Canisteo-Greenwood Central School District

As many of you know, with the Mascot Committee's recommendation, along with the NY Board of Regents requirement, the CG Board of Education passed a resolution to retire the Redskins mascot at the end of this school year. In preparation for this possibility, during their original work, the Mascot Committee designed a selection process that the district will now follow to select a new mascot. Here is the timeline for the selection of a new mascot: - ALL community members are welcome to submit their ideas to the Mascot Committee starting today through May 3rd, 5pm. (link below) - the Mascot Committee will meet to review the submissions from the community and select a number of mascots to be considered. - Starting May 8th, the students will be voting each Monday using a tournament style bracket (Mascot Monday). Depending on the amount of mascot names to be considered, this process is projected to take approximately 4 weeks. - the new mascot will be announced to the community sometime in mid-June. - once a new mascot is chosen, the district will be working to create a new logo over the summer with individuals who recommended the winning mascot (why we are asking your name in the survey) This timeline will allow the district to begin its 2-year rebranding process and start as early as next fall. We are humbled and honored to be able to involve the entire community in this selection process. Although our mascot is changing, the qualities that make CG students, staff, and alumni are not changing. We urge you to submit ideas that embody these qualities and you would feel proud of our students wearing. Please take a few moments and fill out the survey below. If you know of someone who may not see this message, please pass the link to them so they may be able to submit ideas and not miss out on the opportunity. https://forms.office.com/r/vcnUdaTMNq Yours in service, Tom

Dear CG Families, Recently the district learned that the City of Hornell, who have provided Advance Life Support (ALS) services or ‘paramedics,’ to our community no longer has a current service agreement with our village. ALS services are governed by a Certificate of Need, a document that establishes the legal boundaries for ambulatory services across different communities. The Village of Canisteo’s Certificate of Need covers the village itself, the Town of Canisteo, and the Town of Hartsville. In the past, the City of Hornell’s ALS has worked closely with our communities' volunteer emergency services to help provide the most rapid and comprehensive responses to medical crises. Without a current service agreement, Hornell can no longer provide this rapid lifesaving care and emergency response to these communities. In an effort to ensure the safety of our students and staff during school days, the district reached out to the City of Hornell to inquire about contracting for ALS directly. Unfortunately, after research and investigation we have determined that the district is not legally able to contract with the City of Hornell because it exists within the boundaries of the Village of Canisteo’s Certificate of Need. The district will continue to work diligently to return this added measure of safety and access to rapid lifesaving care on behalf of your students and our staff. However, we are at the mercy of negotiations between the City of Hornell and the Village of Canisteo currently. Yours in Service, Tom Crook, Superintendent of Schools Canisteo-Greenwood Board of Education

Dear CG Community, As you know, over the past few years, we have been discussing the use of the Redskins mascot. After initially being contacted by the Seneca Nation and being informed that the State Education Department may have been acting to eliminate Native American themed mascots, we decided to form a Mascot Committee of community members, staff, and students. Beginning in September 2022, these 18 volunteers did some fantastic work and made sure our community was provided with the opportunity to speak openly regarding this topic. Through a survey which garnered over 100 responses, and two open community meetings, it was determined that public consensus was open to retiring the mascot. On November 17th, the day immediately following our last community meeting, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) released a memo stating that all New York school districts with Native American mascots and imagery must end their use by the end of this school year. NYSED allowed a 60-day comment period on this memo. On April 18th, after the conclusion of the comment period and reviewing the comments, the Board of Regents unanimously voted to require districts to drop their Native American mascots and imagery no later than June 30th, 2023. In response to the work of the committee and their findings, along with the Board of Regents requirement, the Canisteo-Greenwood Board of Education passed a resolution to retire the Redskins mascot effective June 30th, 2023, at the April 19th Board Meeting. In preparing for this as a potential outcome, the Committee had developed a process for stakeholders to assist in selecting a new mascot. I will contact the committee this week asking them to assist in their proposed selection process. We are hopeful that with community input of new mascot ideas and the students selecting the new mascot through weekly voting, we will be able to announce to our community a new mascot by the end of the school year. I want to personally thank the community for your involvement and support through this tough process. Although our mascot may change, the great qualities that make CG and its students, staff, and alumni special will not. We will continue to cultivate greatness and be committed to the success of our students, staff, and alumni. Yours in service, Tom

Parents/Guardians, Due to unused snow days all Canisteo-Greenwood Schools will be closed on Friday, June 9th. Thank you.

Parents/Guardians Due to unused snow days all Canisteo-Greenwood Schools will be closed on Monday, April 10th and Friday May 26th.

If you are the parent/guardian of an athlete who is participating in a sport this Spring, please log onto Operoo and fill out athletic forms. Thank you and enjoy your weekend.

IMPORTANT SCHEDULE CHANGE: Tomorrow’s Girls' Basketball Sectional Final game in Rush-Henrietta will now be a 6:00pm start. Spectator bus will leave the high school at 4:30. Tomorrow’s game is digital ticket only. https://gofan.co/app/events/836905?schoolId=NYSPHSAAV

Please find the link for tonight's Girl's Semi-final game. Go CG https://www.youtube.com/live/q-9h3ZO0wXk?feature=share

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Tomorrow’s Boys' Sectional Basketball game against Geneseo will be played @ Cal-Mum. The game will start 7:00pm.

Good evening, Out of an extreme abundance of caution regarding the norovirus that is rapidly spreading through our students and staff, the High School will also be operating remotely tomorrow and Friday. Students are to follow their bell schedule remotely in Teams and attendance will be taken. There will be no students attending BOCES. All after school activities will tentatively continue as scheduled and students must attend virtually to be able to participate. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Dear Elementary Parents/Guardians, Due to an incredible amount of illness in the elementary school, the District has decided to have the Elementary School go REMOTE for Thursday, February 16th AND Friday, February 17th. There is a stomach bug that is running rampant throughout the staff and students. Today we have close to 200 absences between the students and staff, with a nurse’s suite full of sick students. The students will be asked to take their devices home today in preparation for the next 2 days. Teachers will be asked to push out academics and can schedule times for students to remote into the classroom. The day will start at 10am and will have scheduled blocks of ELA and Math. Please be on the lookout for messages from the teachers through the SeeSaw platform. We will take time next week to do a deep cleansing and disinfecting of the school. Please make sure that your child brings their device back after the break. We apologize for the inconvenience that this may cause for some of our families but with close to 40% of our student and staff population out and rising, we feel that it is in the best interest of all. Please know I did not make this decision lightly. Yours in service, Tom

Due to reports of icy roads in multiple locations, Canisteo-Greenwood will be operating on a 2 hour delay for Thursday, February 9th.

As County Basketball Tournaments start this week, this is a reminder that there is a $2.00 admission fee to all JV and Varsity County Tournament games

When CG cancels after school activities, the Fitness Center will be closed as well.

Due to projected rain and temperatures hovering around 32 degrees this afternoon , ALL after school activities are canceled for Wednesday, January 25th.

Please be patient this morning with our buses. Many are navigating icy conditions and are waiting for assistance from the sanders.

To pay tribute to long-time CG family member , Stacy Bacon, who spent 28 years serving our children and community, we are asking students and staff to wear either Buffalo Bills or CG attire to school, Friday, January 6th. She loved her Bills and CG Family!

Next Wednesday's Dual Meet Wrestling Sectionals in Pal-Mac will be digital ticketing only. Please click on the link to purchase your tickets prior to attending the event. LET'S GO CG and bring home another title! https://gofan.co/app/events/836952?schoolId=NYSPHSAAV

Due to the impending storm and its uncertainty, Canisteo-Greenwood Central School is closed today, Thursday, December 15th.

Good evening, Although deep down I knew that this day would eventually come, I wasn't expecting it to be in the middle of our work with the Mascot Committee and community involvement through a survey and community meetings. My goal was to provide the community the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns around the use of the Redskins mascot and assist the committee in providing feedback to make a recommendation to the Board of Education. I wanted you to hear from me first, before it breaks in the news cycle, that the State Education Department just released a memo to all schools regarding the use of Native American Mascots. I will summarize the memo to let you know that "those districts that continue to utilize Native American team names, logos, and/or imagery without current approval from a recognized tribe must immediately come into compliance (referring back to a 2001 memo from then Commissioner to change Native American mascots and the current Dignity Act)...."should a district fail to affirmatively commit to replacing its Native American team name, logo, and/or imagery by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, it may be in willful violation of the Dignity Act. The penalties for such a violation include the removal of school officers and the withholding of State Aid". In all fairness to the committee and their time, I will recommend that we "finish" our work and review the survey results and community meeting feedback. I think it will be fair for the community to know how those results transpired. We have come to far to stop. I am sure there will be much conversation in the upcoming days and I will have some time to process this, but you needed to know before it hit the news cycle tonight. Yours in service, Tom