Dear Batavia Families and Community,
We’ve been in the throes of winter the last few weeks, and it’s been a few years since we’ve seen so many snowstorms. I want to take this opportunity to compliment our dedicated buildings and grounds crew who take incredible pride in ensuring our driveways and walkways are cleared each day for school, oftentimes beginning their days at 4:00am. Be sure to say thanks to these wonderful members of the Batavia family.
Mask…masks…masks…that has been all the news as of late (in addition to the aforementioned snow). While New York State's mask-or-vaccine mandate for businesses has been lifted, the mandate for masking in schools will continue until at least after the February break when it will be re-assessed. As you may have seen, my superintendent colleagues and I in Genesee County recently wrote an open letter to Governor Hochul pressing the need for more local control over COVID protocols, as we are optimistic we can safely move from the pandemic to a more endemic way of life. Our Board of Education and district leadership are currently engaged in conversations and planning to best address local needs when and if the mask mandate is lifted. In the meantime, we will continue to notify you of COVID-19 test kit pick-ups, with more scheduled for next week. I thank you for your support and perseverance as we continue to press forward.
Our district recently purchased upgraded air purifiers as another mitigation effort to prevent the spread of COVID and offer the highest standards of health safety for our students and staff. The Novaerus Protect 900 is a medical-grade, airborne infection control device that inactivates viruses, bacteria, mold spores and pollen in the breathing zone. The device uses patented NanoStrike technology to inactivate pathogens at the DNA level with one powerful strike and in a sub-second time frame. While we are pleased to provide this technology to fight the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Protect 900 will serve our school system for years into the future against flu viruses and superbugs that may arise.
In other news…
It has been an especially busy two weeks since I last wrote to you, and I hope you have been able to follow all the events on our social media pages. John Kennedy and Jackson hosted the annual Day of Play last week (watch our video here), we honored our senior athletes at several athletic events,
and we celebrated our Boys Indoor Track Team, Girls Swim Team, and two of our wrestlers winning Sectional Titles this year.
I continue to have lunch with students across the district to learn more about our schools, including lunches with seniors and first graders–our students are so proud and their enthusiasm is contagious!
Congratulations to our Unified Bowling Team who was recently recognized by the Genesee Valley Schools Boards Association as an Excellent in Student Services award recipient. I thank Mr. Bromley, Coach Teresa Morrill, and Koren Cook for their leadership of this program.
Don’t forget to check out our Winter Guard annual competition at BHS next Saturday, February 19th at 4:30pm–I saw our group first perform last month and it was an impressive show!
As you have hopefully seen, we have increased our communication to families, and we regularly use email and/or text messaging to update you on the latest news. If you are not receiving these messages, please contact your school so we can make sure we have all your current contact information in our system. I also encourage you to download our official app as another means to access all things Batavia CSD!
Our district is committed to the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion, and to that end, part of our Superintendent’s Conference Day last week was spent on this important and timely topic. Ithaca City Schools Superintendent Luvelle Brown addressed our staff and introduced some ways we can begin to integrate the topic into our curriculum. What I found the most striking in his presentation is that many of these topics are already in the state standards and have been present for quite some time. His comments and remarks were well received by our staff, and we look forward to our continued partnership with Dr. Brown. I thank Dr. Molly Corey, Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction, for her leadership and commitment in securing this important partnership.
Finally, we have our upcoming President’s Recess from February 21-25. I hope you are able to use part of this time to do something special with your family and loved ones, even if it's as simple as watching a movie, taking a walk, or cooking a special meal.
Thank you for your continued support of our district and our students.
Stay safe and warm…..
Jason A. Smith
Superintendent of Schools
343-2480, ext 1000
Twitter: @JasonJasmith