Officials report on start of academic year
“We’ve had two wonderful days with our students.”
Those were the words of Highland Falls-Fort Mont-gomery Central School District Superintendent Dr. Frank Sheboy at last week’s Board of Education meeting, when he and the building principals reported on the first few days of the new school year.
“All in all, I’m so excited for this school year for our children,” the superintendent said. “I see smiles under those masks. Remember, this is the first time since March 13, 2020 that we’ve had just about 100 percent of our students in school on the same day.”
He said the opening was not without some glitches, including in transportation on the opening two days. Much of that was due to the “perfect storm” of the opening days, with many new school bus drivers, coinciding with “a literal hurricane”. He said the issues have been addressed with West Point Tours.
In other reports:
Robin Haberman, O’Neill High School
“We had a very smooth first day of school,” she said, noting that the main complaint she’d heard from students were the annual comments about a lack of air conditioning in the building. “They were so happy to be back.” Haberman said she had meetings scheduled with all four classes in the high school last Thursday and Friday, and that they were working on assigning student parking spots.
Yashira Maldonado, HF Intermediate School
The theme at the HFIS this year is “Let’s Dig In and Build Each Other Up”, Maldonado said, noting building each other up pertains to academically, socially and emotionally.
“The first day was not perfect, but it was wonderful,” she said. “Day two went much better!” Maldonado also had meetings scheduled with each grade level to go over expectations, etc.
Rachel Adelstein, FM Elementary
“The first days of school in an elementary building are often described to be like a hurricane, full of gusto and energy, and this year was no different, and we, as Dr. Sheboy said, were legitimately in a hurricane.”
Beth Hordines, Pupil Personnel Services
Hordines noted that she’d spent the first few days of school “in the hallways” meeting students. While many out-of-district special education students have already started classes, others started this week.
After the first three days of school, students had a four-day weekend — Labor Day was Monday and Rosh Hashanah was Tuesday. Students returned to school on Sept. 8.
