Staff Updates

I had an opportunity to interact with and listen to several educators this weekend including Commissioner of Education Rosa, and I want to take a moment to share some reflections that speak to our core values here at C-A and the incredible impact each of you makes every day.

Finding Joy and Perspective
One truth about working in education is that our students often “steal the show”—and that’s a wonderful thing. Their energy, curiosity, and spirit remind us daily why we do what we do.

Encouragement That Builds Confidence
I’m reminded of a phrase that carries power in every part of our lives: “Give yourself a chance.” Whether you’re trying a new strategy, tackling a challenge, or stepping into something unfamiliar, give yourself that chance. Believe in your ability to grow and succeed—just as we encourage our students to do.

Changing the Narrative About Schools
Too often, people outside our classrooms and hallways form opinions of schools based on their own past experiences rather than what’s happening now. It’s up to us to tell our story—loudly, proudly, and often. By sharing the real moments of joy, learning, and growth, we shape a more accurate and hopeful picture of public education.

Supporting Each Other
Our to-do lists are long, and the pace of our days can be demanding. It’s important to pause and recognize what’s been accomplished—not just what remains undone. Take time to celebrate progress, large and small. And as we remind our students to ask for help, we also need to ensure we’re supporting one another.

Celebrating the Power of Educators

You are not “just a teacher” or “just a staff member.” Every act of kindness, every lesson taught, every word of encouragement shapes lives and futures. The influence you have is lasting and profound.

Telling Our Story and Building Pride
Storytelling is one of our greatest tools for building community pride. Whether it’s sharing daily wins, recognizing staff, or celebrating students, these moments of joy remind everyone of what makes our schools so special. Simple things—photos, shout-outs, or school-wide celebrations—help our story take root and inspire others.

A Call to Action
Find joy. Celebrate one another. Share your story. Every time you do, you help create a more accurate, uplifting picture of what our school truly is—a community of caring, committed people changing lives every day.

Let’s continue to lift each other up, celebrate our wins, and remind the world of the extraordinary work happening here each day. As Commissioner Rosa reminded us of this, she referenced a song from The Hollies. Let's remember those lyrics:

"The road is long

With many a winding turn

That leads us to who knows where, who knows where

But I'm strong

Strong enough to carry him

He ain't heavy, he's my brother"

-The Hollies

Shout out to Cam Harris and Jessica Holt who participated in a BUDDY WALK this weekend with one of our students.

I'm proud to share that New York State is being recognized and awarded at the NAEA (National Art Education Association) Convention. Our Youth Art Month activities and social media outreach were featured in the state’s report, contributing to this exciting honor. A huge thank you to Elisa LaFay and everyone who helped showcase our participation.

Here is a slide deck from our partners at EAB that shares research back stratgegies for math recovery. The slides have several links for those of you who want to dive deeper into the work.

Due to the efforts of Emily Tashjian, we will be starting a consultation with the group, Behavioral Transformations, a licensed applied behavior analysis service. The consultant will provide the school district with support services for individuals with disabilities and/or social/emotional, cognitive, and/or behavioral challenges, including but not limited to implementation of specific assessments focusing on educational, behavioral, and social challenges for the purpose of developing an effective, least restrictive educational environment. Direct observations and interactions with individuals will help generate support plans that are data driven and specific, for staff members to effectively implement after being provided with training and consultations as needed.

Many of you may recall when we had Bill Daggett here to present to all of us on the future of eudcation. Here is a slide deck from a presentation he gave this weekend on artificial intelligence and schools.

Here is a summary of the slide deck I had Google Gemini create. The overall conclusion is that Transformation requires focusing on instructional strategies and instructional design, as "The issue is not curriculum," and ultimately, "Culture Trumps Strategy."

After reading “Sincerely Emerson,” a story about a girl that wrote a letter to her mail carrier, students in Mrs. Sunkes’ 5th grade class wrote letters to show appreciation to their mail carriers. To their surprise, many of our students received thank you notes and/or gifts back from their mail carriers. Here are a few photos to celebrate our kindness!

At the July 2025 Board of Regents meeting, the Board formally adopted the New York State Portrait of a Graduate, a critical milestone in NY Inspires, the Department’s implementation plan for transformative education. The Portrait offers a unifying vision of what it means to be a graduate in New York State, describing the essential skills and dispositions that all students should develop to succeed in college, careers, and civic life.

To ensure clarity and support stakeholders’ shared understanding of the Portrait, the Department developed “Need-to-Know” documents for students, parents, educators, administrators, and school board members.

These documents provide role-specific guidance on the Portrait and serve as foundational tools for stakeholder engagement, professional learning, and strategic planning.

The Hawk Hub has been updated to include new documents for the year. If for some reason it says you don’t have access please let Allison Leaonardo know. It now includes a new teacher page where you can find infinite campus videos.

This year's CAFE Gala will be NOVEMBER 8. Join us in celebrating our 7 honorees. This year we are inducting: Jean Cardany, Leslie Copleston, Raymond Magee, Darlene Mergendahl, Michael Rausch, Lewis Swyer, and James Warren. Tickets go on sale Sept 15th- Please reach out to Julie in the District Office to purchase tickets.

Betting on Brighter Futures on Nov 8th at 5pm down at the Wire Event Center. Food, drinks and dancing and help us to raise money for future grants at C-A.

Since 2012 the Coxsackie-Athens Foundation for Education has awarded over $170,000 in grants to support programming in the C-A Schools.

Grants will be awarded during three grant cycles:

• October 1st, January 1st, and April 1st.

  
  

Innovation Grants: The Coxsackie Athens Foundation for Education was formed to raise, manage and distribute financial and non-financial resources for educational enrichment. We have three grant cycles annually and you are invited to apply for funds by completing the attached application form.

Priorities will be given to projects that address the Foundation’s mission and are educationally enriching, innovative, creative and include a plan for continuation beyond Foundation support.

Mini- Grants: The Coxsackie Athens Foundation for Education (C.A.F.E.) is excited to announce that mini-grant applications will now be accepted. Mini-grants are in addition to the existing innovation grant program and C.A.F.E. will award up to 10 mini-grants in the amount of $200 (or less) on an annual basis. The purpose of the mini-grant is to provide opportunities to purchase smaller items that will have a big impact on our students. Examples might include books, supplies for a special art project, a speaking honorarium, subscriptions, or software tools.

Grants are open for this school year. Please go to the website and scroll down toward the bottom for the grant links. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

https://www.cacsd.org/page/coxsackie-athens-foundation-for-education-cafe

Whether you’re teaching content and want to integrate career exploration, entrepreneurship, or workforce preparedness skills, EVERFI’s digital lessons help students plan for and practice these skills. LEARN MORE HERE reach out to Stacey Hopkins our Career ambassador for support.

Prepare students for their financial future

Financial education is more than dollars and cents. It’s about establishing better spending habits, instilling confidence, and equipping the next generation with the real-world skills to manage financial goals and milestones.

EVERFI’s online financial education curriculum, training, and support are completely free to K-12 educators. reach out to Stacey Hopkins our Career ambassador for support.

Financial literacy instruction will be required in 26-27 by NYS and is already included as one of our life readiness indicators. At C-A we will be itegrating more financial literacy including assessing student proficiency into our content this year.

Purpose

Our anchor strategy, PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS states, “Students with Purpose are inspired to learn. The world has changed and a vision for college, career and citizenship readiness has emerged. Centered on the concept that each student will have a purpose and PATHWAY TO SUCCESS, we will have an uncompromising and relentless commitment to preparing students for college, career and citizenship; in other words, preparing students for their future. This will be accomplished by creating relevant learning environments, and interacting with the people working in the ecosystems of the career paths students are working towards.”

Therefore, we will inspire and prepare students for college, career, and citizenship readiness through comprehensive career exploration and pathway development. The program will help students discover their interests, skills, and preferences, and provide them with real-world experiences and guidance to prepare for their future careers.

READ MORE INCLUDING BUILDING LEVEL EXPECTATIONS for 2025-2026.

10/3: EARLY DISMISSAL- NOON

10/13: School Closed

10/25: Big Apple Crunch

The LINKS team have established draft goals for 2028. They are below.

2028

Student Performance Goals

In order for all students to graduate ready for their post-secondary lives, our performance goals for 2028 are:

Reading: 78% of students K-8 will be reading at or above grade level by 2028. This will be a 17% improvement from 2025.

Math: 78% of students K-9 will demonstrate grade level proficiency in math by 2028. This will be a 19% improvement from 2025.

Life Readiness:

1. 100% of students in grades 4, 8 and 12 will demonstrate readiness in a majority of the Life and career ready indicators;
2. The district will see a 11% improvement in the number of students with >=90% attendance by 2028.
3. A 10% improvement in the number of students who often or consistently demonstrate competence in a majority of the personal dispositions.

-Fred Rogers

We all learn in a variety of ways. Students should be able to demonstrate readiness in a variety of ways.

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Below are several resources that highlight the opportunities we offer ALL students. WE truly are a small school with BIG Opportunities!

1. Did you know that every student at C-A HS can have one early college course paid for in full by the district? The reduced tuition rates for all college courses allows many students to graduate with over 20 credits. Many of our alum are able to enter college as sophomores or graduate from a college a semester early saving thousands of dollars.
2. Our parternship with Questar III BOCES provides 23 offerings in career technical education pathways. Our students who complete these programs are ready to enter the workforce in a varirty of occupations and fields.

We believe ALL students CAn be life, career and college ready when they graduate from C-A. I very muhc apprecait the collaborative work taking place in all classrooms to ensure ALL students are self-directed and prepared to succeed in our global society.

• COMMENCEMENT READINESS INDICATORS DASHBOARD
• READINESS INDICATORS K-12 BOOKLET 2020 :
• EARLY COLLEGE PAMPHLET
• COLLEGE IN THE H.S. OFFERINGS
• CAREER TECH ED OFFERINGS

Like planning a road trip our 2030 DESTINATION, TIMELINE may change as detours pop up or new adventures present themselves.

Take a look. Our road trip will have some exciting mile markers that sustains and enhances the work we have started and will lead us to our 2030 Destination.

• Professional Learning Communities
• Growth Mindset
• Student Centered/Directed Learning
• Digital Conversion
• Pathways to Success

It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Muhheaconneok (Muhhekunneuw) or Mohican people and the Munsee Lenape people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, they now reside in Wisconsin and are known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.

Email: squierr@cacsd.org
Website: www.cacsd.org
Location: 24 Sunset Boulevard, Coxsackie, NY, USA
Phone: 518-731-1700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100043677108930&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Twitter: @coxathschools

Our new app is now available for download from the Apple Store and the Google Play Store. Keep up to date on all things C-A, right from your device. This app is designed to create easy access to Sports Schedules, Live Feed, Alerts, our Staff Directory and more!