Dear Families:
My hope is that you and your children are looking forward to the new school year with as much enthusiasm as I am. This year, we welcome your child back to school to be greeted by familiar faces and many new.
Please know that I and our district staff are available to assist you in establishing a solid start to the new school year. We work to ensure positive communication with each child and each family. Please reach out to us early on in the year if problems occur. In this way, we can intervene early, fix problems at the onset and ensure your child experiences success throughout the school year.
During the summer months, with the support of our board of education and our community, we have upgraded many safety features in each school including new security cameras in the interior and exterior of our schools, new door access and safety controls, and a new telephone system and public address system. A new smoke and fire alarm system will be completed by the middle of the year. A School Resource Officer (SRO) position has been added to Goff Middle School in collaboration with the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department.
In addition to upgraded safety preparedness, the district is continuing to also expand our student’s access to computer technology for instruction. We are continuing our one-to-one Chromebook distribution program for students and have added new interactive projection display panels in several classrooms at Columbia High School and Howard L. Goff Middle School.
Several enhancements have also been made to the classroom curriculum at all levels within our district including an increase in available college credit courses at Columbia High School and new standards-based report cards in Kindergarten and First Grade. At all levels, teachers have been working hard to ensure their classroom instruction prepares students to be life ready, career-ready and college-ready when they graduate.
I encourage you to attend school events this year and to participate in forums we provide for parents and guardians to actively participate in their children’s education. Please visit our website at www.egcsd.org to follow the many great happenings within our school.
I wish your family a very successful school year.
Sincerely,
Jeff Simons
Superintendent of Schools