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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Sheila Schwartz re-elected
VC school board president
By TED REMSNYDER
The summer season provides some
time for local school districts to get their
houses in order in advance of the next
school year, and Valley Central held its
reorganizational meeting on Thursday
at the district’s administration building.
During the session, Board of Education
President Sheila Schwartz was re-elected
unanimously to her post and board
member Sarah Messing was elected the
council’s new Vice President, taking over
for trustee Sonia Lewis.
Schwartz, who took over the leadership
position last year, was happy to stay on as
the head of the board. “I enjoy it, I really
do,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the
next year. I don’t have the stress of having
kids in school or anything anymore, so
it’s something to keep me busy. We’ve
had a lot of changes and we’re looking
forward to more this year as we roll out
our five-year district strategic plan. We
have a lot of construction and changes
going on at the high school and in most of
the buildings. So we’re looking forward
to it. I think we have good momentum, so
we want to keep that going.” Schwartz,
whose daughter graduated from Valley
Central High School last month, was
re-elected to the board by taxpayers this
spring and ran unopposed last week for
the president’s chair.
The district’s high school graduation
ceremony on June 24 went off without
a hitch, and the administration raved
about the proceedings, which took place
at the high school football stadium. “We
felt it went well, but most important
the board did as well,” Valley Central
Superintendent John Xanthis said. “The
speeches were fantastic, and it might
sound corny, but the crowd hangs on every
word. They’re just quiet and respectful,
listening, and it was a nice night.”
Xanthis noted that the Valley Central
graduation is distinctive from other
commencement ceremonies he’s attended.
“The tradition of how they procession in
with the processional gate they use is
unique,” he said. “The fact that it’s 6 p.m.
on Saturday night, the last graduation
in the county, it’s been that way for 59
years. So it just has a sense of tradition
that I think they’ve maintained here.
There’s several things that they do here
over the years that they’ve started and
maintained, and they’re great traditions. I
think the kids, by the time they’re seniors
or at least in high school, they start to
see that. There’s some things here that
really don’t happen in other places. The
kids do appreciate it and you can see it.”
The district also held an all-night ball
for graduates in the run-up to the main
event.
During the July 6 meeting, the board
also re-adopted the district’s Code of
Conduct and School Safety Plan, and the
council also approved an administrative
consultant agreement with Sheila
Lease-Murphy, the retiring Deputy
Superintendent of Human Resources
and Pupil Services. The deal allows
the district to utilize Lease-Murphy’s
knowledge of the district on a per diem
basis, as she will be kept on retainer.
“Her last official day will be at the end of
July, and she’ll come back to do our new
teacher orientation,” Xanthis said. “She
works with the mentors and the new first-
year teachers. She’s done a tremendous
job with that for years. Then we have the
ability to bring her in throughout the
year to work in schools with the principal
and staff. We certainly think we’ll need
her. She’s been in the district for 26 years
and wore so many hats. So the board was
supportive of giving us the ability to bring
her out as we need her, and I think she’s
looking forward to doing that.”
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Valley Central seniors march onto the field for the June 24 graduation ceremony.
Superintendent John Xanthis praised the event as being distinctive from others he’s attend-
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