Superintendent's Office

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8/21/2025

I have only missed the New York State Fair one time since I could remember things, and it was my freshman year of college. Things at the fair have changed over the years, but what remains are the memories I have with family and friends. I am looking forward to making more this weekend and also checking in on our FFA friends as well!

Yesterday was a wave of panic when I received a call that we had a water main break at Valley, and the basement was flooded. When I received the call, Mrs. Schutt had just finished her first bus orientation and was getting ready to run the second one a few hours later.

Fortunately for us, the water main didn't break. A valve in the basement ruptured (see if you can find it in the picture I included) and water sprayed into the basement, but the drain worked, they got the water turned off, the part replaced, and we were back in business by 4:30PM. It reminded me that my job is largely to lead from the position of planning for the worst and hoping for the best! We got the best yesterday, fortunately!

Valley is coming along, construction and cleaning wise. Tomorrow and Saturday, we will have full crews there to finish up work and give things another cleaning. We are excited to host our usual meet and greet for parents next Wednesday, and the building won't be quite perfect yet, but it will be in great shape to host everyone. The air conditioning in that building will be fired up on September 2nd.

Fall sports and field band have started really well, and I am looking forward to being at games and field band competitions soon! Between athletics and field band, we have about 250 students participating, which is awesome!

Back in the day when my kids were in school, I used to receive a brick of papers home as we got closer to the first day of school. These papers actually became known as “the brick”. The brick contained all kinds of forms from the principal, the nurses office, technology, transportation, me, etc.

Fast forward a lot of years, and we find ourselves in the position of sending as little paper home as possible, and using Parent Square and other tools to get information home to you.

What sometimes gets lost in this transition is that there are times when paper is necessary, and we have to recognize that not every parent has a personal printer at home.

Recently, we reviewed the information that was sent home from the nurses, and reflected that it was a LOT of information, and that there are some forms that require things to actually be filled out and returned, and not submitted electronically.

I have asked the nurses, our technology team, and a few administrators to review and revise that message (it was sent via ParentSquare on August 4th) and send a new message out to you early next week with ONLY what you absolutely need to have. If there are actual paper forms, we will find ways to provide them to you. If you have already printed and signed anything that is required, no worries, the nurses will take what you have.

Five years from now, we won’t remember this message because EVERYTHING will likely be electronic, but right now, we are experiencing some growing pains, and I appreciate your patience as we handle this transition toward a digital future.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Thank you,

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools