Spring 2012

Dear Students, Parents, and Community Members,

Welcome to Cayuga Elementary School’s website!  I am very proud to be the principal of this fine school.  The teachers and staff at Cayuga have a truly spectacular reputation for promoting a love of learning among the students. 

Cayuga Elementary School hosts kindergarten through fifth grade and educates approximately 660 students from the communities of Lake Grove and Lake Ronkonkoma.  With a combined focus in the academic areas as well as the arts, Cayuga graduates move onto Samoset Middle School as well-rounded learners.  Through a challenging curriculum and high expectations for all, we strive to help each and every student be the very best they can be.

The school year is certainly flying by and I hope that this second issue of the Cayuga Chatter finds everyone well.  I trust that your holidays were joyous and full of happy times with family and friends.  It is hard to believe that we are halfway through this school year.  Before we know it, New York State testing will be upon us and June will quickly follow!

Please be sure to read the message on the next page about our initiative to “go green”.  It is our belief that this will be a much more cost effective and timely method of communicating with our community.  Thank you to those of you who have already signed up!
We are excited to include our fourth grade students in this year’s Science Fair!  In the past, only fifth graders conducted individual experiments for this annual event with the Kindergarten - Fourth grade classes working together to create class projects.  We believe that this additional year of experience working on their own with the Scientific Method will help our 4th graders develop an earlier interest in science topics, as well as provide another opportunity for them to further develop their higher order thinking skills.  Please visit the Cayuga website for an informative PowerPoint presentation on how to help your child with their science project.

Our staff has been working diligently on becoming familiar with the newly adopted Common Core Standards.  The standards are college and career-ready and will help to prepare students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in education and training after high school.  The standards are internationally benchmarked and will help ensure our students are globally competitive.  The standards are focused, coherent and clear, which will help students (and parents and teachers) understand what is expected of them.  More information will be forthcoming as we make this shift for next school year, but you can always visit www.engageny.org in the meantime.

As planned, our “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” parent presentations are in full swing at our PTA Meetings.  The number of parents attending seems to grow with each meeting we hold, so if you have missed the first few - don’t worry, we can catch you up to speed!  I’m sure that the parents who have attended so far can attest to the fact that a greater focus on these principles will help in our professional and personal lives!  We would love to see you there!  Special thanks to many of Cayuga’s wonderful teachers and students for the work they have put into planning and delivering these presentations!

This year, Cayuga is going to “Go Green!”  Our goal for September 2012 is to post all school notices on our website.  An email notification will also be sent to all families with a live link that will take you to the actual document once they are posted.  (Rest assured, paper copies of notices will be made available to those who prefer hard copies.) During this school year, we are going to begin using the email system while continuing to send notices in paper form.  This will allow us to maintain a consistent level of communication while working out any “kinks” at the same time.  In addition to being posted online, the Cayuga Chatter is currently available for download to your e-reader (including Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, etc.)!  Please see the “e-reader” link below for instructions on how to download this newsletter to your device.                                    

E-Reader Info:  http://snipurl.com/cayugaereader

Using the “email” link below, we ask you to help us start the process of collecting email addresses.  Our hope is that this effort will result in communication that is much more cost effective, timely and of course, much better for the environment!                          

Email Sign Up:  http://snipurl.com/cayuganotify

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for doing your part in ensuring a smooth opening for our school.  I look forward to working with you this year.  Please know that as the building principal, I am here to answer any questions you may have about our school.  Feel free to contact our main office at (631) 471-1800 or email me at mwells@sachem.edu.  I would like to thank all of you for your continued support in the education of your children and wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season!

Sincerely,

Matthew P. Wells

Principal