BOCES Employee Newsletter
March 2023
Best practices for sending group emails
Clear and concise information is essential in an organization as large as BOCES. Using list-serv or group emails can be a great tool for getting information out, but they can also be overwhelming and frustrating if not used properly. Here are some best practices for using list-serv emails:
- Keep it brief: Keep your emails short and to the point. Use bullet points for numbered lists to help organize your thoughts and make it easy to read.
- Make it clear: Use a descriptive subject line that accurately reflects the content of your email. This will help people quickly understand what the email is about and decide if they need to read it or not.
- Be selective: Only include people on the distribution list who need to receive the email. Consider creating different lists for different departments or teams.
- Keep it professional: Use proper grammar and spelling, and avoid using slang or informal language.
- Avoid reply-all: Unless it’s necessary for everyone to see your response, avoid using the reply-all function. This can lead to unnecessary clutter in people’s inboxes.
- Respect people’s time: Avoid sending emails outside of regular business hours and be mindful of people’s time when you’re asking them to respond.
- Use your email signature line: Include a signature with your name and contact information.
By following these best practices, you can make your list serve emails more exciting and effective for your colleagues.
We have been working on the school budgets for each of the component districts. This includes salary and benefit projections, programming budgets, debt service, and the costs of all the wonderful services we provide at BOCES. We were hopeful for an on-time state budget, but in lieu of a timely budget we have worked through the state aid formulas to provide estimates for the district to use as the deadline to adopt school budgets looms. The excellent news is that the Governor and legislature both support fully funding foundation aid, which will allow the districts to have funding available to meet the needs of their students.
We have great news to share about Broome-Tioga BOCES New Visions Health Academy. Teacher Maureen Malloy recently reported that our students on “Team Lourdes” won the New York Upstate Medical Case Competition, which makes it 3-for-3 in this competition for New Visions.
“All of our students the students on both teams, UHS and Lourdes, worked extra hours with medical students on Zoom to prepare for (this),” Maureen said. “They had sessions with medical students between competition rounds, and they learned how to suture (they also received suture kits). After each round of competition, they received valuable professional feedback from physicians and fourth year medical students.”
More good news about New Visions Health Academy: “I was able to become Narcan and Stop-the-Bleed trained (clinical certification),” Maureen said, “and I arranged for the program coordinator for the Central New York Area Health Education Center (AHEC) to come to my class and train the Health Academy students in three different certifications in April.”
A very productive time for New Visions Health Academy. Congratulations to Maureen and her outstanding students.
CTE Open House
Several hundred visitors - students, parents and other family members - took tours, sampled foods made by our Culinary Arts students, took part in presentations, and gathered more information as they attended our CTE (Career & Technical Excellence) Open House at Broome-Tioga BOCES on March 7.
Community Connections Fair
Broome-Tioga BOCES was the site Wednesday, March 1, for our Community Connections Fair, at which visitors learned more about services from numerous agencies around the Southern Tier. A steady stream of visitors attended the event, with many expressing their appreciation for the one-stop shopping convenience of talking with representatives from a wide array of community agencies.
Mental Health Activities
Employees from across all Broome-Tioga BOCES programs took time on March 10 to meet with colleagues about programs and approaches, while many also had the chance to partake of some fun, bonding and mental health activities. The event took place during the superintendent’s conference day.
CTE Visitation Day a Success
“I want to send out a huge thanks to the following people who made our CTE 10th Grade Visitation an amazing success,” Jeff Franey said. “We have upgraded our process and none of it would have been possible without the tireless hours several people put in. We had more than 800 sophomores in our building, each visiting three CTE classrooms, setting them up well for picking a CTE class for next year and more importantly, seeing what we have to offer so they choose the class that fits them best. Great work everyone.”
For Steve Moschak: “His attention to detail and communication with districts, as well as internally, was awesome and I couldn’t have asked for better.”
For Tish Butler: “Her knowledge and incredible notes from what we have done in the past helped drive how we proceeded this year.”
For Suzy Carroll: “Her ability to think on the fly and help solve things in the middle of the storm was more helpful than she knows.”
For Ashley Kadlecik: “She saved us all with her organizational skills, bringing together our student volunteers on the fly, with very short notice, and things worked flawlessly.”
For Melissa Baleno: “Her communication and helping to solve things by working with everyone helped immeasurably.”
And for Judd Vanderpool: “He’s a tech genius and helped build our digital registration process. This all wouldn’t have worked without him.”
ELC serves root beer floats
On March 17 we had some fun over at East Learning Center, with students and staff playing a remote trivia game called Kahoots. The following Monday, Chuck Wheeler, executive principal, joined Lin Dumbleton, who runs The Galley at East, and others to serve promised root beer floats to the winners and other participants.
Steve Moschak graduates from Broome Leadership Institute
Congratulations to Steve Moschak, assistant principal for CTE at Broome-Tioga BOCES, on his graduation Thursday evening from the Broome Leadership Institute (BLI). Steve is pictured here at the graduation (right) with Matt Sheehan (left), director of CTE at BOCES.
BLI offers a six-month community leadership training program for business professionals to foster a network of leaders who are committed to understanding and improving the quality of life in our region.
12th annual STEM-Hub Robotics Challenge
The 12th annual STEM-Hub Robotics Challenge took place on the SUNY Broome campus on Tuesday this week, with more than 130 local students from 10 different school districts participating. The event was a great success and received widespread media attention.
Thank you to our Broome-Tioga BOCES staff for their roles in helping to make robotics challenges accessible to everyone: Melinda Russell, Brian Tolan, Eric Saeger, Matt Hamilton-Jones, Tiffny Dumian, and Penny Connolly.
Please join me in congratulating everyone who helped with this event.
WBNG, FOX 40 (featuring Matt Hamilton-Jones), NewsChannel 34
Welcome to Mike Morgan our new Culinary Bistro Manager
Please join us in welcoming Mike Morgan, our new Culinary Bistro manager. Mike said his initial goal is to incorporate his own style of cooking to offer recognizable, delicious, healthy food every weekday here at the Education Center. So far, he’s been receiving rave reviews.
His first two days in the Bistro, he said he went through 45 orders of a Southern fried chicken bowl with mashed potatoes and gravy, then followed that up with turkey Tetrazzini. “We made four full, deep pans worth of that,” he said of the popular turkey dish.
You can also expect Mike’s take on soups, salads and sandwiches daily. With Mike on board, the Bistro is now open Mondays through Fridays 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for lunch.
Julie Raway wins Outstanding Preceptor Award
Julie Raway our Broome-Tioga BOCES Food Service Dietitian was one of six winners in the country to be awarded the 2023 Outstanding Preceptor Award by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She takes great pride in being a preceptor for up and coming dietitians completing their education at Cornell. Julie does a wonderful job preparing future dietitians for the field and what being a dietitian means in Child Nutrition. Congratulations Julie!
Bill Valachovic- Driver
Bill worked for EcoLab in food service sanitation to hospitality industry for 34 years before joining us as a shared driver for food services and document services. He is instrumental in delivering local NY products to the schools for students to enjoy. Bill also enjoys woodworking and is a fan of the Buffalo Bills.
Anna Hurd- Cook Manager at Tioga CSD
Anna is new to us but not new to the job since she has been working in the position since last June. Anna started as a head cook in the Tioga High School Kitchen and advanced her skills to be the Cook Manager. She needed to get her GED and with a ton of support she recently completed her High School Equivalency Exams. Once this happened, we were more than happy to offer Anna the job!
Team attends conference in Syracuse
On March 27, team members from the Communications and Public Relations Department took part in the New York Schools Public Relations Association conference in Syracuse. The day-long seminar included professional development and training seminars from presenters from across the state. Pictured below: Molly Wengert, Reggi Felice, Christina Kunzman, Kerry Gallagher, Alex Ladstatter, David Hermanovitch (Not pictured Todd Sherwood)
Student Copy Center visits Document Services
Students from the Student Copy Center at BOCES took a field trip and visited Document Services recently.
The Student Copy Center is one of seven on campus jobs that students from PALS and Oaktree can choose to work in. They are between 16 to 21 years old. The Student Copy Center serves all departments at the Glenwood site. They do copies, lamination, book binding and delivery. These students learn soft skills such as customer service, independence, initiative, time management and more. It was an exciting day for these students to get to visit Document Services and see a large-scale print shop. Thank you to Susan Groff for arranging the visit.
Professional learning brings together educators from across the region
On March 10, Broome-Tioga BOCES facilitated regional professional learning opportunities for over 600 educators. The component school districts of BT BOCES have recognized a need for content-specific learning for their staff and worked collaboratively with BOCES to make it happen.
BT Lit Camp
Over 200 educators from the BT and DCMO regions came together at Ben Franklin Elementary School for a day of literacy learning, focused on strengthening the literacy skills of our elementary learners. Wiley Blevins shared a keynote about high-impact phonics routines for primary and intermediate readers; his presentation received very positive reviews, with educators sharing how much they appreciated taking so many ideas back to their classrooms. In the afternoon, 15 educators from our region shared literacy practices that are proving to be successful in their classrooms. Topics ranged from science and math literacy, to strategies for decoding single and multisyllable words, to supporting reading engagement, and growing students as independent writers. Additionally, there was a strand for literacy coaches and leaders, hearing from experts in our region who are doing innovative work to improve literacy outcomes for kids. We hope this was just the first of a series of “camp”-style professional learning in literacy that we will be able to offer, highlighting tremendous literacy work being done in the region!
Building Capacity of the NYS PE Learning Standards
Ninety physical education teachers gathered at Binghamton High School to deepen their understanding about what it means to equip students for their physical literacy journey. Dr. Dean Kriellaars, a neuroscientist and physical literacy expert from the University of Manitoba, presented the keynote. He led teachers through movement challenges so that they could experience “turning on the physical literacy engine,” a framework for developing movement competence that impacts confidence and motivation, therefore influencing lifetime physical activity. Following the keynote, teachers discussed how they would prioritize the NYS PE Learning standards at each grade level based on the physical literacy lens. The day concluded with the physical educators getting in their activity for the day as they participated in new activities that incorporate social emotional learning skills with PE consultant, Nick Kline.
Librarians K-12 research skills
Is a 5 year old capable of conducting research? They sure are! On Friday March 10, Alicia Sherman met with 26 librarians from around the region to define high school level research expectations and discuss the progression of research skills from kindergarten through 12th grade. The morning began with grade level teams examining the Empire State and Information Fluency Continuum Standards (ESIFC) to identify the embedded research skills. They then created a list of lessons aimed at teaching those skills. After a whole group discussion, librarians met by district to identify gaps in their curriculum and brainstorm ways to fill them. We are hoping to continue this work in the fall and ultimately update the scope and sequence for each district in attendance.
6th annual Fine Arts Day
During this day of collaboration and learning, 170 Music and Art educators from around the region came together to grow in knowledge and skill. Participants had the opportunity to select from 40 different break out sessions hosted by 43 different presenters (39 of whom were local educators). Session topics included developing assessments aligned with the IAAP, developing a toolbox of strategies for beginning band, Chihuly art, building a musical vocabulary, video creation, and adapting lessons for all learners (to name just a few). Additionally, all attendees participated in round table discussions with colleagues teaching similar content and grade level. Topics of these discussions included recruitment and retention, formative and summative assessments, creating welcoming and affirming environments, and the incorporation of educational technology. At the end of the day, teachers left with new ideas, stronger connections with colleagues, and excitement to try something different in their classrooms.
Hiding in Plain Sight
More than 160 education professionals gathered in the gymnasium of the education center to view the Ken Burns documentary “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness.” The documentary served as a catalyst for a panel discussion at the end of the day that included: school administrators, community school coordinators, representatives from community agencies and school nurses. The morning focused on the first part of the Burns documentary, entitled, “The Storm.” The afternoon session focused on the second piece of the documentary, “Resilience.” At the conclusion of “Resilience” the panelists were asked to consider the themes of the film including; describing the role schools, agencies and health care providers play when supporting children and families and how professionals intentionally resource themselves so that they can be resources for children and families. Friday’s event gives our region’s educators, mental health teams, leaders and nurses an opportunity to learn, share, reflect on and refine our practice with youth that struggle with mental health. Watching the documentary together and having the space to share our struggles, as well as our successes, was a tremendous opportunity.
