A Busy Time of the Year...

Diversity

The West Genesee Diversity Action Team began in May of 2020 comprised of individuals including students, parents, community, and staff. These individuals expressed interest in more opportunities for growth in supporting discussion and action to support diversity, equity, and inclusion for our students, staff, and community. 

During the summer, we began book discussions including the texts “So you want to talk about race” by Ijeoma Oluo and “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. A gathering of resources (A Wakeletpage) that can be found here was shared in a letter on June 3, 2020. These and more were used for staff professional development on September 8, 2020.

A group of former and new members met this past week and will now be known as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Discussion included the need for more voices and opportunity for greater participation in the important topics and issues that we face. A list of subcommittees is being developed to garner those with interest and/or background to add to the strength of our work together.

Please look for information that will be coming soon about the group and ways to be involved in this important work.

Athletics and Fine Arts

Our students are more and more active in extracurricular activities with departments of Athletics and Fine Arts. Everything for the past 11 months has been different or adjusted, the current opportunities being no exception. With West Genesee spirit, we continue to pursue ways to offer programs and stay within the changing guidelines of the pandemic. In-person spectators or video provided, ensembles at greater distances, and electronic medium for creativity are just some of the examples of creatively approaching what we CAN do and all of the strong habits of health checks.

Board of Education

The West Genesee Board of Education continually searches for ways to serve the community. A rescheduled Community Listening Session will take place on Wednesday, March 3, at 6:00 p.m. prior to the regularly scheduled meeting. Interested participants are guided to express ideas to the question “What are your hopes and dreams for WGCSD?”

The meeting will be held in the West Genesee High School Library with consideration to gathering limits and social distancing measures. It will also be live streamed for those interested. More information can be found here which includes an RSVP to better prepare, including any overflow that may be helpful.

Top 11

Congratulations to this year’s Top 11 for the Class of 2021 including Valedictorian Eleanor Moran and Salutatorian Adam Pierce. This group is recognized for academic excellence resulting from many hours and years of hard work and commitment.

We are proud of our students who represent themselves, their families, our schools, and community. Please see this prestigious group here in the recently released announcement. Certainly, the students receiving this well-deserved recognition are a great source of pride. Well done, Wildcats!

COVID-19

We continue to see a dramatic decrease in COVID-19 positive cases. This is parallel to reports through the county and NYS. Of course there is concern for each and every case with hopes for quick recovery. 

In the past weeks, the average cases has decreased from 5.7 cases reported per day in the first two weeks of January, 3.7 in the third week, to 1.83 at the start of February. The third week of February was a .86 per day rate which is consistent with the last 10 days prior to this writing. It appears to be diminishing, and we all remain hopeful that trend will continue. As a reminder, there is an up-to-date informational page found here that is accessed on our website under “COVID-19 INFO/UPDATES” which indicates the date, building, role, and quarantine impact of each school related case. 

As you may have seen reported from the media, the Onondaga County Health Department issued Revised Quarantine Guidelines as of February 6, 2021. The new protocols result from data on school spread and the strong habits of mask wearing, physical distancing, and hygiene practices. Overall, the emphasis is more strongly based on proximity, when there is definitive and consistent seating arrangements. There is less of an emphasis than previous guidelines to the total accumulated time of exposure and an increased time threshold for all students or staff when proximity information is unavailable. A two-hour exposure, without knowing proximity of adjacent persons, will guide mandated quarantines from OCHD.

We continue to appreciate and benefit from the relationship and communication with health officials. There has been an indication of upcoming changes that will certainly be valued and drive our work. It is not unusual to have questions and points of clarification that will be needed as we consider changes. As with the original plan, we are committed to offering as many in-person opportunities as possible along with the fully remote learning experience preferred by many.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership! We are WG Stronger Together!

David C. Bills, Superintendent of Schools