{"id":15883,"date":"2024-12-13T21:17:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T02:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/?p=15883"},"modified":"2024-12-13T22:56:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T03:56:31","slug":"message-from-dr-luft-and-mr-mello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/district\/superintendent\/message-from-dr-luft-and-mr-mello\/","title":{"rendered":"Message from Dr. Luft and Mr. Mello"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Putnam Valley Community:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past 48 hours, we have had the opportunity to debrief and reflect on this week\u2019s incident. <\/span>I would like to thank the students and families who had the courage to speak up when they became aware of a dangerous situation that took place in our High School earlier this week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

School safety and security remains our highest priority.\u00a0 When the safety and security of our schools are threatened, the district will react immediately, and the consequences for those who endanger others will be swift and severe. The safety of our community depends on our commitment to each other.<\/p>\n

Anytime we are provided the opportunity to improve our practices, we will do so.\u00a0 Follow-up meetings with our staff, students, and school security consultants have already begun, and each stakeholder group will provide us with important information that we will use to better ensure the safety and security of our students and staff. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Please see Mr. Mello\u2019s email below for additional information:<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Parents and Guardians,<\/p>\n

As you know, Putnam Valley High School experienced a disturbing situation on Monday. We are grateful to those students who came forward with information regarding this worrisome event. Your courage in speaking up and being an upstander is commendable. We encourage all students to follow suit and speak up when they witness their peers making unhealthy or unsafe choices. Please remind your children to seek out a trusted adult, whether it be a family member, staff member, counselor, or administrator, when they are concerned for the safety and well-being of our school community.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also want to commend the parents who took the initiative to inform law enforcement about the dangerous situation. Your vigilance and cooperation are vital in ensuring the safety of our school community. We urge all parents to report any concerns or suspicions about dangerous or harmful activity they may have to school officials or law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The leadership team at Putnam Valley High School has been working diligently to address this situation. We have met multiple times a day to debrief, plan, and coordinate with our emergency response team, staff, district-level administrators, law enforcement, and our security firm, Altaris.<\/span><\/p>\n

To further communicate, our students received an email Wednesday evening from Dr. Luft, and we read a message during announcements on Thursday morning. We will also host a meeting for our student leaders on Monday and grade-level community meetings on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

We need to empower everyone in our school community to speak up when faced with situations that compromise our safety and security.\u00a0 It takes courage to be the person who keeps other people safe and to speak up, show up, and hold the line, even when it feels like you\u2019re standing alone.\u00a0 By saying something, you are also getting the person in distress the help that they need.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you support your friends and community.<\/span><\/p>\n

We understand that this incident has caused concern and anxiety among our students, staff,\u00a0 and community. Please know that the safety and well-being of our students remain our top priority. We will continue to work closely with all stakeholders to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Matt Mello
\n<\/span>Principal
\n<\/span>Putnam Valley High School<\/span><\/p>\n

Putnam Valley has always been an exemplary district as it relates to school safety and security.\u00a0 It is our intention to remain a model school that others follow. Thank you for your continued partnership and support in helping us achieve this goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jeremy Luft
\n<\/span>Superintendent of Schools
\n<\/span>Putnam Valley Central School District<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Putnam Valley Community:\u00a0 Over the past 48 hours, we have had the opportunity to debrief and reflect on this week\u2019s incident. I would like to thank the students and families who had the courage to speak up when they became aware of a dangerous situation that took place in our High School earlier this… Continue Reading Message from Dr. Luft and Mr. Mello<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-superintendent","clearfix"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15887,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15883\/revisions\/15887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}