A Successful First Day - A Message from Superintendent Cox
Dear Clarkstown Central School District Community:
The first day of school on Tuesday was a great success in the Clarkstown Central School District.
As your Superintendent of Schools, it was an honor and a privilege to be able to visit our 13 schools while watching students, faculty, staff and parents adjust to the new school year. Throughout my visits, I saw teachers, staff and administrators providing a welcoming, nurturing and friendly atmosphere for our students. In this setting, students are able to learn and grow within their safe and supportive surroundings.
With the first day of school comes the prospects for a new beginning, in new classrooms, and depending on the grades of our students, in a new school. As we begin this educational journey together, the District is focused on action steps that support our four goals: Academics, Social Emotional Learning, Capacity Building and Safety. We are putting forth specific steps during the school year for the implementation phases of the Yale RULER Social Emotional Learning approach. I am confident that this initiative, over the course of time, will make a positive impact on our students in multiple ways while assisting their social and emotional priorities, and giving them strategies to succeed in our schools.
As our school year unfolds, I welcome the opportunity to enhance our professional relationships across the District. I believe in the importance of developing these relationships via inquiry, dialogue, and reflection for the purpose of creating synergy among educational stakeholders.
Business leader and author David Prichard emphasizes the importance of understanding others when conversing. According to Prichard (2017), “When we care about what others think and feel, our brain senses not only safety; the prefrontal cortex ‘reads’ oxytocin as a signal to trust and open up. As a result, our conversations become innovative, co-creational and energizing. These conversations are the most likely to result in higher levels of partnering, trust and innovation” (p. 5).
During the year, let’s seek to understand each other in order to become partners in education who are working creatively on behalf of students. Best wishes for great success during the 2019-20 school year!
Sincerely,
Martin D. Cox
Superintendent of Schools