Cortland Enlarged City Schools

This week's blast features the All County Music Festival. Click on the photo below to see the News Blast.

Students across the district are enjoying being outside in the sunshine!

The Cortland Girls Varsity Basketball Team closed their season with a trip to the final four in the Class B State Finals. This girls team was the most successful team in the program's history with 21 wins and 5 losses. The NY State Sportswriters Assoc. ranked the team in the top 5 in Class B and they showed the state that they were certainly one of the top teams to compete against. The CHS Lady Tigers completed their season ranked 3rd in the state!

This team made the Cortland community very proud. Our HS administration arranged for two buses of students to travel to the State finals to cheer our athletes on at the game, as well as a watch party in the gym (pictured below) for students who stayed at the school. Our students rooted for their fellow students and the entire experience created an awesome sense of camaraderie at the JSHS. This team has set a standard for teams in the years to come and we look forward to what comes next for this fantastic team!!

Some of our 6th graders participated in the NYSSMA festival at Cortland High School on Saturday, March 25th. They worked hard to prepare a solo or duet to perform for an adjudicator for feedback. Congratulations to Miles Bacigalupi, Daniel Caragher, Emmaleigh Eckstrom, Autumn Horton, Reid Kline, Kaylee Loveall-Whittin, Abigail Martin, and Maggie Ramiza for their hard work and preparation for this festival!

All County: The Cortland All-County Band rehearsed on Thursday, April 13th and then performed for the community that night at the high school.

5th/6th Grade Band: All band students have started a clean slate with the new trimester in terms of lesson attendance - please encourage students to keep up with their lessons so there isn’t a mad rush for make-up lessons at the end of the trimester! Rehearsals for both groups are going well, and we’re looking forward to our spring concert in May!

Over the Spring Recess work was done on the JSHS upper and lower gyms. In the upper gym a new center logo was painted and the floor will be screened and recoated. In the lower gym the same center logo was painted, and the whole floor was recoated and lines re-screened.

On March 31st JH students and staff took part in the first SEL Volleyball Tournament for exemplifying the attributes of the ROAR matrix through our new incentive program.

The tournament included 19 teams of students and staff that worked towards common goals, one of which was how to work together by exemplifying the attributes of the ROAR matrix. The final winning team of the tournament was Team B!

After the game, students and staff watched as teachers participated in activities such as having their make-up done by students, singing theme songs from their favorite childhood TV shows, attempting to assemble a bassoon in less than a minute, and taking pies to their faces. This event was a great way to celebrate all of the hard work done by students in the Junior High, and was enjoyed by all!

On Wednesday, March 29, 2023 the Junior High and Senior High Concert Bands traveled to New York City for the day. Upon arrival students had some time to take in the sights and do a little souvenir shopping. Next, they headed to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square for lunch, where they were surrounded by music industry paraphernalia like a costume once worn by Prince and Bill Clinton’s tenor saxophone.

After lunch the groups walked to the Minskoff Theatre to see a production of The Lion King. During intermission students went down to the front of the theater, and peered in over the edge of the pit. They were in awe to see the live musicians at work. It was a world-class show, and students had an incredible time!

The Senior High Concert Band is performing a medley of songs from The Lion King at their spring concert. This event is scheduled for May 17, 2023, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Come hear them play!

On Saturday, April 1st, the Cortland Jr.-Sr. High School Makerspace went to the 2nd Annual Syracuse Maker Faire to show off some of their amazing creations once again. Like last year, our group themed itself around “Low-Tech” and showed off some of the fun interactives than can be built with some cardboard engineering skills. This year we brought a popsicle stick archery course, a cardboard Skee-Ball machine, a full-on Rocket League arena, laser mazes, 3D printed chess, and a display about our successful near-space balloon launch, Operation Sci-Fly.

Our booth had over 500 visitors in the five hours we were there and everyone was on point showing off their own and each other’s creations. Some of our students even made a cardboard gumball machine backpack to advertise our booth while they walked around the event to great success! The 20 students from the Jr-Sr High School along with a delegation from Randall Middle School all greatly enjoyed walking the Faire and seeing some amazing creations and STEM offerings in the region. Though in the end, it seemed everyone had the most fun back at our own booth and enjoying our successes.

Thank you to everyone who attended and has supported the Makerspace and our amazing projects!

A very large THANK YOU to Mr. Perfetti who donated $1,000 to the Junior High Social Emotional Learning Committee. This donation will benefit the Tiger Tokens program which recognizes students for illustrating ROAR behavior!

When you think of the library, what comes to mind? Books, books, and more books? Yes, Cortland Free Library has a lot of those, and we’re proud of our collection. However, “Books are just the beginning” is our slogan for a reason: books are just the beginning of what you’ll find here, and just the beginning of what libraries are about. Libraries are about literacy, education, and discovery; community needs and partnerships; and they are about growth.

On Tuesday, May 16th, the library’s budget will be on the same ballot as the Cortland Enlarged City School District for your vote. For the first time, the Cortland Free Library is asking for more than a 2% increase. The library wants you to understand what that means, so to learn more about our budget, expenses, history of our funding structure, reasons behind the increase, and exciting projects on the horizon, please visit https://cortlandfreelibrary.org/funding-value/.

Youtube Commercial for the concert: LINK

Registration forms are available for the Cortland Schools Universal Pre-K Program (UPK) at the Kaufman Center and in the UPK Centers.

To be eligible your child must reside in the Cortland Enlarged City School District and have a birth date between 12/2/18 and 12/1/19. For more information on programs locations and the registration process, call (607) 758-4125.

Please call (607) 758-4106 to register your child by May 12, 2023. Other important dates are listed below.

The CECSD Board of Education meeting dates and times are posted on the district website and are open to the public and all are welcome. The highlights below include some of the topics that have been discussed at the most recent meeting:

Smith School Presentation… The March Board of Education meeting was hosted by Smith Intermediate School and student musicians entertained all in attendance. Presentation were given by music teachers Alison Capano, Heidi Shelley and Nick Murray. Reading and Math Specialists Tony Caravella, Jill Ruggiero, Tom Vakka and Jody Mashlykin along with Principal Angela Wanish shared information about transforming the Smith Intermediate School reading instruction and the techniques used to help students.

Tiger Paw Recipients... At the March 21st meeting, Alisha Bulger presented a Tiger Paw to Stephanie Eddy for always going above and beyond in her work, for being a great team member and always putting others’ needs before her own. Heidi Brown recognized Rhonda Moore as a Tiger Paw recipient for her work as a Teacher Aide and for all the extra activities she supports in Unified Sports. Congratulations Stephanie and Rhonda!

Budget Presentations... Kris Williamson, Business Administrator, continued the budget presentation cycle this month focusing on revenues. The meeting also included a consideration to approve a budget over the tax levy cap. The public can learn more about these topics the budget process and more by accessing the Board Docs section of the district website and by attending the public hearing on Tuesday, May 9th at 6 p.m. in the Junior Senior High School.

Staff / School Board Events... The School Board members have enjoyed the opportunity to meet and talk with teachers and staff at the morning breakfasts that have been held so far at Randall, Barry and Smith as well as an afternoon gathering at the Junior High school.

BOE Committee Meetings… Sub-Committees of the Board meet Tuesday evenings from 5:30-7:30 at the Kaufman Center and are, as always, open to the public. The next set of meetings will take place on Tuesday, April 25th in the Kaufman Center.

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 17th at 6:00 p.m. in the Junior Senior High School Auditorium.