Camden Central School District -

A NOTE FROM DR. ROOT......

To The Camden Community,

We’ve hit the month of March, and time certainly has been flying by here in the Camden Central School District.

Our schools have been doing all they can to keep up with the brisk pace at this time of year. Our recent high school musical Oliver! was outstanding, our athletic teams turned in a remarkable winter, we continue to see success with career-focused program growth as you’ll see in this issue, and Camden Middle School just earned the amazing distinction of being named a Essential Elements National/NY State “School to Watch”.

Helping our students meet their goals has been a long-term goal for us. I want to take a moment to touch on a few milestones from the last five years that have taken us in that direction.

First and foremost, we needed some words to live by. A number of years ago, our Board of Education authored a new vision statement to stand by our mission statement: “Camden School District strives to be the heart of our communities where students come first.” Those words walked in step with the action we’ve taken.

We have prioritized student safety through robust security upgrades for building access and monitoring, including the human element of adding on-site school patrol officers in partnership with the Oneida County Sheriff's Office.

Keeping our students healthy and focused remains another priority for us. Whether it is Connected Community Schools, Mosaic Community Dentistry, our Community Eligibility Provision Lunch Program, or our work with community partners such as the Camden Life Center, we are continually working to ensure students and families are provided with the basic tools they need to thrive such as food, clothing, and access to mental health services. A healthy student is a successful student.

Camden Schools has made a significant commitment to provide any students struggling with academic or behavioral difficulties with the support they need. We have taken action on that commitment through the Multi-Tier System of Supports Framework. MTSS provides individualized, responsive, and actionable support plans for our students, and we have seen several students make tremendous progress through the use of this approach.

We have optimized communication to our families and community. We added direct communication through ParentSquare, and more widespread communication with our District Website and App launch last year. In addition, we are in our third year of publishing the Camden Connections newsletter you hold in your hand. Our Facebook page has also never been more active than it is right now. Combined, we have found all of this to present effective opportunities to keep you updated on what we’re doing, and celebrate our students in the manner they deserve.

As a District, we continue to seek opportunities to help improve instructional delivery and collaboration for our staff and students alike. As one example, we returned Team Teaching to the Middle School so that a group of students sees the same core group of teachers throughout the year. The team approach allows those teachers to plan lessons collaboratively and work to address student needs as a group.

Finally, we have worked extremely hard on our early childhood programming, and the Look at Me, I’m Three! program we launched last year has been integral to that. The program has been terrific for helping our youngest learners adapt to the school setting, and we have been able to give our incoming preschool families the support they need to ensure their students are ready to start their education.

Keep an eye out for the Budget Newsletter, coming soon!

Dr. Ravo Root
Superintendent of Schools