Cortland Schools

Dear Cortland Families,

As we welcome the month of April, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for the continued support and dedication of our staff, students, and community. I have had the opportunity to listen in on a number of teacher team meetings in the past few weeks, and our continued focus on student learning and achievement is as strong as ever. This spring season brings renewed energy and exciting opportunities for growth, learning, and connection. In this month's newsletter, you'll find important updates on upcoming events, initiatives, and the continued progress we're making in providing a high-quality education for all of our students.

In addition to all of the hard work that our teachers and administrators are engaged in, I also want to draw your attention to the other "business" of the Spring. That is, to prepare our budget and programs for the 2025-2026 school year. April is typically our month for communicating about our budget realities and to wrestle with planning for the Board Election and Budget vote - that vote takes place on May 20th, from 11:00 am till 8:00 pm. Please keep your eyes and ears open for budget information that will be coming out this month and early in May.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership in making Cortland Enlarged City School District a vibrant and thriving place for learning. Let’s continue to work together to make this spring a successful and memorable one!

Sincerely,

Bob Edwards

The Weekly News Blast features CHS seniors talking about after graduation plans.

April is here!!! We ended the month of March with the character trait of Humor. Our students had to hear some of my pretty bad “Dad jokes” all week. We will be digging into the character trait of, “Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence” to start the month. In the second week we will talk about the importance of Integrity. The main focus of that week will be about doing the right thing and being honest, even if no one is watching. The quote that sums that week up is; “Being Honest will not always get you a lot of friends, but it will get you the right ones”. Enjoy the week off (April 14th through the 21st) in the middle of the month!

The month of April includes many important things to be aware of; Autism Acceptance Month, Stress Awareness Month, Alcohol Awareness Month, ChildAbuse Prevention Month & Distracted Driving Awareness Month

Registration for Modified Spring Sports has been open since March 8th and will close on April 5th at midnight before the season starts on April 7th.

Modified Boys and Girls Lacrosse will include 7th-9th graders (due to no JV teams) if 9th graders did not make the Varsity team, and Modified Outdoor Track, Softball and Baseball will include 7th and 8th graders only.

Unified Basketball is also accepting registrations for students in grades 9-12.

Please remember to register before registration closes on April 5th so that our nurses have time to approve athletes for practice by April 7th. Students are not allowed to practice without approval from our school nurses on Family ID.

If you have any issues with Family ID, please contact Peggy at mpartigianoni@cortlandschools.org.

The Cortland Esports season is already halfway over and our teams are fighting hard to maintain playoff positions in their respective leagues. With trophies and thousands of dollars of scholarship money on the line, the students are battling for success each week!

The Chess team has overcome some tough lineup changes and maintains a .500% record moving into week 6. Playing against some of the top-rated private schools across New York State, our Purple Tigers continue to castle, sacrifice, and checkmate their way down the final stretch.

Led by Captain Matt Wells, the Splatoon 3 team went from 0-3 to start the season to 4-3 just this past week! Several weapon changes and new strategies have propelled this team to one of the hottest in the league! No lineup seems to be able to slow our crew down.

Our Street Fighter 6 team in its first ever season remained undefeated for 4 straight weeks and only suffered one loss so far marking them as clear favorites to move deep in the playoffs. Team members Raziel Walker, Peyton Kelley, Caelan Constantino, Jacob Creech, and George Partigianoni all embody the spirit of this new team and its successes!

Always looking for new talent, our Rocket League crew has battled this whole season. Their skill is noticeable even as they lose a match down a player by only a single point. They enter this week still ranked in the upper half of the over 100-team league!

Hearthstone’s unique 3-person leadership setup has led to some spectacular teamwork in an otherwise 1v1 card game. Cooper Brown, Matt Wells, and Dominick Brown have kept our award-winning program alive and moving forward!

Mario Kart 8 is a runaway success with our team of players led by veteran racers Saya Gringrich and Colin Honan dominating their competition across the country. Toward the top of their league, MK8 is leaving everyone else in their dust!

Last, we have Smash Bros. With 4 years of playoff success and continual growth, we have been invited to participate in the ultimate New York State tournament with an almost $10,000 prize for the winning team. In only week 4, all 3 of our teams are in the top-20 Statewide. With seniors (like Tyler Bennett) and 7th graders (like Jacob Creech and George Partigianoni) alike playing on these teams, we field some of the best Smash Bros. players the state has to offer.

Good luck for the rest of the season Tigers!

On March 17 and 18, physics classes from Cortland High School visited the Biomechanics Laboratory at SUNY Cortland Professional Studies for National Biomechanics Day. This nationwide movement started by the American Society of Biomechanics promotes the partnering of universities with local high schools to foster interest in the field. Kevin Dames (faculty) and Aaron Jones (graduate student) coordinated with Anthony Canestaro (Cortland High Physics Teacher) to put on the event. The high schoolers learned how to apply principles from their physics education (e.g., free body diagrams, action-reaction, force, and torque) to a human problem: postural control. Upright standing is an inherently unstable posture that requires constant awareness of one's body position and organization of muscle actions to keep the center of mass over the base of support. The students diagrammed the mechanical system, discussed sensory input and how muscles produce force to adjust the body, and then tested their balance skills in a concussion protocol called the Balance Error Scoring System. This assessment tests feet together, single limb, and tandem foot stances on a rigid surface and again on a foam pad. Students took turns performing the test and scoring their partner's balance with the standardized rubric to explore how perturbing sensory and/or motor systems affect their postural control.

The History Club is excited to announce its 2nd annual overnight field trip. After a successful educational trip last spring to Washington DC, this year the club will be traveling with 40 high schoolers to Boston in late May to soak up Boston’s history and culture.

Members of the CHS Science Honor Society recently hosted a successful science night for the elementary students, sharing their love of science through exciting experiments and demonstrations.

The event was a resounding success, with elementary students and their families enjoying the stations the Honor Society students prepared for them covering different branches of science. Stations included digging for fossils, making floam, looking at pond water critters, creating a bead bracelet based on their traits and more. The SHS members did a great job explaining scientific concepts to the younger students and the enjoyment of the elementary students was visible in their faces.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to all those who helped make the night a success!

Eastman School of Music in Rochester hosts one of the best Choral Conducting programs in the entire country. This summer Tyler Meade Young, the Cortland JSHS choral director, will be participating in Eastman School of Music's Summer Conducting Institute. "Being accepted into this summer institute at Eastman and having the opportunity to work individually with the top professionals in my field is a gift. I am looking forward to learning new ways to approach teaching in the choral field and am thankful to the Cortland School District for their support in my professional growth," said Mr. Meade Young. The institute is a week-long conducting intensive program where only a handful of choral conductors, selected by resume review, work with some of the top professional choral conductors in the country to enhance their conducting and pedagogical skills. Participants also work with an in-house professional choir on Brahms' German Requiem, a 80 minute choral masterwork, and lead a community choral event at the end of the program. This program is a great professional accomplishment and opportunity for a young music educator and reflects the excellence that the choral program is dedicated to having under Mr. Meade Young's leadership.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Cortland NYSSMA Festival on March 29th! It was a great day of music with a lot of wonderful solos and duets.

Several staff and students were presented Tiger Paw Awards at the March 25th Board of Education meeting.