RCSD Community Update: 5/19/23

Dear RCSD Community,

Please remember that there is no school next Friday, May 26, due to the snow/emergency giveback day.  I will also not be sending a community update that Friday. I hope everyone enjoys the four-day-long Memorial Day weekend.

Budget Vote/BOE Election

Thank you to the many of you who turned out to vote in the annual budget vote and Board of Education election on Tuesday.  Voter turnout was significantly lower than in 2022: 850 votes were cast this year versus 1,059 in 2021 and 2,023 in 2020.  It’s hard to say if this was a function of the beautiful weather or something else, but over 80% of those who voted supported the school district’s 2023-24 budget, for which we are very thankful.  

As opposed to many of our neighboring school districts, we had an uncontested Board of Trustees election again this year, with two candidates running for two seats on the Board. The incumbent candidate, Tom Stein, was reelected and Shaun Kloepfer was elected. Congratulations to them both, and we thank them in advance for their service.

Tenure Recipients

At Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, while waiting for voting results, we held a tenure reception for nine teachers and five school administrators. Congratulations to:

Meagan Barnett, Special Education, Milton School
Rosemarie Bracciodieta, School Counselor, Elementary Schools
Lizbeth Burrow, Music, Rye Middle School
Annemarie DeLucia-Piekarski, Principal, Milton School
Joseph DiGiovanni, Principal, Rye Middle School
Shehnaz Khalfan-Washington, English, Rye Middle School
Jessica LaBella, Special Education, Midland School
Amy Osooli, Supervisor of Secondary Special Education, District-wide
Kimberly Persaud, Math, Instructional Technology Specialist, Elementary Schools (tenure awarded December 2022)
Susan Reid Dullea, Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics, District-wide
Brian Scarano, Special Education, Osborn School
Jennine Spennacchio, Speech, Milton School
Philip Verona, Social Studies, Rye High School
Dr. Erin Vredenburgh, Director of Pupil Personnel Services and Special Education, District-wide

To watch the tenure award ceremony, click here and start watching at 1:19:00.

Senior Internships/Prom/Graduation

This week, our seniors began their month-long senior internships. We hope they find their internships interesting and rewarding. Plans for Prom and Graduation for the class of 2023 are underway. Prom will take place on Friday, June 2, at the VIP Country Club in New Rochelle. Graduation is planned for Friday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m. in Nugent Stadium with a rain date of Saturday night (which we KNOW will not be needed - knock wood). We are so excited to celebrate our seniors and their accomplishments in the days and weeks to come. 

Metro Awards

Rye High School has been nominated in three categories of the prestigious Metro Awards. The Metropolitan High School Theater Awards are presented by the Helen Hayes Youth Theatre and are back after a three-year COVID hiatus. The awards recognize exceptional musical theater productions, talented actors and actresses, and creative teams from high schools in Westchester, Bergen, Rockland, and Putnam counties. RHS was nominated in three categories for the spring performance of Footloose: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (Sydnee Brown, Karis Repetto, and Zoe Loizeaux) Outstanding Performance by a Stage Crew (The 22-member Stage Crew of Footloose), and for Stage Manager (Cameron Slocumb). Winners will be announced at a ceremony held on June 12 at the Tarrytown Music Hall and we wish our PSP cast and crew good luck. 

End-of-Year Calendars

Just in case you missed the emails on Monday, the High School, Middle School, and Elementary School end-of-year calendars are all posted on the home page of the District website at the bottom in the “Community News” section. We used to call these “refrigerator calendars,” because that’s where they got posted, although nowadays stainless steel tends to obviate this!

District Safety Plan

We have posted the RCSD’s annual safety plan to the District website here. Members of the public are encouraged to review it and provide any comments or feedback by June 15 to feedback@ryeschools.org.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,
Eric Byrne, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools