Section X Champions, Class B Champions, Robotics Champions, movie premiers and tremendous school spirit marked by a graduation ceremony is where Salmon River Central School District left things off last school year. A year marked by many milestones all while dealing with a $49.8 million renovation and expansion project. With the great strides in extracurricular activities last year coupled with the improvements being implemented on the academic front Salmon River Central School will only be improving from here. The administrative leadership that is in place will be taking the education of students to a record high by supporting the teaching staff to be the shining light that guides the way.

“That’s what makes our team a great team,” said Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Sub-Chief Stacy Skidders who also serves as the President of the SRCS Board of Education. “Everything that the teachers do for our children is remarkable.”

Right from day one of having the first District Meeting with all of the faculty and staff at the school present, Jane Collins the Superintendent of the school, began things off with the Salmon River Central Mission Statement, which can be found all over the school: “The Salmon River Central School maximizes student achievement in a fair manner and respects the cultural diversity.”

The integration of Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal services into the school district demonstrates the school’s commitment to following through with their mission. The Tribe’s Johnson O’Malley Tutors, Alcohol-Chemical Dependency Drug Prevention Program workers, Health Clinic and Mental Health Services workers are all on-campus on scheduled days throughout the week and months. These services are available to all students to ensure that they have the resources to handle any crisis that might be happening in their lives so that all students have the same chance of having a strong education.

“We want Salmon River to be the place where all students want to come to,” said Collins. “We want all students to have the opportunity to become more…we want our kids to graduate.”

“…There was a quote that testing should serve education versus education serving testing,” said Annemarie FitzRandolph, Director of Instruction for the school district. “If we are going to be the light for education then it is education over testing. We will be working together to lift our school and lift our students.”

The SRCS has undergone consultation with the faculty to determine what would be the best way to improve the system in place. Through this consultation it was identified that the addition of a middle school to the campus was vital to the students success. Since that time an addition was built off the former Junior High wing and a dedicated Middle School for grades 6-8 has been created.

“It is going really well so far, the kids seem excited to be back and we wanted to do something different to set the tone of school being something to look forward to everyday,” said Angela Robert, the first Middle School Principal at Salmon River. “The kids last year wrote essays about what they wanted to see in the school and we’ve done our best to inspire them to come to school.”

The first day of school for the Middle School students is normally full of fears and uncertainty about moving from the safety net of the Elementary School structure that they are used to into a new zone of having to find their locker and classes. To break the ice on the first day the Akwesasne Coalition for Community Empowerment had volunteers on hand to do activities with the entire Middle School. Once that was done students were led by their homeroom teachers to their first period classes to start the day. Fun activities were scheduled for each day during the week to promote school spirit and pride in the new facilities. A brand new gymnasium will be the meeting place for monthly student assemblies to recognize student achievement.

“We are trying to establish with the students that this is a good place to be,” said Robert on the activities for the week. “We need to look at the students as a whole before we can move onto standards.”

With this push the teachers at the school are taking on increased responsibilities to communicate with their pupils. There will be dedicated free periods for each teacher to be available to help any student who might be struggling with classroom material. Students have the opportunity to have access to the different teachers depending on what they need from week to week, and if they are all caught up in their work they have the opportunity for enrichment programs.

Another addition to the regular yearly activities will be an annual meeting with both the parent and student to take a look at what choices and possible directions are available to the students. The guidance counselors will be taking a hands-on approach with each student to make sure that their academic decisions as early as seventh grade are the best choices for their dreams later in life.

For after school activities in the middle school Barry Armstrong has taken the lead in organizing the teachers who are willing to volunteer their time for different clubs. Each group would meet on a weekly basis with the meetings only going until 3:25pm. The topics for the groups range from Library Skills, Film, Drama and Pre-Robotics to name a few. This is a push to get students involved earlier for other organizations once in High School.

Teachers like Mrs. Swamp escorted their students to class after the pep rally

“Everyone here is really feeling empowered,” said Robert. “We are all thinking outside the box to inspire students.”