SUMMER 2017
From the Heart Mount Pleasant — The Heart of Westchester County
The Mount Pleasant Central School District Newsletter Volume 16 Issue 5
Five Year Strategic Plan Complete The District sets priorities for the next five years
Educating each student today for endless possibilities tomorrow.
Nick Tobiasen flashes a smile to the crowd.
Inside the grad issue… Wellness Day.........................2 Retirements...........................4 Underclassmen Awards........6 Senior Awards.......................7
Class of 2017.................... 8-9 WHS News..........................10 WMS News..........................11 CES News...........................12 HES News...........................13
Kudos............................ 14-15
School calendars
2017-18 school calendars will be sent home with the youngest child in each family on the first day of school. Printed calendars also will be available at the branch library, town hall and the recreation center as well as the main offices of all schools and the district office. The calendar is also available online on each school’s home page.
Preparing students to live in an ever changing world equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to achieve personal and professional success requires public schools to plan thoughtfully with foresight of the future. The children who graduate from Westlake High School this year and next will face a brave new world upon entering post-secondary education and the workforce. Children who graduate from Westlake High School five years from now will face an even more unknown and dynamic future. Over the past two years, the Mount Pleasant Central School District has been engaged in the process of strategically planning what lies ahead and creating a roadmap to students’ future success. A strategic plan is a tool that school district’s use to set and communicate priorities and common goals. Background: In 2015-16, the Mount Pleasant CSD completed the final year of its first 5-year strategic plan. Crafted through a collaborative process that included student, teacher, administrator, community and board of education member input, the first strategic plan laid the foundation for the success experienced in recent years. Focus was placed on learner-centered classrooms which fully engaged all learners. Superintendent Dr. Susan Guiney is proud of the accomplishments of that first plan and that Westlake High School was named as one of Newsweek’s Top 500 Schools in America. She wants to continue that success and strives to “make Mount Pleasant the place where people want to move to give their children a great education”. For this second cycle of 5-year planning,
Who’s my teacher?
Placement letters and school schedules will be available on each school’s Parent Portal in late August. Reminder emails will be sent out to parents.
the district’s focus is to continue to build on its strengths and align with the newly created vision and mission statements. The mission statement answers the question “why do we exist?” while the vision statement answers the question “where are we going?” When asked “why do we exist?”, the answer that emerged was “To educate each student today for endless possibilities tomorrow.” The vision of the district’s future is that “Each student will experience educational excellence and graduate as a self-directed, creative, curious and critical thinker who consciously and ethically engages their world with purpose.” To that end, the services of Lynn Sawyer, an international educational consultant, were engaged. With her help, the district elicited feedback once again from all segments of the community to put the strategic process in place. Clear priorities have emerged from those discussions which have become the foundation of the Mount Pleasant Strategic Plan: Leadership, Academics, Facilities, Students, Finances, and Community. The framework of the plan is built around the concept of creating specific, measurable goals linked to these priorities. Members of the school district’s team are committed to owning and achieving these goals within a specific timeframe and communicating them with the larger community. Please visit www.mtplcsd.org/strategic_plan to read more about these goals. The district is excited to have a clearly defined path of action guiding them over the next several years to help students and the district as a whole reach their greatest success. It is when everyone works together as a team that we can achieve our highest goals.