A new year meant a new opportunity for team-building at the Superintendent's Advisory Council (SAC).

Today marked our first meeting of the year, and while students who are sophomores, juniors and seniors were on the Council last year, six new members joined the group today.  The new students are three freshman from both Clarkstown High School North and Clarkstown High School South.

In all, there are 24 students who comprise the Superintendent's Advisory Council (SAC), a total of three students per class, per high school.

While eating lunch, our meeting began via a tradition I established last year when each student shares a positive reflection, whether it is about school or the community. The students and administrators took turns, and their sharing of brief stories is a positive and productive way to begin our time together as a team.

As a strategy to set the tone for team-building, I shared slides about my personal and professional past as well as the current state here in Clarkstown.  Specifically, I shared a systems wheel for students that includes the SAC as a part of the decison-making structure in the District along with the Board of Education, Administrative Teams, Teachers/Staff, the PTA, and Education Panel.  The systems wheel, displayed below, includes the Five Principles of a Healthy Organization as determined through the research of Patrick Lencioni, author of the book titled The Advantage (2012).

Next, members of the team, including South Principal Ms. Deb Tarantino and North Principal Dr. Harry Leonardatos, participated in a team-building exercise.  The Council members completed a document revealing their favorite book, favorite hobby, favorite movie, and the best vacation they have experienced.  In addition, they completed the following sentence: "During SAC, I hope we............."

Council members then walked around at the Chestnut Grove Board Conference Room while finding a partner to inquire about their responses on paper.  Later, back at their seats, Council members shared highlights about what they learned from their partners.

The agenda items then discussed, as created by students and principals, were the following:

*Homecoming Dances - North and South

*North Auditorium Seats

*Tunes Tuesday at North

Student members of the Council did an outstanding job welcoming the new members to the team, and showed active listening skills while hearing the questions and ideas of their peers.

I look forward to our monthly meetings, not only to discuss a variety of academic topics, but to also provide our students leadership opportunities.

Andrew Tang and Luke Regan competed with each other right to the finish at the Manhattan Invitational Cross Country meet on Saturday.

The two sophomores from Clarkstown High School South finished four seconds apart at the prestigious race held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx adjacent to the Manhattan College campus. Andrew Tang finished with a time of 16:04.3 while teammate Luke Regan was right behind at 16:08. 

A total of 122 runners competed in the Sophomore race, one of 40 races held during the invitational.  Andrew Tang finished in 57th place while Luke Regan finished in 58th place.

Congratulations to both runners as well as their Coach, Ray Kondracki, and best wishes as the season continues!