Sept. 7, 2011—As a new school year gets underway, Schalmont school officials continue to focus on building unity, pride and a sense of community throughout the district's three school buildings.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, faculty and staff came together for a series of team-building exercises during the first professional development day of the school year.

The fun and interactive exercises were designed to help colleagues get to know each other better and help ease the transition for those individuals set to take on new teaching assignments and/or entering a different school building this year.

The staffing changes were made following the school board's decision to close the district's two smallest elementary schools and relocate fifth-graders to the middle school due to declining enrollment, decreasing state aid and rising operating costs.

"With the reconfiguration of our schools, it’s essential we have positive working relationships between all staff," said Bronson Knaggs, director of the Schalmont Teachers Institute. "We wanted to provide them with the opportunity to start building a greater sense of community." Knaggs, along with Tiffany Wood, Marty Rossner, Becky Remis, Elisa Pepe, Deb McCloskey and Jackie Gordon, was instrumental in creating the hands-on program.

Each exercise was based on instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom. They also demonstrated the value of teamwork—something that will be more essential than ever this year in light of the new school configuration.

"As people move into new work environments they bring fresh eyes with different perspectives that will help us learn and grow from each other," said Knaggs. 

Superintendent Dr. Valerie Kelsey echoed the importance of collaboration during her welcoming remarks to the entire faculty and staff. She stressed the importance of creating a school community that welcomes all students, especially those who have endured personal crisis over the past few weeks.

Kelsey encouraged staff to get to know each other better and remain positive as they face a complete change to the state's educational system, including a property tax cap, new teacher-principal evaluation system and new state assessments—all in the wake of three natural disasters in just one week.

"The only way to deal with this many things at once is to prioritize and do things slowly and systematically," said Kelsey.

She urged faculty and staff to find humor and satisfaction in their accomplishments and make a choice to be happy.

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