NEW BERLIN – The Unadilla Valley Central School District decided not to waste another day as it kicked off the new school year on Tuesday. According to Frank Johnson, principal of the schools, the goal was to ensure enough time to fix any issues right away.
“The lockers are always the worst,” said Johnson. Schedules, layout, and the basic transition between grades created some confusion on the first day of school, but everyone at UV agreed that the year began without any significant hitches.
According to Superintendent Robert Mackey, the school district has undergone a number of changes this year as a result of the shifting Regents schedule and budget cuts resulting from state aid reductions.
One of the biggest changes was the appointment of Frank Johnson as sole principal of Unadilla Valley. Lee Supensky, previously the Middle School principal, has taken charge of pupil personnel services and the position of elementary school principal will remain un-filled following the previous principal’s retirement last year.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us to fit the changes,” said Johnson. “But we have an amazing staff here and I’m confident everything will fall into place.”
Mackey said that they also departmentalized math and English Language Arts for 4th and 5th graders, another significant change. This means that teachers in those grades will teach either math or ELA instead of both. Mackey explained that the decision was made to help teachers become experts on the subjects so that they might better help their students become experts. He said that these courses received the most emphasis by the state and required the most diligent attention.
The only program that was removed from the regular class schedule was driver’s education, said Mackey. He explained the class will get more focus during the summer but he still expects feedback from the community, particularly about the loss of a teaching position.
“When state aid keeps decreasing the way it has been, you can’t sock the taxpayer with an increase of 10 percent or more,” he said. “We are forced to find other ways to compensate and we end up looking at the electives first.”
