Groton Superintendent Website

Spring 2023 - Budget Information

The Board of Education and District Leadership Team has been working diligently over the past several months to prepare a budget that allows for consistency in student programming, while balancing the fiscal obligations we ask of our taxpayers. This year has presented some unique challenges within the budget that require some explanation:

Hiring and retention of employees has become a greater challenge for the district. Inflation and competition for labor has led to the private sector increasing the compensation packages of its employees. This has led to a shortage of applicants for school positions as well as a challenge of retaining our present workforce. In order to keep our budget reasonable to the taxpayers, we have always asked a lot of our employees - they wear several hats and perform a variety of tasks to ensure our students and families have access to a strong academic program. To address both recruitment and retention challenges, as well as acknowledge the value we place on our entire school community, we have put forth a budget that takes a step towards providing our employees with a living wage by building in an overall increase of 8.3% in wages and compensation. Our goal is to keep the present employees we have here, and put forth a package attractive enough to encourage people to apply for positions within the district. We believe our community is well worth this investment!
Completion of the capital project approved by the voters in 2021. Due to the rise in cost of goods and services in the construction industry, we had to pull the pavement site work out of the capital project in order to stay within the approved budget of 10.89 million. In order to address the deteriorating drive in front of the high school, we shifted that cost into the general fund for the 2023-2024 school year.
Long range planning for the Governor’s mandate that all schools transition to the purchase of EV buses commencing in July 2027. This mandate will increase the cost of buses from their present price of $170,000 to $420,000. It will also require electrical infrastructure investments by the district. As such, the BOE has decided to invest in a transportation reserve that, combined with the district’s capital reserve, will be able to offset the cost of these EV buses in our first year of purchase.

To help offset these costs, the district continues to be aggressive in seeking alternate funding streams. The present budget reflects those efforts, as there is over two million dollars of revenue coming to the district in 2023-2024 through grant funding. As a result, we have built a budget that allows us to provide all our programs at their present levels. We look forward to seeing you at the annual budget vote on the 16th!

Career Center Coming to GROTON (Initial Implementation Fall 2023)

How do we prepare our students for a future workforce that is constantly changing? What steps can we be taking at a younger age to be sure our students are equipped with the skills they need to determine the pathway after graduation that matches who they are, what they believe, what they value, and is aligned with their skills and strengths? To help students answer these questions the Groton Central School District will be opening a Career Center in the fall of 2023. It is our goal to better reach the District’s mission of “empowering all students to reach their fullest potential and find their unique pathway to success” through personal development and career exploration and preparation.

The model the District will be using for its career development plan includes career awareness at the K-5 level, followed by career exploration in grades 6-8 and culminating with career preparation in grades 9-12. In order to build this center, members of the district’s leadership team have visited several area career centers to help identify best practices, and have built a multi-year plan for getting the center fully operational, including implementing a comprehensive grades 6-12 career development curriculum while also creating a personalized career development plan for each student. By building the capacity for students to be able to participate in programs of self-discovery, career awareness, career exploration, and career preparation, our students will be better prepared to make well-informed decisions when it comes to life after high school.

Be looking for more specific Career Center programming for the 23-24 school year in the months to come!

New Mascot UPDATE - (Spring 2023)

Last fall the New York State Department of Education issued a mandate to all school districts to adopt a resolution to remove indigenous imagery, including names, logos and mascots, by the end of the current academic year. The Groton Central School District has long used the Indian mascot in recognition of the Iroquois Nation’s ideals and values, including its tradition of making decisions based upon what was best for its entire nation. To help us make the decision on what our next mascot will be, we are hosting the Onondaga Nation in early May to meet with students regarding the history of the Native Americans of New York State. That presentation will be the kick-off event of the timeline for selecting a new mascot. We hope to maintain the ideals that were initially considered when selecting the original Indian mascot for Groton: freedom of choice, democratic ideals of equal representation and voice, decisions made based on the good of the whole, and the importance of music, fair play and good sportsmanship. See below for the district’s timeline for mascot adoption and be looking for Thought Exchange emails for community input in late May!

Early May - Presentation by the Onondaga Nation

Late May - Thought Exchange to gather ideas for new mascot form faculty, staff, students and community members
Summer of 2023 - Student-led research on proposed mascots, followed by BOE and community presentations, with opportunity for stakeholder feedback
Fall 2023 - Selection of new mascot
Late Fall of 2023 - STEAM Graphic Design Class Presentation to BOE on possible logos to accompany the new mascot
Winter 2024 - New mascot adopted by the BOE

Capital Project Presentation - Fall 2021

Please feel free to browse this site for updates on District-level information, events, and accomplishments.