Again Thank You So Much for Coming to My Conferences Goodbye

To all members of the Urban center School District of Albany community:

As we come to the terminate of this very unique and often challenging school year, I would similar to have a few moments to say thank you.

Give thanks you to the Lath of Education for all of the leadership and support it has provided throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

Thank you to all of our administrators, faculty and support staff who pulled together to help our students and our families, and each other.

To anybody within our organization, give thanks you for your willingness to change direction at almost a moment'south notice when nosotros were forced to shut our buildings in March. We pulled together to completely rethink the way we practise business – from instruction to food service to technology to maintenance and operations.

Your daily messages to students, school- and commune-level communications, read-alongs, videos, parades and reverse parades, virtual promotion ceremonies and all of the other out-of-the-box ideas helped keep our students connected to schoolhouse.

Who will ever forget "The Masked Dancer," the virtual field solar day, the beautiful virtual rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" and the insightful daily Perspectives in Online Learning?

Cheers once more to our teachers, support staff and administrators for your delivery to our students and delivery of quality instruction. This work could non have been washed without you.

About every aspect of our professional lives changed due to this pandemic, and I am grateful for the way we responded. No matter how nosotros motion forrad nether the precautions that are still and so necessary due to this disease, nosotros know that we will never be the same.

The times we are experiencing will be the subject of history and economic science and social lessons for generations to come up. The work we are doing every day is groundbreaking, and it volition go along to be.

Out of necessity, yep.

But this crisis also has provided us with the opportunity to think nearly all aspects of our work differently. It has allowed us to examine how we tin can accept advantage of applied science to be more flexible in coming together the needs of every educatee.

Nothing will ever take away the need for, and the value of, the personal connections that are so vital to the work we practice. Notwithstanding, the creativity you have displayed in sustaining that work remotely has been exemplary.

That is non easy, and yous take been more than upward to the task.

I also would like to thank our students and families.

The pandemic has stressed all of us in every aspect of our daily lives. From an educational perspective, it took away the reassuring custom of a daily physical gathering at school and the comfort that came with that.

Suddenly, in its identify we had a alone and sometimes isolated experience. Aside from the serious wellness concerns of COVID-nineteen, this may accept been the biggest challenge of all.

Our students and families faced it with courage and resilience. I am grateful for that strength.

I would like to express my thanks to our community partners equally well. Whether it was organizing a team of volunteers to back up our meal distribution efforts, or donating thousands of numberless to help united states deliver Chromebooks and return materials to our students, our community was there in our time of need. Every bit information technology always is.

I would like to give thanks all of the nearly 11,000 Albany residents who returned ballots in this year'south very dissimilar budget vote and board election. I am thankful for the tape-setting participation, and the overwhelming support. Nosotros are so very beholden of the tremendous support of our customs. We do not take that support lightly as it is a direct indication of the confidence placed in our school commune to ensure that we are adjusting our program and delivery of didactics and support to come across the needs of our students and families.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the collective efforts of our district leadership team. Each division has been critical in the success of our transition to our online platform, and at present in the process of planning for re-opening in the autumn.

I begin with our support team in the Superintendent's Office: Paula Tibbitts, secretarial assistant to the superintendent, Tanya Bowie, lath and commune clerk, Kahla Kuchta, administrative secretary for the Uncomplicated Division, and Brittany Pierce, administrative secretarial assistant for the Secondary Division. These women are the backbone for the amazing work you are almost to hear about.

I extend accolades to the instruction unit, comprised of Cecily Wilson-Turner, Ed.D., and Lori McKenna, for their leadership at the schoolhouse and related department levels whereby all state and local guidelines were adhered to regarding the leadership of our edifice and departments to ensure that resources were allocated and utilized in the all-time interest of our students. Their leadership was unmatched through weekly bookish check-ins and daily updates to keep our administrators abreast of the many requirements that needed to exist met. They have been diligent in mentoring and working alongside our edifice leaders to coach them through the challenges of meeting the needs of kinesthesia, staff, students and families. They take been instrumental beyond the walls of the school edifice in connecting with diverse families who may demand boosted wraparound support and connections to community services.

I admit Karen Bechdol and the instructional supervisors. Without their commitment to professional person development and ongoing support to our coaches and teachers, we would not have been able to sustain the delivery of quality instruction and resource materials sent directly to our families via mail and/or pickup at our food distribution sites.

Many times, technology is simply visible when things go wrong. In the City School District of Albany, Kent Baker has led our Assessment, Accountability and Technology Innovation Division in a manner that put them in the spotlight as things are going right. Under his leadership, nosotros have distributed more than than 3,600 Chromebooks to students who needed devices and more than 200 hotspots to households where at that place was no Internet support. His division has provided professional person development both instructionally and technologically while maintaining a Help Desk-bound that responded to nearly vii,000 tickets for assistance during the COVID-xix schoolhouse closure. He has ensured that our board meetings, hearings, town hall meetings and upkeep vote were handled in an extremely professional manner. Kudos to bringing engineering science into the "light".

I as well acknowledge Eileen Leffler, who has been on the job with securing grant opportunities during the COVID-nineteen crisis. Through her work we have been able to fund summertime schoolhouse and provide learning opportunities that otherwise would have negatively impacted our upkeep. Her role is fifty-fifty more critical as we movement forrard with a limited budget. The grants we secure will provide opportunities for our students where funding is limited. During this fourth dimension, nosotros have had to address many concerns that impacted the well-being of our employees.

Matthew Petrin, our human resources administrator, has worked very closely with our legal team to address these matters through labor management, ceremonious service and partnering with each segmentation leader to ensure that the appropriate supports were made available for our teachers, support staff and administrators. We all empathize the stressors on our students and families; however, we must be here to take intendance of the grownups. Mr. Petrin worked with his team to answer to questions virtually COVID-19, healthcare, insurance, benefits and retirement to facilitate the processes needed.

To our newest member of Cabinet, Kimberly Rohring, deputy superintendent of business organization and finance, I express my sincere appreciation for accepting the monumental job of reorganizing the Business and Finance Division by restructuring the practices and processes in all areas of her supervision in a single year. Her commitment and attention to detail in the areas of payroll and accounting, purchasing, facility management, food service and maintenance and operations has been a heavy lift. However, the revamping of the entire division has put in identify the necessary structure and accountability needed to ensure the organization operates in a fiscally sound manner. We know that we will need to continue to tighten our chugalug as we motion frontwards, and with our enhanced checks and balances nosotros can and nosotros will continue to implement quality programs in a fiscally sound fashion.

Final but non least, the confront backside the district that makes us visible in our customs at large -- Ron Lesko and the entire Communication and Operations Division. From every daily update, video, Perspective in Online Learning, website story, Facebook and Twitter post, flyer, mailer, postcard, SNN, bus shelter advertisement and more, the time and attention to ensure that our commune is informing our public, engaging our families, and representing us for whom we actually are is outstanding!

These last few months have not been what any of us planned for. They have challenged usa and offered usa new opportunities every single mean solar day. Together, we have responded to the best of our ability and in the best interest of our students.

I can recall of no amend instance of what it means to be "All in for Albany!" For that, I am across grateful to all of you lot.

Kaweeda G. Adams
Superintendent

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Source: https://www.albanyschools.org/news/1683529/a-note-of-thanks

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