Holiday Wishes from Dr. Hattar

January 13, 2026

Dear Yorktown School Community,

I am wishing you and your family the very best in 2026!  There has been much to celebrate in our schools during the first half of the school year.  Our students are incredibly talented and their efforts are being recognized across the state and country.  As just one example, in the most recent Regeneron Science Talent Search Competition, 300 students across the nation were recognized for their science research (out of thousands of submissions).  I am so proud to share that three of the students recognized are from Yorktown!  Very few schools were fortunate enough to have any student recognized, and Yorktown having three students recognized is very, very impressive.  I offer my deepest congratulations to our students and to our entire Yorktown Science Research Program.

The above recognition is just one of so many to which I can point.  Our students are being recognized across the state for their academic achievement, athletic success, and musical talent.  I am so amazed by our students each day!  The Yorktown Central School District is a special place!    

I have enclosed some very important updates for your review.    

School Calendar for 2026-27

At last evening's Board of Education meeting, the 2026-27 school calendar was adopted.  Please note that given the late Labor Day in 2026, and the many other considerations in constructing the school calendar, schools will open on September 2, 2026 (prior to Labor Day).  

The calendar can be found here.

March 20, 2026

Please note for this school year that Thursday, March 19, is now a regular school day for all students and Friday, March 20 is a Superintendent’s Conference Day.  No students report to school on Friday, March 20, 2026.

Kindergarten and New Student Registration

We are in the process of building our budget for the upcoming school year, and much of our budget is driven by student enrollment.  While most of the variables regarding enrollment are relatively easy to forecast, kindergarten enrollment and new families moving to the district resulting from residential developments are the most challenging to predict.  If you or someone you know has a child who will be five years of age by December 1, 2026, and are planning to register them for kindergarten within the District, I kindly ask that you register for kindergarten by contacting our Registrar’s Office at 914-243-8000 ext. 11604 or 18026 as soon as possible.  Additionally, if you have recently moved to the District and are planning to enroll your child in our schools for September, regardless of grade level, we ask that you do so as soon as possible.

Universal Pre-K

As our community is likely aware, we have been able to utilize our state pre-k allocation in recent years to offer a pre-k program to any eligible student--a child who turns 4 years of age on or before December 1, 2026 and resides within our school district catchment area.  We are pleased to continue to offer this excellent program through our partnership with the YMCA of Central and Northern Westchester, without impacting our operating budget.  

The school district expects to have 188 seats available in the program based on projected state funding.  Please know that changes to state funding may impact the number of seats available in the pre-k program.  

We ask that you register by March 1, 2026.  Consistent with prior years, should we receive more online registration forms than the number of seats allocated to us (by March 1st), a lottery system will be employed to determine who will be enrolled in the pre-k program and the order on the wait list for those who are not selected for enrollment.  

Online registration forms submitted after March 1st will only be accepted if there are unfilled seats in the program and no wait-list for those seats.  After March 1st, enrollment will be offered in the order in which the forms are received until the number of seats available from the state is reached.

The full registration letter can be found here.

Out-of-District and Daycare Transportation Requests

April 1 is the deadline to request out-of-district transportation to non-public schools.  All request forms must be sent to Ms. Patty Sauber at psauber@yorktown.org on or before Tuesday, April 1.  The request form can be accessed on the transportation department’s webpage or by clicking here.

Requests for transportation to and/or from daycare must also be sent to Ms. Sauber at psauber@yorktown.org on or before Tuesday, April 1.

Bus Stop-Arm Cameras

The bus stop-arm cameras have been in place on our buses since September.  Unfortunately, we continue to see violations of vehicles passing a stopped school bus while the red lights are flashing.  In November, we were informed that there were 47 violations in town and 43 vio;ations in December.  Any violation of passing a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing compromises student safety.  With the support of our community, I am hopeful this number will go to zero and remain at 0 moving forward.     

Budget Development Process

We are well along in our budgetary planning for the 2026-27 school year.  We will be delivering budget presentations at our upcoming BOE meetings.  You are welcome to attend the meetings in-person and/or view the meetings on our website or YouTube channel.

Idling of Vehicles

Westchester County law prohibits the idling of gasoline vehicles for more than three consecutive minutes.  This applies on and off school grounds and when ambient air temperature is above 32 degrees.  Kindly be mindful of idling your vehicle, especially on school grounds.

Illnesses in School

As a reminder, if your child is symptomatic with fever, we ask that your child remain home until they are fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.  We appreciate your cooperation in keeping a child experiencing symptoms of illness, respiratory and/or gastrointestinal, home until they are well.  

Construction Update

The construction projects at Brookside, Mohansic, and the MS/HS Athletic Complex continue to make excellent progress.  Anyone visiting the campus will surely know that construction is moving along quite well.  At this time, all three projects are well underway and we are operating on time and within budget.  I have been providing updates at each of our Board of Education meetings, and you may access those updates by clicking here.

Closing Thought

I close this update with a word of optimism.  In New York, January and February are generally known for subfreezing temperatures and snowfall; however, one reason that January is an amazing month is the amount of daylight that we gain.  On January 1st, the sunset was 4:40pm.  By the end of this month, the sunset will be at 5:13pm.  Coupled with the earlier sunrise times throughout the month, we will see 46 minutes of daylight added to our day just in the month of January (9 hours 22 minutes of daylight on Jan. 1 to 10 hours 8 minutes on Jan. 31)!  By the end of February we will see another hour of daylight added to our day--11 hours 17 minutes of daylight!  I am hoping that you find time to enjoy the additional daylight that we will gain with each day.

Wishing you an enjoyable remainder of the week.

Sincerely,
Dr. Ron Hattar