Marlboro Superintendent Michael Rydell said that last week was School Board Recognition Week in New York State. He said each of the board members, “have received a small token of our appreciation as well as a proclamation that we received from Gov. Hocul’s office.”

Each board member was given a scarf with the school colors and MD lettering, standing for Marlboro Dukes.

Rydell highlighted a few lines in the Governor’s proclamation, “that really captures a sentiment that we all feel and the essence of this Board of Education: Whereas members of local school boards are dedicated to children learning and community and devote many hours of service to elementary and secondary public education as they continually strive for improvement, excellence and progress in education, recognizing that all children can be successful learners.”

Rydell continued, “whereas local school board members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the public’s expectations to the district by working closely with parents, educational professionals and community members.” He added that the board’s selfless contributions do not go unnoticed, “and know that you are appreciated. Thank you.”

Rydell said the district has launched several committees this year. He said at the first meeting of the Policy Committee, they discussed their vision and ambitions on how to move forward and the process they want to employ. He said this sets the stage for all future meetings, and the school board will be given monthly updates on their progress.

“On our agenda we have a system that we’re going to follow to really go through all of our policies over a period of time and update them to make sure they are all current and exactly how the board would like them,” he said.

Rydell said the Safety Committee met last week with attendees from the building and district administrations, the School Resource Officers, Town Police, Board of Education members and a representative from the BOCES Orange-Ulster Safety Team.

“There were great discussions on a wide variety of topics regarding school safety, future processes and activities, and the end result was that we have outstanding measures in place in this district with a clear, collective effort to approach this most important topic with the same approach that we do with all of our operation aspects; that is how can we continuously improve.”

Rydell said the Health and Wellness Committee also met last week for the first time in a while, discussing how they can be an effective committee moving forward.

“We actually opened up the meeting by reviewing the current wellness policy, that way we can make recommendations to the Policy Committee, showing how all these things connect,” he said.

Rydell said they developed objectives for the 2022-23 school year, in particular an interactive playground that he predicted will be a ‘big hit’ with the staff and students and will integrate academics into the physical education program.

Rydell said this committee also discussed the Lions Club vision screening program that took place this fall.

“We had more than 250 students that were screened for any sort of vision issues; that was just a great dialogue and a great contribution by the Lions Club to do that for our students,” he said.

Rydell noted that a new committee is forming this year called the District Continuous Improvement Team, immediately adding that the first order of business will be to come up with a better name. He said this committee will develop action plans, “that are specifically aligned with the Board of Education goals.”

Rydell said he will have a presentation about this committee at an upcoming meeting as well as one near the end of the school year, “to give insight into the progress of those action plans.”

Rydell said they will soon launch Student Voice Committees in the Middle and High Schools.

“This is to allow me and other district administrators to meet with our students to learn more about what we’re doing great with and what we could improve upon and where we’re completely missing the mark,” he said. “Students are the reason we are all here and we’d like to give them yet one additional venue to have a voice.”

Rydell highlighted the important role that the Parent Teacher Association [PTA] and the Parent Teacher Student Association [PTSA] play across the district and urged students, parents and school personnel to consider joining one of these ‘great’ organizations.

The school board also has a second student representative, senior Brett Belcastro. He said the idea to serve as a student representative, “was offered to us at the end of our Junior year.” He is friends with one of last years student reps and she urged him to consider it. He applied and in August he was invited to an interview and was accepted.

Last week was Brett’s first school board meeting and he will alternate meetings with the other student representative, Celeste Charlemagne.

“I was nervous at first, but I’ll get the hang of it,” he said.

Belcastro reached out to students in the Elementary and Middle Schools to learn their concerns.

“I went in person to their classrooms and in the coming weeks I am going to try my best to get the children’s thoughts into action,” he said.