The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Enrichment, safety top district goals
VERONA, N.Y. » With the new school year rolling right along, the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Board of Education discussed safety and enrichment.
At the Sept. 24 meeting at the VVS High School, the board discussed several upcoming initiatives for this year.
Nicole Sinacore, a reading teacher at W.A. Wettel Elementary School, started a community reader’s program when she first came to the VVS district.
“This year, Nicole is leading an effort named ‘One District, One Book’. All of the elementary schools will be reading the same book, ‘The World According to Humphrey’, which is about a hamster,” Superintendent Martha Group said.
Group suggested W. A. Wettel Principal Vince Pompo get a hamster, since she thought it would be important for the book.
With the new school year, J.D. George Elementary School has been working on its new playground.
“We’ve had to make adjustments in the play area for students,” Group said. “We’ve made accommodations and if you go around back to J.D. George, there are cones and the playground monitors brought in sidewalk chalk. They have a grassy area to play on, but they have fully enjoyed decorating the side of the building. You don’t get to write on your school that often.”
BoardMember Ann Pangburn said she was at J.D. George during construction and felt it to be a positive experience for the children.
“All the equipment was being used and the men were working,” Pangburn said. “Even though you’d naturally want everything to be up and running by the time school starts, it was so positive for the kids to see real work and how real people make a living and work together as a team. I thought it was wonderful.”
The Board of Education is also looking to enhance safety of its students and faculty.
Group said the Board of Education has approved the safety plan and that she, VVS-High School Principal Andy Brown, Board Member Thomas Moats, and Assistant Superintendent Mark Wixson, attended the school board institute’s safety presentation.
Mental health, character education and antibullying were discussed with resources accessible to VVS, along with train- ing for staff and faculty.
Group said it’s a different time and there are other things the school needs to be prepared for.
“We need to be prepared in a way that we’re safe, but at the same time, we’re not in a prison situation. We have to have that balance,” Group said.
Group said the adminis- tration will be doing some safety drills, something that hasn’t been done yet.
The possibility of a school security officer was brought up, but the Board of Education decided to form a committee over the next few weeks. This board would meet and come up with a plan on how to enhance safety.