• May 8, 2025



    Dear Friends of the New Paltz Central School District,

     

    Spring is busy and fun in our schools.  Recently we have had plenty of concerts, dance shows, sporting events, and other activities to go to.  Lots of additional events will be occurring between now and the end of the school year.  I hope you are taking the opportunity to get out and enjoy these activities.

     

    Spring is also a lot of work.  State testing has been going on over the last couple of weeks.  AP exams are happening now.  Final exams, final projects, progress monitoring, and of course, regents exams are on the horizon.  We commend our students on their hard work and we encourage them to keep on going and do their best.

     

    This is also National Teacher Appreciation Week and National School Nurse Appreciation Week.  We are fortunate to have such outstanding professionals working  in the NPCSD.  Thank you teachers, nurses, and all of our staff for the outstanding work that they do to create a quality learning environment for all of our students.  We appreciate you!

     

    Here is an update that will hopefully help you keep up with all that is going on:

     

    Budget Vote - May 20, 2025

     

    At last night’s budget hearing I gave a presentation on the proposed 2025-2026 school budget that you will get to vote on on May 20th.  Click on this link to see a video of the presentation and click on this link to see the slides from the presentation. 

     

    Our annual budget newsletters will be mailed out today to all residents of the community.  Hopefully, it will answer any remaining questions about the budget that you may have.  Thank you for voting on May 20th.  If you have any questions about the budget, please let me know.



    Voting for Board Members - May 20, 2025

     

    As I mentioned in my previous update, we are facing a very unusual situation with our vacant school board seats.  We have only one person (incumbent Jason Clark) running and three seats open.  On May 20th you will get to vote for up to three candidates.  The ballot will look like this:

     



    Specifically, your options are the following:

     

    •You can vote for Jason Clark and write in zero, one or two candidate names

    •You can write in zero, one, two, or three candidate names

    •You don’t have to vote for anybody

    Please Remember:

    If you vote for more than three people your vote for all board candidates will not count.

    Write legibly and neatly, use first and last names, spell names correctly, fill in the box next to the names.

     

    In most school board elections, we get to find out on the same night of the vote whether or not the budget passed and who the successful school board candidates are.  On May 20th, we will get to find out the result of the budget vote.  However, due to the large number of write in votes that we anticipate will be cast, we will not have the results of the school board election until late on May 21st at the earliest.  When we get the results we will first determine if the highest vote getters are actually district residents and are eligible to serve on the board.  If they are eligible, we will contact them to see if they are willing to serve on the board.  As soon as we have the names of the top three eligible candidates who are willing to serve, we will let the community know the results..

     

    The Future of Duzine Elementary

     

    You may recall that on February 5th of this year the facilities committee presented to the school board their recommendation that the board consider closing Duzine Elementary School and create a three building campus to service all students.  You can view their presentation by clicking on this link and forwarding to the 2:28 mark of the meeting.

     

    The board listened to the presentation and to the comments from the community during the public forum.  The board decided that it would be helpful to have an outside consultant with an educational background come to our district and do a study to determine whether or not we can consolidate our campus into three buildings.  They also wanted to know how a consolidation could be done and how much money closing Duzine might save the district on an annual basis.

     

    We have now hired Dr. Chuck Khoury, formerly the Superintendent of the Ulster BOCES, to study the situation and make a recommendation to the school board.  Dr. Khoury will be touring the district for the first time on May 12 and 13.  Dr. Khoury and the school board are very interested in hearing what the community can provide for thoughts, questions, and opinions about the possible closing of Duzine.  For that reason, we will be having a community forum on May 12, 2025 in the Lenape Library at 6:00 pm where community members can come and share their thoughts during a public comment session.  The community forum will be preceded at 5:30 pm by a tour of the Lenape school building for any interested individuals.

     

     

    We look forward to hearing what you have to say.  Please realize that Dr. Khoury will not be providing much information at the community forum since he will be in the very early stages of his investigation.  The intention of this meeting is for him to hear what YOU have to say.  If you are unable to attend this meeting but you have thoughts to share, please email them to me at your earliest convenience and I will forward them to him.  

     

    Dr. Khoury anticipates being able to complete his study by the end of the month.  He is scheduled to present his findings to the school board and to the community at the school board meeting on June 4th.

     

    Kindergarten Enrollment Numbers for Next Year

     

    We are in full planning mode for the 2025-2026 school year.  Getting accurate enrollment numbers is an important part of the process.  We currently have only 70 students registered for Kindergarten next year.  This is a surprising number as we have had about 100 students coming into Kindergarten each of the last four school years.

     

     

    As you can imagine, the number of students we have enrolled greatly shapes our staffing numbers from year to year.  If you have a child who will be entering kindergarten next year and you have not yet registered them, please reach out to us as soon as possible.  If you know people who have Kindergarten aged children, please share this important message with them.

     

    Universal Pre-K Enrollment Numbers for Next Year

     

    While our anticipated kindergarten numbers are way down, our anticipated pre-K numbers are up.  In 2022-2023 we had one pre-K classroom with 16 students.  In 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 we had three classrooms of 18 students each.  Each of these classrooms is funded by our universal pre-K grant and is run by our community partner, Tots in Toyland.  These classes, which are capped at 18 students by the rules of the UPK grant that pays for them, can have a maximum enrollment of 18 students.

     

    It appears that this program, which is free to all New Paltz residents, is growing in popularity.  At this point we have 70 students who have signed up for the program.  We anticipate expanding to four UPK classrooms for next year but we still have a couple of openings.  If you are a district resident who has a child who will be four years old by December 1, 2025, we encourage you to register them for our pre-K program at your earliest convenience.

     

    Beautifying the area around the Middle School

     

    When the former district office on the corner of Main St. and South Manheim Was torn down last year, it created a beautiful grassy area in the heart of our community.  On Arbor Day, the New Paltz Shade Tree Commission, in conjunction with the Town of New Paltz, planted a 10 foot tall sugar maple tree on that corner.  Check out the action by clicking on this link.

     

    As this corner is one of the most visible spots in our school district, we thought it appropriate to put a modest monument to our school on this corner.  The Mohonk Mountain House and the Smiley Family have generously donated a large rock that we will place on the corner.  Metal letters saying “New Paltz Central School District” will be mounted to the rock and the rock will be surrounded by a flower bed.  Students in the high school PIGLETS (12th grade ELA and Social Studies) have offered to help with the landscaping of the flower bed.  LED lights will be mounted so that the rock is lit up at night.  The Interact Club, a philanthropic arm of the New Paltz Rotary Club, is interested in helping to put some benches in the area so people can rest there.  We anticipate that this grassy area and the rock will be a great place for NPCSD graduates to get their picture taken for years to come.

     



    Work has also been done behind the Middle School.  For years there have been two sets of three tennis courts there.  One set is functional but one set was in such rough shape that they were locked up and could not be accessed for safety reasons.  Over April break, our hard working facilities department took out the non usable set of tennis courts.  Soon we will have a grassy field where the MS students can recreate during recess.

     

     

    We are pleased that the grounds around the Middle School are looking so good.  As always, we encourage community members to take advantage of our beautiful facilities whenever possible.  For example, we are very excited to host the Hudson Valley Open Market on our middle school campus every Saturday from 10 AM to 3 PM throughout the summer and fall. We encourage everyone to come out and support them and to buy local.

     

    Recognizing our Valedictorian and Salutatorian

     

    At last night’s school board meeting we were happy to recognize our 2025 NPCSD valedictorian Charles A. DePoala and Salutatorian Brian Koji Oyama Tierney.  We congratulate them on their outstanding accomplishments.  Charlie and Brian are pictured here with some of their family members.

     



    Recognizing our Teachers and Administrators who were granted tenure

     

    At last night's school board meeting, the board granted tenure to some of our most outstanding young educators.  These individuals were recognized at last night's meeting.  Pictured below from left to right are Dr. Simms (HS Principal), Mr. Burger (HS Social Studies), Mr. Bremer (MS Special Education), Ms. Schenkman (MS Special Education), Ms. Albra (MS Special Education), Ms. Lennon (MS Social Worker), Ms. Friedland (Elementary Literacy and Reading), Ms. Cope (Elementary Special Education), Ms. Wild (Elementary Social Worker), Ms. Bryant (Elementary Literacy and Reading), Ms. Kosinski (Assistant Superintendent for Business), and Ms. Schneck-Suma (Assistant HS Principal)

     

     

    Congratulations to all of our most recent tenure recipients.  The future of the district is bright with educators like these.

     

    Recognizing our Retirees

     

    At last night’s school board meeting the board had the opportunity to recognize those employees who retired over the past year or who are scheduled to retire at the year’s end.  Pictured below are Ms. Bain (Transportation Dispatcher), Ms. Ricci (Assistant Transportation Director), Mr. Solcberg (Custodial), Ms. Cramer (Speech and Language Teacher), Ms. Makow (Elementary Teacher), and Ms. Thomas (Elementary Teacher).

     

     

    Not pictured but presumably off enjoying their retirement are Ms. O’Sullivan (PE Teacher), Ms. Sheldon (MS Principal), Ms. Gulitti (Elementary Teacher), Mr. Haas (Math and Computer Science Teacher), Mr. Hasbrouck (Groundskeeper), Ms. Tripp (MS Secretary), Mr. Bartells (Facilities), and Mr. Ramos (Custodial)

     

    These retirees were recognized because they retired in the last year.  However, I want to give a special shout out to a bus driver who retired back in June 2009, but continued to work for us as a sub bus driver until this past January.

     

     

    Bruce DuBois resigned from the district at the age of 75 after a combined 52 years and 1 day of service to the district as a bus driver.  What an impressive feat.

     

    Congratulations to all of our retirees.  Thank you for your dedication to the district.

     

    NPCSD Mock Trial Team has Big Success

     



    Lots Going On

     

    There is so much going on right now that I won’t be able to hit everything, but here are a few items that might interest you.  Let’s start with tonight’s concert at Duzine:

     

    Next week our NYSSMA soloists will be in the spotlight.

    The High School Art Show and Spring Concert will be held on May 20th.

     

    The High School is also collecting old recyclable water bottles as part of a project called “Plastic Fantastic”.  Here is what Assistant Principal Schneck has to say about the project.

     

    New Paltz High School will have a special immersive art installation outside of the cafeteria from May 28-June 16 called Plastic Fantastic. Students and staff have been working on collecting 6000 bottles to be used to create the installation. The goal of the project is to create a space of gathering, building community and giving back to the school with bottles collected going to be recycled and money will be donated to a local organization. Please help us collect bottles.

     

     

    Ms. Schneck is hoping that the community can help the school collect bottles.  When you come to the budget vote please bring along any recyclable bottles you would like to donate.  You can leave your donations outside the building by the gym door when you enter to vote.



    That concludes my update.  Thank you for reading and for being part of the community that supports our outstanding school.  Please let me know if you have questions or comments about anything you have read here.

     

    Best Wishes,

     

    Stephen Gratto - Superintendent

     

    P.S.  Don’t forget that there is no school tomorrow, May 9, for any students as this will be a professional development day for all staff.