The school environment is safe and secure and students are equipped with the skills to confidently navigate their complex lives.
Goal: Implement board-approved recommendations from the district safety and security task force.
- The district continued such safety enhancements as adding more security measures at building entrances and cameras across the district, as well as providing additional staff training related to school intruders.
- An agreement was worked out with the Town of Manlius that will take effect in September 2020 allowing the district to participate in the hiring of two Special Patrol Officers (peace officers) to join the district’s existing School Information Resource Officer program, which includes three full-time Manlius police officers. One Special Patrol Officer will be based at Mott Road Elementary and the other will be at the high school.
Goal: Design and develop learning spaces that support student inquiry, innovation and collaboration.
- The district’s 2017 voter-approved capital project includes learning spaces that support student inquiry, innovation and collaboration. Both Enders Road Elementary School and F-M High School in fall 2019 unveiled new state-of-the-art learning spaces for their students.
- The high school’s library media center was completely renovated, and the 9,000-square-foot multi-functional space includes versatile seating options like upholstered chairs, height-adjustable standing desks and lounge seating, new conference rooms that can accommodate discussion groups of various sizes, a communal creative space and a digital learning center.
- At Enders Road, a new approximate 4,000-square-foot addition to the back of the school was unveiled in the fall. While the new space adds three new much-needed classrooms in addition to faculty offices and restrooms, it also houses an enrichment learning center and a makerspace to fuel student learning and creativity.
- Construction began in spring 2020 on the Wellwood Middle School campus, and plans for work there include creating more collaborative spaces for students and staff to interact.
Goal: Enhance mental health instruction and develop social-emotional learning opportunities to support all students in an inclusive and flexible school setting.
- F-M High School launched a successful therapy dog program with one dog visiting the school twice per week. There are three additional dogs in training; two that will be based at the high school and the third at Enders Road Elementary.
- A group of high school staff members invited the community to join them in a community read that centered around supporting children in becoming independent and emotionally strong adults. They also organized a free community event featuring a guest speaker who talked about student stress and anxiety.
- The district held two Wellness Days, which offer students opportunities to participate in activities that focus on their physical and mental health and wellness. The first was held in January, and the second took place virtually in May, when students and staff members were headed into their third month of remote instruction.
- Staff members coordinated several Parent Information Nights for families to hear from, and talk with, district and community experts on the mental health and well-being of students and strategies to help students cope with stress and anxiety.
- The elementary schools and Wellwood Middle School implemented the Second Step program, which provides strategies for staff to implement social-emotional learning into the existing school curriculum and day. Staff reported that students learned strategies for recognizing and self-regulating their emotions and to self-calm, as well as how to better manage conflicts with each other.
Goal: Investigate building programs and schedules that enrich student health and wellness and promote the development of the whole child.
- District officials investigated changing school start times based on an American Medical Association policy statement and other research that middle and high school start times begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The district is working with Children’s National Health System, which is based in Washington, D.C. and specializes in a range of pediatric services and research, including sleep as it relates to school start times. The consultants issued a parent survey on the topic to gather feedback, and F-M’s transportation department staff have been studying how various start times would affect bus routes and whether the district would need more buses if it changed start times. Public meetings had been planned for spring 2020 to discuss the consultant’s findings to date; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those meetings have been put on hold and will be rescheduled.
- A high school committee is exploring potential schedule changes that would allow for a focus on college and career readiness, lunch/open time, fewer and longer periods and shifting the end-of-day activity to the middle of the day, which would allow more students to participate in student clubs or meet with staff members for extra academic assistance.
- An elementary-level committee completed preliminary research on the benefits and challenges of flexible scheduling to support differentiated academic growth and inquiry-based instruction.
- Character education remained a focus district wide. Wellwood and Eagle Hill middle schools implemented the Positivity Project, which focuses on building positive relationships and inspiring students to be their best selves and has been in place at the high school for several years. Fayetteville Elementary School teachers incorporated aspects of the Positivity Project into their classrooms, and Enders Road made kindness a priority in such ways as drafting a new school pledge rooted in kindness and selecting classroom literature with kindness themes.