie Families,
Today, Governor Cuomo announced that all schools in New York State will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. We will continue to instruct, support and ensure our students are provided meals through this time. Governor Cuomo will announce a decision on summer school by the end of the month. I appreciate everyone’s patience and flexibility during this challenging time. The district will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.
August Regents Exams Canceled
The New York State Education Department announced yesterday that August regents exams have been canceled. This announcement comes weeks after the June regents exams were also canceled.
Teacher Appreciation Week
Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and we want to say thank you to all of our teachers! They have gone above and beyond to keep our students engaged and now is your opportunity to give them a shout out, if you wish! We’re going to be using the hashtag #ThankYouNCTeachers all next week on Twitter. Post a video or picture thanking a teacher or all teachers and we’ll be sure to share!
Weekly Boost
- Sophie’s Showtunes – Shaker High School student Sophie Dvorak recently edited together a video of her performing show tunes from the 1930’s and 40’s, complete with costume and background changes. It’s pretty impressive! Thanks for sharing, Sophie! It put a smile on many faces. Take a look here.
- Rube Goldberg machines project – SHS technology teacher Brian Ashline had his Design Drawing & Engineering class create Rube Goldberg machines. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way. You can check out all of their amazing creations in this YouTube video here!
- Thank you Panera! – For the second week in a row, we were delighted by a special surprise from our local Panera! During our weekly regional food bank pick up for our backpack program, we received donated bags filled with food from the Panera in Latham. Each bag included enough sandwiches, chips, and apples. It was enough for our students in the program to have lunch for the week! Thank you, Latham Panera, for being a great community partner!
- Bison Breakfast Club video: Making the World a Better Place – The Bison Breakfast Club is run by the students of Christina Manion & Mary Oakley’s 18-21 Adult Transition Class. The students prepare and serve breakfast for the SHS faculty every Wednesday. They also take monthly field trips to Central Office and the Transportation Department. Every week, the students not only learned valuable life skills, but they raised money for a number of charities. The students are all working to make little changes in themselves to help make the world a better place. View a video from the club.
- Virtual Field Trip – If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, you can take a virtual field trip to the Great Wall of China!
As always, please reach out to your child’s school principal with any questions or concerns you may have. I hope you are all able to have a safe and relaxing weekend. Thank you for all that you do.
Sincerely,
D. Joseph Corr
Superintendent of Schools