Massena Central School Board reviews district goals progress
Mar. 18—MASSENA — Improving attendance is one of Massena Central School District's goals this year and, in his mid-year review of the goals with the board of education, Superintendent Ronald P. Burke said they're seeing some progress.
He said attendance is being addressed through various initiatives and is a topic of weekly discussion in the schools.
"We could be here all night just talking about the initiatives we're taking on attendance," he said. "We are looking for progress. We are not going to cure our chronic absenteeism rates overnight. This is going to be a multi-year approach. We talked about that fact when we established these goals, and you can see we are starting to see some modest gains. Again, it's going to take time. We have a lot of perhaps bad habits to undo. We have a lot of COVID residue to undo and it is going to take time."
Burke said they've seen a 2% increase so far with their initiatives.
"This may not sound like a lot, but it's better than decreases, which is what the trend had been," he said.
Intervention plays a role in increasing attendance, according to the superintendent.
"We are trying so incredibly hard to walk a balancing act, not to be intrusive to the homes, but to provide that factual information of these are the number of days and then supportive, what can be done to help your child," Burke said.
He thanked the principals for the day-to-day work that they're doing to address attendance, including instituting contests.
"It was really neat in December to watch what was going on in a couple of our areas where there were contests about attendance, and that has worked well. It's been well-received," he said.
Community Schools efforts are also part of the district's goals, including providing assistance to students and families in need.
"We do have the Rapid Response Team. That's if we have a situation that needs addressing and the email goes out to see what can happen quickly. Then Mrs. Kimble (Community Schools Coordinator Emily Kimble) and Mrs. Colarusso-Martin (Community Schools Director Kristin E. Colarusso-Martin) work tirelessly with those," Burke said.
He said, as part of the Community Schools Program, more than 500 backpacks with food went home with students for their February break.
"Again, a huge testament to that commitment of the district," he said.
Technology is also one of this year's goals, and that incudes the future introduction of drone soccer.
"We can certainly arrange to have that as well. Drone soccer is a big hit at a neighboring school. They want to stay in national competition, and I think we can probably beat them in the future. A little brotherly love there. But really, the whole idea behind drone soccer is to get our students interested in that form of technology. The job openings in the world of drones are just incredible, and many of those jobs can be done right here locally," Burke said.
There's also a focus on finances
"We have some programs that were created under the federal grants, such as Summer Raider Academy. We are working again with the actual Raider Academy trying to figure out how we can keep those going in the future with the loss of those federal fundings," he said.
The finance discussion also includes the Community Eligibility Provision, which provides free meals to all students through federal funding, with some financial assistance from the state.
"I think probably one of the best things that any school can do is the Community Eligibility program, which is free breakfast and lunch for all, and we can see the success of that here in Massena. We've talked at length before about the sheer volume and increase in the number of meals being served on a daily basis, and the number is just truly remarkable. We're looking at around 1,500 lunches a day, so that's a very sizeable portion of our student body that's availing themselves of that," Burke said.
