Community Update August 11, 2023
August 11th, 2023
NCS Community:
I hope this message finds you well and that you have found time to enjoy all that summer has to offer. While the 2023-24 school year does not officially begin for several weeks, I’d like to provide our families with some important updates in relation to the start of the school year.
The first day of school for students will be on Tuesday, September 5th. Next week, you will receive information regarding bus schedules from our Transportation Department. Should any changes be necessary, you can reach out directly to Transportation at 374-7945. In addition, both the elementary school and JH/HS will be sharing building-based communications for both families and students regarding upcoming events. As always, we look forward to reconnecting with our students and families each September.
As many of you know, our High School Principal, Nicole Green, is on medical leave and of course her presence and leadership has been missed greatly. We continue to wish Nicole all the best with her treatment and recovery in the months ahead. In Nicole’s absence, Mr. Matt Mahoney will be serving as the Interim Principal at the JH/HS this year. Matt recently retired from the Gananda Central School District as their HS Principal, prior to that serving in various roles at both the middle school and high school levels. Matt resides in Canandaigua with his family and is quite familiar with Naples. Given these experiences and his work in a similar sized regional district, I believe Matt will serve as a steady hand for our staff, students, and families during the upcoming school year. He officially begins his role next week, and I know he is looking forward to developing relationships with the NCS community.
In regard to the NCS capital project, it has been a productive summer. In July, all classroom related asbestos work was completed at NES and the elementary playground was dismantled. This week, our Board of Education approved contractors for the project, and I am pleased to share with you that bids were very competitive. As you are aware, economic conditions over the past few years have driven up the cost of goods and services significantly and this forced our district to reduce the scope of our initial project plans.
Given the favorable bid outcomes, we were able to add back in to the project several alternates including all work in the NES gymnasium and two additional classroom renovations at NES. Large scale work on athletic fields will not occur during this project nor will the adult fitness component of the NES playground and this was fully anticipated going into the bid phase of the project. Work on the HS Auditorium and NES classrooms will begin within the next few weeks and it is our hope to have the new playground installed by late fall should all equipment be available. Invariably, this construction work will present some change and disruption for students, staff, and community over the next year, however, we know this work will create state of the art educational spaces that our students, staff, and community will enjoy for decades to come.
As with most district across New York State, staffing issues remain a constant. As I share this message, NCS stands on solid ground in terms of staffing both with our teaching staff as well as our support staff.
At this point in time, all elementary school staff have been hired and are in the process of filling vacancies for several HS positions (vocal music and school nurse). We are optimistic these positions will be filled within the next week. I appreciate the work our administrative team does in supporting the important process of hiring highly qualified staff members.
Thank you for the continued support you provide our district and your children. Continue to enjoy the remaining weeks of summer, and please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or your child’s principal should you have any questions about the upcoming school year.
Sincerely,
Kevin Swartz
NCS Superintendent
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