school

Press Release:

The Genesee County Youth Bureau is proud to announce its new program, Caught Being Good, which was recently launched this November. 

This new program is designed to further enhance the ability of our School Resource Officers (SROs) to build positive relationships with our youth. Positive reinforcement helps to increase the likelihood of positive behavior reoccurring.

This year, participating schools include Alexander Middle-High School, Batavia Middle and Batavia High Schools, Byron-Bergen Jr/Sr High School, Elba Jr/Sr High School, Pavilion Jr/Sr High School, Pembroke Intermediate and Pembroke Jr/Sr High School, Oakfield-Alabama Middle-High School, St. Paul Lutheran, and GV BOCES. 

Vouchers have been distributed to all participating schools. Any additional schools that wish to join the program can contact Genesee County Youth Bureau to enroll.

Local businesses have paired with the Genesee County Youth Bureau to donate the vouchers to schools. Students who are “Caught Being Good” will be awarded with a voucher from their SRO to redeem at local business.

Tonight at Byron-Bergen School faculty and staff played basketball against the New York State Troopers from Troop A for a benefit. All of the proceeds will go to the USO, to honor Byron-Bergen students who have served or are now serving in the military.

Many supporters from families of the school including law enforcement came out to support the event. The NY State Troopers were a bit too strong tonight and beat the faculty 52-39. However it was all for fun and entertainment for everyone to enjoy.

In the Byron-Bergen School District, students aren't just learning how to read, write and solve math problems. They're also being taught the basic skills of leadership.

"We want them to be confident individuals," said Brian Meister, the elementary school principal. "We want them to be self-sufficient individuals. We want them to be able to make good choices consistently."

The leadership course is based on Stephen R. Covey's acclaimed "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Covey's company has developed "The Leader in Me," a program to teach students the seven habits in a format they can grasp.

In Byron-Bergen, the curriculum is part of a strategy to educate children in a well-rounded fashion. Yes, they learn academics, but they're also exposed to the arts and good citizenship.

At the Thursday evening board meeting (unusually packed with parents), a group of third-graders sang songs, recited their leadership pledge and showed off their leadership pictures.

"It's so important not to just teach them academics, but to teach them to be good citizens," Superintendent Casey Kosiorek said. "We can all agree that if one of these find young individuals moves next door to us, we want them to be good people and we also want them to be intelligent."

The seven habits:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive • You’re in Charge
• Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind • Have a Plan
• Habit 3: Put First Things First • Work First, Then Play
• Habit 4: Think Win-Win • Everyone Can Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood • Listen Before You Talk
• Habit 6: Synergize • Together Is Better
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw • Balance Feels Best

Meister said faculty and staff are really proud at how well students are responding to the course. He said it's rewarding to hear students talk about solving conflicts with a "win-win" attitude.

It's not easy, he said, for a child in elementary school to "seek first to understand," and put themselves in the shoes of the other person before trying to meet their own needs. But he said in fact, they're seeing child trying to learn to take exactly that approach.

During the school board meeting, Kosiorek noted a recent study that showed the vast majority of new patents are filed in the United States, not China. The iPad, he noted, was invented in this country, not overseas. He said the next generation of entrepreneurs will come out of today's schools, and it's Byron-Bergen's job to prepare the next generation of business leaders.

Meister agreed and said that as students move on from elementary school, into high school and then into college or careers they will be the self-confident individuals who are followed by their peers.

"We really believe here at Byron-Bergen that it’s not only our job to teach kids the academics, but also to make sure sure we provide the leaders of tomorrow," Meister said.

Santa took a break from his busy schedule to visit Alexander school tonight.

After reading two stories, it was time for Santa to hear what everyone wanted for Christmas.

Then everyone gathered in the cafeteria to frost and decorate cookies!

Why is it that in the land of freedom and opportunity we are forced to pay school taxes?

This is not a rant on the taxes themselves but more on the lack of choice in where students can recieve an education.  I understand that an educated society is a benefit to society itself.  But when all we hear about is how government schools need more money and are failing our kids to the tune of over $10,000 a student per year, how can we keep funneling them money?

Institution a tax voucher program is the only way to break the control of teachers unions and the government in general.

People often complain about their children not being taught their values such as Intelligent design and abstinence only.  With a voucher program that give parents back say 70% of the money that would have been spent on the child at a government school, educational freedom can be more readily exercised.  The reason I say 70% is to cover overhead costs at the school that were necesarily spent to the individual students benefit.

Today that freedom is only open to those who have the economic means to pay both thier school taxes and tuition at a private school.  Parents will literally get to choose what kind of education their children receive.

It will also break the hold of teachers unions by forcing public school to improve in order to keep the cash flow coming.

Home schooling should also be an option to voucher users.  Home schooling has proven to provide quality educations at cheaper costs.  Some worry about social interactions but that can handled by either joining with other home schooling parents in the area or ensuring your children have many after school activities.

This is a win-win solution to he debates about the problems are public schools, lets hope those in charge see this as well.

A story in the Democrat & Chronicle yesterday features Batavia Notre Dame graduate Tim Sullivan, now one of the country's best basketball shooting coaches. Sullivan, who graduated in 1978, then "walked onto the team at Canisius College in Buffalo," now puts on some 400 shooting clinics across the country each year.

This article, by John Boccacino, is a fun read, and there are more than a few great tips for any amateur basketball enthusiast looking to beef up his or her shot. It's clear that Sullivan knows his stuff.

After every shot attempt Sullivan preached that, as part of their follow through, the participants kiss the shoulder of their shooting side to guarantee a complete, accurate shot.

His wise words were met with confusion. "When he started talking about that, my friend Matt Noto and I looked at each other and said, 'OK, that won't work,'" said Steven Ciotti, 13, a seventh-grader at Greece Athena Middle School who plays for Greece Basketball Association's seventh-grade house team. "But then he started shooting and he just wasn't missing. I think he made almost 95 percent of his 200 shots and we were all amazed."

This is more of a public service annoucement or a FYI instead of a news story, but isn't any more or less important.

Two Rochester news stations, Channel 13 (WHAM) and Channel 10 (WHEC) offer a free (depending on your texting plan) service to send text messages to your cellphone, notifying you in the event of a school closing.

I'm not going to preach which service to use (or what cellphone carrier you should be using). I present the facts and let people decide for themselves, with the occasional two cents.

Off the bat, most schools/companies/churches/etc will notify Channel 13 first in the event of a closing and then Channel 10. Some organizations don't notify Channel 10 at all, and vice versa. However, both stations end up with the same closings. It's really just a matter of time.

To use Channel 13's service, you have to register an account which takes about five minutes. Then you have the option to subscribe to a maximum of five organizations, for lack of a bettter word. You can also choose times throughout the day when to receive or not to receive notifications.

With Channel 10's service, it's less customisable and more straightforward. You type in your device e-mail address, and your sent a confirmation code via text message. Type in the confirmation code, click submit and you have a list of all of the organizations you can choose from. There's no limit either.

Personally, I use Channel 10's service. I keep track of several different schools and hate the limit that Channel 13 has on their service.

The links are below. Take your pick.

Channel 10 - WHEC

Channel 13 - WHAM