Working for districts: CNYRIC provides essential help with contact tracing:
Finding Creative Solutions: The Central New York Regional Information Center Helps Districts with Contact Tracing
When schools reopened their doors in the fall of 2020, administrators struggled with the need to provide effective contact tracing, often spending extensive amounts of time trying to reach anyone who had come in close contact with an individual who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Districts often had to pull up class lists and cross-reference them by hand, spending as much as half the workday trying to effectively trace one positive result.
Enter the Educational Data Services (EDS) team at the Central New York Regional Information Center. The EDS team wanted to help districts tackle whatever challenges they faced with reopening schools. ...
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February is #CTEMonth!:
Celebrating #CTEMonth in February
February is Career & Technical Education (CTE) month, when OCM BOCES and schools across the country celebrate the programs that prepare students for the workforce and further their education.
Once considered an educational route for just those students seeking to build vocational skills, CTE is now a pathway for any and all students who are looking to get a jump-start on a wide variety of careers as well as an opportunity to become well-prepared for college, even earning college credits while in high school.
At OCM BOCES, we’ve taken this mission even further with unique, business-embedded programs at WCNY, Driver’s Village, Tracey Road Equipment and more. Students learn in classrooms within these businesses, but also ...
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Seven Valleys students learn sign language to communicate with new custodian:
When students at Seven Valleys New Tech Academy learned their new daytime custodian was deaf, they were eager to learn how to better communicate with him. Students wanted to find a way to not only welcome Ryan and thank him for the work he was doing to keep their school clean, but also help him acclimate to the day shift. As a result, Seven Valleys set up a Zoom session with the Child Life Team at Golisano Children’s Hospital to allow them to do just that.
Golisano’s Kendall Malkin helped provide insight to Seven Valleys students on what it was like to live without the ability to hear. Malkin also served as an interpreter for Ryan, allowing students and staff to learn more about him and his lifestyle.
The session also helped students learn some ...
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OCM BOCES names new CNYRIC director:
OCM BOCES is pleased to announce that Chantal M. Corbin, a 14-year technology coordinator and principal in the Fabius-Pompey Central School District, will become the new director of the Central New York Regional Information Center (CNYRIC) as of Jan. 25.
Corbin will replace CNYRIC Director Pam Mazzaferro, who is retiring Jan. 8.
OCM BOCES District Superintendent Matthew L. Cook, Ed.D., said Corbin is an excellent candidate for the CNYRIC position because of her extensive experience in educational technology, her familiarity with OCM BOCES services and the needs of local districts, and her passion for utilizing technology in a way that will best support student learning.
“Ms. ...
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Building a “Bridge to Brave” at Innovation Tech:
As schools reopened in the middle of a pandemic, facilitators at Innovation Tech wanted to empower students with a meaningful project, one that would address their social and emotional needs and also connect them with like-minded students.
As a result, an orientation project called “Bridge to Brave” started with this driving question:
“2020 is a year unlike any other, with students around the world adapting to new educational norms. How can I, as a New Tech student at Innovation Tech, empower myself and others to create a brave space and develop strategies in order to succeed?”
Students jumped in with all sorts of activities and strategies to help themselves and their classmates cope with the stresses of the new year.
They started ...
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Fresh look, mobile-friendly website rolls out before the holidays for OCM BOCES:
I f you opened a store on the main street in your town, you’d want the outside to be appealing. You’d want your main entrance — the front door — to be inviting. You’d also want the store itself to be friendly, welcoming and easy to navigate.
Those are the reasons we decided to give our own storefront — our OCM BOCES website — a facelift.
During the week of Dec. 21, we will be rolling out a new design for ocmboces.org that is clean and less cluttered. The site will have a significant new feature — mobile responsiveness — that makes most of our pages easy to view on a smartphone.
A big thank you goes to the Central New York Regional Information Center (Bethany Bak, Cris Moore ...
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OCM BOCES welder makes history at local business:
If you happen to drive by a new construction site at 2775 Erie Boulevard East, not far from Thompson Road, you might spot a welder bundled in several layers of clothes, sitting on a beam about 15 feet above the ground. The welder is 18-year-old Alivia Allen, a 2020 graduate of OCM BOCES who made her mark this fall as the first female employee in the erector division of JPW Companies in Syracuse.
Alivia is working on a two-story office building for Crouse Medical Practice. She started the job Nov. 9 and spent the first few weeks training and earning a pair of certifications in vertical and overhead welding. Now she’s up on the beams, measuring, bolting, welding, and pinning down decks of galvanized steel. Sometimes, she works in frigid temperatures ...
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Virtual college visits rise to a whole new level:
Another silver lining has emerged amid all the challenges surrounding the pandemic: At our Cortlandville Campus, students in Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs are participating in virtual college visits that give them better access to college faculty.
In one of the biggest presentations, students in seven CTE programs were able to talk to faculty members at Alfred State College through a pair of online college visits on Nov. 13. Normally, students would not have access to a large number of college faculty members if they were visiting the college in-person or simply asking questions of Alfred State Admissions Director Kandi Geibel, who visits the OCM BOCES campus each year.
This year, however, a pair of special Zoom meetings allowed juniors and seniors ...
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News Channel 9 features CTE program at Tracey Road:
NewsChannel 9 recently visited Tracey Road Equipment in East Syracuse to learn more about the new OCM BOCES and Tracey Road embedded Career and Technical Education program . The the two-year Heavy Equipment Operations and Diesel Repair Technology program, which launched in September, offers kids hands-on experience with heavy equipment and diesel technology.
Learn more about the program and read the story by visiting their website or check out the video below.
Thank you to News Channel 9 and Julia LeBlanc for this great story!
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OCM BOCES welcomes new District Superintendent:
Please join us in welcoming Matthew L. Cook, Ed.D., as the new District Superintendent of OCM BOCES.
Matt comes to us from the Newark Central School District in Wayne County, about 40 minutes east of Rochester, where he has served as superintendent since 2013.
The OCM BOCES Board of Education voted unanimously for Cook at its Oct. 15 meeting. He officially begins at OCM BOCES on Nov. 2.
OCM BOCES Board of Education President Wayne Brownson said Matt stood out among a group of highly qualified candidates “because of his effective leadership skills, his extensive educational background, and a proven record of making decisions that are best for students while also being committed to his staff and community.”
Prior ...
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Innovation Tech staff sew masks for students:
Walking into Innovation Tech on the first day of school, students were not only greeted with waves and virtual hugs, but also a hallway filled with tables of masks in a variety of colors, sizes and patterns. Working together, the staff at Innovation Tech had sewn 537 masks for students to keep, allowing each student to take five masks to use throughout the week.
The idea for making masks came from Facilitator Martha FitzPartrick. Like many people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Martha did not know how to make face masks, but after a friend asked her to make them for essential employees at a local Walgreens, Martha, a fifth-generation quilter, was up for the challenge. She quickly began researching patterns, fabrics and elastic.
After completing her initial ...
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Phil Grome selected as new Assistant Superintendent for Administration:
OCM BOCES Appoints Phil Grome as New Assistant Superintendent for Administration
July 10, 2020
Phil Grome, a 27-year educational leader, has been selected to be the new assistant superintendent for administration at Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, a position that makes him part of the organization’s senior leadership team.
The OCM BOCES Board of Education voted unanimously for Grome’s appointment at its monthly meeting July 9. He begins his new position today, July 10.
Grome’s tenure at OCM BOCES has focused on leading a wide variety of instructional programs for students in Career & Technical Education (CTE), New Vision, Career Development, ...
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Virtual celebrations honor hundreds of BOCES grads:
Hundreds of BOCES graduates cross the stage in June ceremonies
Carloads of families and friends carrying BOCES graduates arrived one-by-one this past month for seven days of drive-up ceremonies that allowed our students to walk across an outside stage to receive their diplomas or certificates.
Videos of each ceremony can be found at ocmboces.org/graduation2020 . The site also provides a full listing of all students, awards and programs, as well as links to thousands of photos. Videos will be premiering at noon on June 25-26.
OCM BOCES would like to extend a big congratulations to all of our graduates and a thank you to all of our staff, parents and other supporters who helped our graduates through an especially challenging year.
...
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Congratulations to our 2020 Retirees!:
Congratulations to our 20 OCM BOCES employees who have retired during this 2019-20 school year or are about to retire before the end of June. These employees have collectively given the OCM BOCES organization about 480 years of service.
To all of our OCM BOCES retirees, we congratulate all of you on a job well done and wish you nothing but the best in retirement. Thank you for your service!
Those retiring are:
Barbara Brigham
E. Helen Brown
David Daignault
Thomas Glazier
Jay Hammond
Linda Hatz
Mary Humphrey
Tammy Jones
Kathleen Labulis
Elaine Liszewski
Suzanne McCarthy
Siobhan O'Hora
David Osborn
Mark Pettitt
Tracy Preston
Katherine Robbins
Donna Robillard
Pamela Treat-Ulrich ...
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BOCES students say "Thank You" to local law enforcement:
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Even before the pandemic hit, Charlie Wilson and the students in his New Vision Criminal Justice class at OCM BOCES thought it would be nice to simply say “thank you” to nearly 2,000 law enforcement officers in Central New York.
Charlie, his students, and teaching assistant Denise Mecca posed for a special thank-you card that would fall in the hands of local law enforcement officers this week — National Police Week — when police across the country are honored for their service and sacrifice.
“We don’t say it enough: Thank you for your service,” ...
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Teacher on a mission: delivering masks:
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Create solutions? Or worry and do nothing? This OCM BOCES instructor decided to help
Meridith Kindred went on a mission recently when she packed her car with hand-sewn masks and set out to deliver them to her students.
She scrawled a message in white paint on her car: “BOCES Health Occupations: Delivering PPE, NOT Homework!” She drove door-to-door for an entire day, putting the masks in plastic bags and hanging them on doorknobs to comply with social distancing rules.
“I just wanted them to be safe,” said Kindred, a registered nurse and Health Occupations instructor ...
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Making the most of the pandemic:
When the pandemic hit, this OCM BOCES construction student went to work
When life gave him lemons, David Seale decided to make … picnic tables.
Lots of them.
Seale, 16, is a junior from Chittenango High School who enrolled in the OCM BOCES Construction Technology program last fall. In one of their early projects, Seale and his classmates built picnic tables designed by their instructor, Michael Cavender.
Seale recalls the project being relatively easy, given all the experience he’s had growing up in a family of “do-it-yourselfers.” By the time his class started to build an entire house — the culminating project of the two-year program ...
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Student, business partnerships have sweet result:
Students in two programs team up to create fresh maple syrup with professional labels
Before schools were closed as a result of the pandemic, students from the Cortlandville New Vision Environmental Science and Graphic Communications programs teamed up to make fresh, eye-catching bottles of maple syrup that were later put on sale in the Lime Hollow Nature Center gift shop.
The project began when the New Vision students tapped, cooked, and bottled the maple syrup at Lime Hollow Nature Center, where their classroom is based. Later, Graphic Communications students designed creative labels for the maple syrup jugs, resulting in one label for a large jug, another for a small jug. Students partnered with a local business, Quadraflex Quality Labels in Cortland, to visit the ...
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OCM BOCES Annual Meeting 2020:
On April 1, about 50 superintendents, school Board of Education members, OCM BOCES Board of Education members, and OCM BOCES staff gathered via Zoom to attend the virtual OCM BOCES Annual Meeting.
The meeting began with a welcome from the OCM BOCES BOE President Ann Wright. Following her welcome, OCM BOCES Deputy Superintendent Colleen Viggiano presented the 2019 highlight video, “Committed to Your Success – 2019 Highlights, ” and the 2020-2021 OCM BOCES Budget. The meeting concluded with closing remarks from the OCM BOCES BOE President Ann Wright, wishing everyone a successful year ahead.
Thank you to everyone who helped make the event a success!
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