Looking Ahead: Innovation and the Future of GCSD...
First of three Community Conversations held on October 25
Oct. 26, 2011—On Tuesday, October 25, more than 40 school
community members came together to learn about many of the economic,
regulatory, and political issues currently facing our school district and to
discuss several essential questions related to how to improve student
learning despite these challenges.
“Looking Ahead: Innovation and the future of GCSD”
began with a presentation by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marie Wiles and
Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders which focused on the
current state of the district.
View the PowerPoint presentation (PDF) Topics such as the school
district's mission, upcoming challenges and the property tax "cap" were
discussed. The presentation also focused on the district's need to
continually find innovative ways to utilize available resources to meet the
changing needs of our students and community.
During the second half of the evening, participants broke out into small
groups to complete an activity focused on the following questions:
• Given the challenges discussed so far tonight, what do you believe the impact will be on our school district?
• What is your reaction to the following statement? Even if resources were unlimited, we’d still need to transform our schools if we want to prepare our students well for their futures.
The responses to these questions were captured by
facilitators and have been compiled into a
summary report for community review.
Download the summary report (PDF)
In addition, on Thursday, October 27, nearly 100 district staff members
participated in the same conversation and activity during a district-wide
staff meeting.
Download the summary report from the staff meeting (PDF)
The next Community Conversation events are set for January 17, 2012 and February 7, 2012
from 7 to 9 p.m. in the
Guilderland High School LGI. Please save these dates and plan to join us in
the conversation!
Unable to attend the October 25 Community Conversation event? Watch a reply on TWC Channel 16 in the Town of Guilderland on the following days/times:
• Friday, 10/28 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, 10/29 at 3:00 p.m.
• Sunday, 10/30 at 3:00 p.m.
• Sunday, 10/30 at 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, 11/7, 3:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, 11/8, 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday,11/10, 12:00 p.m.
• Friday, 11/11, 3:00 p.m.
• Sunday, 11/13, 7:30 p.m.
You may also view the Chanel 16 recap in its entirety by clicking on the video at right.
Please note that the video is 1.23 hrs. and may take a few moments to load on your machine.
To learn more about the 2012-13 budget, please visit our school budget news home page