• October 3, 2023

    Dear Parents, Students, Faculty, Staff, and Community Members,

    Back in July I sent you a link to a school/community survey.  In this survey I asked you questions about all things related to the New Paltz Central School District.  The purpose of this endeavor was to learn how people feel about the school, to find out what they think are our strengths and weaknesses, and to learn what they feel  should be our district goals moving forward.

    Some of the questions in the survey were short answer questions and some were open ended.  The answers to these questions were analyzed in great depth and a summary of the results was presented to the school board at a board meeting in late August.  This presentation was followed by a board retreat, open to the public, where board members and school administrators worked to generate District Goals for 2023-24 and beyond.

    While I can not share the many individual (and candid) comments we received from the 406 people who responded to our survey, I can share with you a graphical and/or numerical representation of the short answer questions.  After I review this information with you, I will then provide you with the newly generated district goals.  So, here are the survey results:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Graphs are easy to display.  Summarizing a variety of comments is more challenging.  Here is my summary of the most common responses to a few important questions:

     

     

     

    The information above is a summary of the survey results.  As mentioned, the board met to discuss these results and to generate district goals.  Survey results were not the only things the board considered as they generated their goals.  Throughout the process they kept in mind the district mission statement and our district guiding principles.

     

    After considering all information and after much discussion, the school board chose four areas upon which they would like the school district to focus for the 2023-2024 school year and beyond.  I say “and beyond” because these are ambitious goals that won’t be met quickly or easily.

    Here are the four priority areas:

    Communication

    Academic Rigor and Literacy

    Student Absenteeism

    Health and Wellness of Students

     

    Here is a brief summary of how we intend to pursue these goals:

     

    Addressing these areas will not be quick or easy.  The district intends to work collaboratively with parents, students, and community members to meet these goals.  

    Measuring progress toward these goals will also be a challenge in some cases.  For example, it will be easy for us to use attendance data to determine our progress toward the goal of improving student attendance.  However, it will be more challenging to determine if our efforts toward improving communication have been successful.

    It is our intention to use data whenever possible to measure success.  We will also put out our community survey again in the spring to determine how the perception of all things related to the New Paltz Central School has changed over the past school year.

    Thank you to all who participated in the survey.  Your input was appreciated and valuable.  Thank you to those of you who have read this lengthy email.  I appreciate your interest in our 2023-2024 goals and I look forward to working with you as we continually strive to make NPCSD the best possible place for our students to learn.

    Regards,

    Stephen Gratto - Superintendent