Dear Putnam Valley Parents,
Putnam Valley Central School District, in partnership with our families and community, commits to our mission to ensure that all students are engaged in a challenging, student-focused educational program, understand and assume their responsibility for life-long learning, work to achieve their personal best, and become productive citizens in a diverse global society. We are proud of what we have accomplished over the years to live up to this mission statement; we have a long standing tradition of serving all students and embracing our cultural differences. We also recognize that prioritizing the aims of our mission and vision is ongoing work and that we benefit when the community shares feedback and ideas to help us see where we could further grow and learn.
This year, the New York State Department of Education Board of Regents “launched an initiative to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in schools across New York State. The Board expects that all school districts will develop policies that advance diversity, equity and inclusion – and that they implement such policies with fidelity and urgency” (www.nysed.gov, 2021). PVCSD has drafted a policy that has been shared with the community and will continue to be revised based on input from the community.
To that end, we are engaging stakeholders from our faculty, our parents, and our students in moving forward to ensure our practices and policies support all learners and celebrate all of our differences. On August 26, we are offering a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Parent Engagement opportunity. We aim to gather a representative group of our school district parents who will participate in these conversations and provide input that will help support our District’s DEI work. From this workgroup, two parent representatives will be identified and invited to join the District DEI committee to represent the parent voices. The purpose of our district DEI Committee is to ensure our school policies and practices continue to engage and support all of our students and embrace our diversity as a community.
We would like to invite parents who are interested in attending our parent meeting on August 26 at 5pm in the High School Library to please complete the questionnaire below. In an effort to maintain a safe environment for all in regard to COVID-19, we may need to limit the number of parent participants. We are committed to engaging a representative group of parents in this work.
If you are interested in this parent workshop, please complete the form linked below by August 9. Participants will be notified and receive a calendar invite to join the meeting in person. Virtual participation in this meeting will not be available.
https://forms.gle/NXPJNbStugpGLCcd6
Thank you for your continued partnership.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeremy Luft
Superintendent of Schools