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Superintendent of Schools

  • Testing

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 4/16/2012 12:00:00 PM
    This week (Tuesday to Thursday) we will begin the NYS English Language Arts testing for students in grades 3-8.    It is important for all students to arrive to school on time, be well rested and have a full belly.    As a parent, if you prepare your child/children with these three items, the odds dramatically increase that they will perform at higher levels.
     
    It is important to note that while these tests are important, it is far more important for each child to simply try his hardest and do their very best.   
     
    Good-luck, I am sure you will all do an amazing job.
     
    Fondly,
    Bob
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  • Weather Machine

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 3/19/2012 8:00:00 AM
    You may have heard but the entire Salamanca community has Weather on its mind.   With the leadership of some wonderful Prospect Elementary staff, Salamanca is in the running to have the Channel 2 WGRZ Weather Machine, with Andy Parker descend upon our district.     This is an interactive and educationally informative opportunity FREE OF CHARGE for our students (words I love this time of year)!
     
    But alas if it is too good to be true it, there must be a catch......here is where we NEED your help.  As the late mayor of Buffalo, Jimmy Griffin once said, "VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN."
     
    Here is the link for you to quite literally stuff the virtual ballot box:
     
     
    Let's all pitch in!
     
    Fondly,
    Bob
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  • Om-er-iffic

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 3/14/2012 8:00:00 AM
    I love spring for all the right reasons, warmer weather, sunshine, birds chirping and the playoffs for the Odyssey of the Mind season.   A few weeks back our amazing OM-ers competed at Allegany-Limestone in the regional competition and while they all did a fantastic job, 4 teams are advancing to the State Finals in Binghamton on March 31st.
     
    At the Breidenstein household we have until this year ate, lived, breathed and slept OM since 1994.  My wife was a long time coach and as a parent for the last 5 years was a volunteer coach for my son's team.     So I get how many hours these dedicated competitors put in to planning to solve their problem designed by NASA, designing costumes, writing skits, building, painting constructing and performing.     As well as how this activity consumes a families time and attention.  Our academic athletes are truly talented and OM-er-iffic!
     
    I know they will do their best and make us all proud.   Who knows, Iowa may be well within their grasp at the World Finals in may!
     
    I drive a mean prop truck and would gladly come out of retirement.   
     
    Fondly,
    Bob
     
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  • Points of Pride

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 3/9/2012 10:00:00 AM
    This week I received several communications from students and parents and each are points of great pride.    First, several students have taken it upon themselves to communicate with me about the impact of the budget.  I cannot express in words how proud I am of these three students who took the time to reduce into writingtheir concerns or to set up a meeting with me to share thier opinions, thoughts and solutions relative to the budget.   They were clear, concise and highly articulate, not to mention persuasive.    Student advocacy from a student is a powerful tool.   
     
    Also, a parent contacted me today to express extreme gratitude to an intervention from one of our school nurses.   I cannot undersocre the importance of the relationship a school nurse has with their students and parents.  In this case the nurse identified a medical issue that was previously undetected. The family was immediately contacted and in turn they contacted the pediatrician who confirmed this medical anomoly.    My gratitude for this quick thinking was only eclipsed by the parent's heartfelt appreciation.
     
    Don't let Albany or the newspaper pundits tell you any differently, our staff and students do great things daily and they often go unnoticed.    
     
    Fondly,
    Bob 
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  • Little Shop of Horrors...

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 3/2/2012 8:00:00 PM
    On intermission at the Salamanca High School production of Little Shop of Horrors.
     
    What a fabulous production.  I am very proud of the kids and all the staff who have toiled for weeks in preparation for opening night.   They look and sound fantastic!   
     
    Bravo!!
     
     
    Bob
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  • UGGHHHHH~ Technology

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 3/1/2012 3:00:00 PM
    I know this has happened to you also, but it is so very frustrating.  I am sitting here working on a very important document.  I am saving it every few minutes like we were all taught (thank you Mrs. Dry and in my case Mrs. Schneider, circa 1981) by our dedicated business teachers.  I am carefully formatting and editing to make sure it is perfect and aligned and makes sense even to someone who has no idea about the topic I reference.   
     
    And then it happens, I hit some random series of key strokes, usually reserved for our Commander in Chief to launch nuclear warheads or the pin number to the Federal Reserve Banks because I ignored the QWERTY keyboarding skills of my youth.  WHAM everything disappears.    I know there is some technological gremlin or enchanted creature having a good belly laugh as we speak.  
     
    We do what every victim of this techno-disaster would do in this case, we call in the IT staff for reinforcements.   They swoop in, pocket protectors in hand ready to defend their territory from the evil warlords of binary codes and keystroke prompts.    All looks good until even the IT staff says, "What did you do?"  
     
    Technology is the great equalizer, at any given moment it can make us all look like brilliant scholars or complete morons.......I doubt you'll have any difficulty figuring out which one I am aligned with now!
     
    Bob
     
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  • Our Budget

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 2/21/2012 8:00:00 AM
    Last week, I hosted a second community budget forum and shared an overview of our current budget "condition" and the state of our fiscal affairs.   There were roughly 20 individuals in attendance and all but 3 were current employees (save a county Legislator, spouse and the child of a staff member).    I shared a comprehensive look at what we have already done to close our 2.1 million dollar budget gap and take questions from the audience or in private following the forum.  
     
    The bleak reality is all that is left to cut to close the gap is to reduce/eliminate either personnel or programs or both.   On Tuesday of last week I detailed 18.5 staffing cuts but these will preserve most programs, except for those with severely low enrollment or participation levels.   Obviously, I would prefer to reduce/eliminate neither, but with nearly $700,000+ to plug our budget gap, reductions must be made.  
     
    Interestingly the following questions arose from the forum:  I will attempt to provide a brief answer to these questions:
     
     
    1) What benefit is it to the district to push 6th grade to Seneca?- This would reduce the need for administrative staffing and reduce the number of MS disciplinary referrals.  The 6th grade model more closely aligned with an elementary approach would be more efficient and we would not need to add remedial reading staff.
     
     
    2.  What if we were to close Seneca and move those kids to Prospect and the MS/HS?-   This would place a huge burden on the secondary campus, from food service, gym space and the behavioral component in the building....This is a very unlikely scenario for 2012-13 but could be necessitated if the budget condition worsens in subsequent years.    

    3.  Are we replacing everyone who retires? Not likely, but it depends on where the retirement vacancy occurs.   If retirements occur, this would likely lessen the need to reduce 18.5 instructional positions.   We will know how this unfolds by the end of March.
     
    4.  What is the source of the numbers for teacher reductions and class sizes? This was determined by examining current class sizes, what we could sustain via the budget and factoring in conditions such as graduation requirements, state mandates, reasonable and modest increases to maintain programs and examining what is happening regionally and state-wide?   As for reductions, discussions have been ongoing for several months about offerings, reduced offerings and how this impacts our programming abilities.
         
    5.  If future outlook is worse, why not make further reductions now? This may infact be a reality, but budget-wise, as bad as it is in Salamanca, we are in far better shape comparatively speaking.    If you check out my newspaper link off of my home page on www.salamancany.org you will see huge deficits and enormous staffing and program cuts in our area and across NYS.   Due to strong budget management skills over the last few years, we are able to cushion the shock.   Make no mistake this is fundamentally going to change how we operate, instruct and program for our students.

    I hope the community will continue to ask questions and provide input into the process.

    Fondly,
    Bob  
     
     
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  • News & Notes

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 2/13/2012 8:00:00 AM
    In short order, I will (actually our IT staff will) add regular links to news articles that I have selected from across the state about public education.   This started as a concept in my mind about open, transparent communications.    It quickly morphed into a mechanism to help our community understand that we are not in this alone.   By in it, I am referencing our financial state of affairs.    As you will see from some of the postings, some districts are just getting started with financial disclosures to the community while others like Salamanca have been pushing forward for quite some time. this is a shameless plug about our Second community forum on 2/16/12 at 4:30 pm in the LGI room.
     
    I firmly believe in sharing all the news, good (and there is much of it like the School Resource Officer, Ben Haas heading to the NYSPHSAA wrestling championships to defend his state title etc...) and bad (our budget, decreased aid and staff arrests).   I do not believe in a gotcha mentality, which is why it is so very important to see, read and hear of trends from across the Empire State and to openly discuss what and how it may impact Salamanca.
     
    Fondly,
    Bob
     
     
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  • Confession

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 1/27/2012 3:00:00 PM

    I have a confession to make, I occasionally read TOPIX.   I know, there are a lot of "interesting" people who post less than cordial posts on the site.    I look because it is important to hear all sides, and not just speak with and to people who share your opinions.   

     

    Recently there has been an uptick of posts about the budget.  That is a really good thing to quote Martha Stewart.   At Tuesday's BOE meeting I attempted to dispel some false rumors, like eliminating all busing, cutting all sports, increasing class size to 30+/class -(all false).   But posters on TOPIX did ask about some rumors that had some merit:

     

    Moving 6th grade to Seneca and moving 3rd grade to Prospect:  yes we have discussed this.   But at this time there is little to no financial savings to the district to continue this conversation or travel on this path.

     

    Setting class size levels: yes we will be setting class size ranges PK-12th grade and for elective classes at the HS.   It is our hope to still offer programs but the number of sections will be decreased.   The HS is working to finish course requests for 2012-13 and should be done in about 3-4 weeks.   Then we will decide on offerings and elective sections.

     

    Reducing extra curricular offerings: yes this will happen.   We cannot sustain clubs and activities (sports included) that have very, very low participation levels.  

     

    All of these actions, will translate to reductions in staff as we have approximately 700,000 to still trim from the budget.  All that can be eliminated and reduced have been so all that is left is programs and personnel.   We have offered an incentive to encourage retirements to preserve both programs and personnel.  

     

    We are working hard to minimize this impact and as a final confession, we need your help, please join me for a Community Forum on 2/16/2012 from 4:30-5:30 in the LGI.

     

    Bob
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  • Good Morning Sally High

    Posted by Robert Breidenstein at 1/24/2012 8:00:00 AM
    Today, I made my debut on the Warrior Vision Wake-up Program, a.k.a. morning announcements.   I have to honestly tell you how impressed I was with the production, organizational and professional skills displayed by the dozen or so students who comprised the production crew and cast.    Right up until the cue, you would have never known we were about to go live.  

     
    The cast and crew was chatting and joking and well being teenagers.  But the second the red light came on and we went live, what an amazing transformation.  It was impressive, except for me flubbing my lines, forgetting about the Tele-prompter entirely and being nearly blinded by the equivalent of a solar flare light shining in my face.  I should have used some SPF 50.  
     
    All that aside, I definitely have a career in radio- TV not so much!
     
    Bob
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