As you know, we kicked off this year's One School, One Book program last week with a school-wide assembly to reveal the title to students and staff as well as Thursday evening's Night at the Village. By now, we are a few chapters into our book, The Lemonade War. Thank you for making time in your busy schedules to read this book together with your family. Reading together as a family offers countless benefits to children while creating lasting memories for all involved.One way to experience the book is to watch the vodcasts (videos) that are posted on our One School, One Book blog. Readers from the Village Elementary community including special guests will be available for each chapter. Even if you are reading the book together as a family, many students have found these recordings to be enjoyable. You will also find a page on the blog dedicated to words that may be unfamiliar to some students. Check out the blog for more information about One School, One Book as well as for other updates throughout the month.
We are thankful for all of the support with our Make a Difference Day food drive. As a school, we collected over 2,000 items that were donated to the Hilton Food Shelf and the Cadet Cupboard! Thank you to all that helped to make this a success including our Student Council.
Many thanks to all families for their support with our most recent Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Village Elementary logged the most minutes in all of New York State for the sixth year in a row and also was in the top 30 schools for minutes logged in the world! Our school community was recognized for this accomplishment with a visit by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul along with Senator Joe Robach. I am proud of our students, staff, and families that all worked together to make this happen and look forward to even greater success next summer!
Over the past few months, the district and a building committee have been working to identify potential capital project improvements for our school and the district. A common thread of the project is safety and security. As a result of much planning and study, a number of key improvements will be addressed pending approval by district residents on December 15. These areas include renovation of some classrooms, replacement of our south playground, and security upgrades to our main entrance. Additional information will be shared by the district in the coming weeks.
Finally, this month brings an important step in supporting the home-school partnership, parent-teacher conferences. Thank you for making time for this vital part of our collaborative efforts to ensure the success of our students.
-Dr. Rudd
