SARATOGA SPRINGS — For the second consecutive year, law enforcement officials and educators from across New York State met this week to discuss safety in schools.

Held at the Excelsior Springs Event Center, the 2023 Committee on Policing and Safeguarding Schools (C-PASS) School Safety Training Conference brought over 200 attendees in total, with law enforcement from 92 different agencies across the state on hand.

“The training that we do, we are successful in that by being collaborative between educators and law enforcement,” said Jonathan Becker, program director of C-PASS. “If we’re all under the same roof, experiencing the same training, then when we take that back to our school districts, it works that much smoother.”

Local law enforcement officials said the conference allows them to meet and share ideas with other officials from across the state.

“It’s been great for networking, getting to know a lot of other school resource officers and other administrators from different areas and sharing ideas,” said Brian Nikles, a deputy at the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office and a school resource officer at the Averill Park Central School District. 

Becker said C-PASS was established in 2019, and initially held meetings in Albany before shifting to weekly virtual meetings due to COVID-19.

“It started out with trying to provide a baseline of specific training that would include everybody, and allow everybody to be on the same page with everything that we were doing,” said Becker. “I put (the conference) together last year with the help of our board, and this year, we’re here and we’re doing great things again.”

The conference includes debriefings of past incidents in schools, which Nikles said can equip officers and school staff with the knowledge of how to handle such incidents.

“If these things would ever happen in one of our schools, we have the ability and knowledge on past incidents on how to handle it,” said Nikles. “There’s been quite a bit of information that has come from this year that we can apply. This is the second year they’ve had the conference, and I know I took back a lot last year that has helped us in the schools.”

Wednesday’s schedule included a presentation from the ‘I Love U Guys’ Foundation on the reunification process, which is the process of reuniting students with their families after an incident takes place at school.

“A lot of schools are starting to institute those kinds of things, so getting everybody up to speed on how that’s going to work, so we can kind of help each other if we do need it,” said Austin McGuire, a deputy from the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office who works as an SRO at the Berlin Central School District.

Nikles said it is important for both law enforcement and educators to be able to share ideas regarding safety and connecting with students.

“You build those relationships with everybody differently,” Nikles said. “When you share some of those ideas, maybe I can break down a wall with a student that I wasn’t able to by using the way somebody else does it.”

Kerri Canzone-Ball, Director of Pupil Personnel Services at the City School District of Albany, said the conference is “an affirmation of the work” the district has been doing.

“We were here for one day last year, but we thought it was such a worthwhile and important event that we took a team here for the whole conference this year,” said Canzone-Ball.

She said the district has “a really strong relationship” with local law enforcement agencies, and partners with Parsons and Northern Rivers to offer behavioral health services to students. 

“I think the importance of sharing as much information with families and students, and having a transparent process regarding safety measures within the district is critical,” Canzone-Ball said. “So I’ve gotten some takeaways that will be going back to our district-wide safety team and our leadership team to see how we can tweak and make some improvements to our efforts.”

The deputies also said threat assessment has been another major topic at the conference. 

“That’s a big thing that we need to do better at and more of,” said McGuire. “How we work with that, or how we get the right information to the right people at the right times. That’s a big thing.”

“How are we taking the information, how are we dealing with it?,” Nikles added. “What steps are we taking to determine whether or not that person really is a threat and needs something preventative, or is it something less?”

Nikles said that ultimately, the conference is “a great place” to meet new people, discuss ideas, and learn new strategies.

“We came here last year, and when we were told they were doing it again, we all wanted to come back,” said Nikles. “It’s a good place to do this. … As informative as it is enjoyable.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Kindergarten students at Greenfield Elementary School received a surprise on Friday, with the donation of 24 Strider balance bicycles by Saratoga Shredders.

Saratoga Shredders is a local non-profit organization aiming to provide more children with the opportunity to ride bicycles. Anna Laloë, founder and executive director of Saratoga Shredders, said “It’s really a dream,” to see the students receive the bikes.

“This is something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I started Saratoga Shredders, was to be able to be part of the school curriculum,” Laloë said.

Laloë said Saratoga Shredders currently offers after-school programs but wanted to expand to the school level to help reach as many children as possible.

“We thought that if we start at a school level, at a kindergarten school level, and they’re taught in P.E., that automatically it’s going to allow them to learn how to ride,” said Laloë. “Really, the whole idea of Shredders is to remove as many barriers as possible to get kids on bikes. If we can provide this to another group of kids to be able to have access to bikes for free, that’s really what our premise is.”

Saratoga Springs City School District athletic director Nick McPartland said approving the donation of bicycles was “an absolute no-brainer.”

“To make these kids feel like, ‘Hey, I’m getting to do something at school that I might not be able to do at home,’ it’s really exciting to think that’s going on in our district,” said McPartland. “There’s a lot of schools that don’t have this type of stuff, especially at the elementary level. It just makes you feel really good.”

Laloë said the school district was very supportive, saying the process came together rather quickly.

“There was no pushback from the district at all, so that was really, really special,” said Laloë. “For it to go from the first conversation with Coach (Ricupero) at the end of November, to basically two months later, the bikes are here in the school. It’s just an incredible process to be a part of.”

The Strider balance bicycles are not a typical bike. They come without pedals attached, allowing kids to practice their balance before eventually advancing to pedaling. Pedals can be manually added on to the bike once the child is comfortable. Greenfield Elementary P.E. teacher Mike Ricupero said this can make for an easier transition to a typical bike.

“The difference between a Strider and a bike with training wheels is that balance,” Ricupero said. “The balance is a huge part of riding a bike. Training wheels are great, but it slows you down to progress to actually getting to ride a bike. The Strider bike is a faster way to get kids on pedal bikes.”

“These Strider bikes allow kids to understand balance right away, by removing the training wheels,” added McPartland. “So now they’re forced to use their feet, but also when they feel confident, to get their feet off the ground and ride just on the two wheels. Over time, they’re going to become more and more confident on how to balance a bike and be able to ride it.”

The balance bikes also come with a curriculum for teaching students how to learn to ride. Ricupero said the lessons will help students build up their confidence and skills from one day to the next.

“The lessons are broken down for the kids to actually build upon the skills they already learned in the previous lesson,” said Ricupero. “We’re just excited that, by the end of lesson nine, most of the kids or all of the kids will be able to ride a bike with the pedals.”

Ricupero said he was initially contacted by Laloë, and their conversations led to the donation of the bikes, saying the opportunity “kind of fell in our lap.”

“We met one day, and we just kind of talked through some of the obstacles and some of the things that we needed to do,” said Ricupero. “There’s generous people in the community willing to donate money to these bikes, and for me, it was a no-brainer.”

The bikes were purchased as a package from the All Kids Bike program, said Laloë, costing about $6,000 total. The package was funded by donations from local families of Greenfield Elementary students and members of Saratoga Shredders.

Will and Jen Aldrich, Dr. Amy Knoeller, Dr. James North, Thad and Talara Hedgpeth, Peter Mulford, Jane Cramer Varian, and the Winter family all donated funds toward the purchase of the bicycles, according to a press release by Saratoga Shredders.

While the Greenfield Elementary kindergarteners will be the first to go through the curriculum, there are hopes of expanding the program throughout the district. 

“If we do a pilot here at Greenfield, figure out if it works at a kindergarten level, and then maybe scale it up to all the other elementary schools and then K-5 over maybe year two or something,” said Laloë. “That would be the idea, would be a progressive step for them to learn new skills as they get older and the bikes get bigger for them.”

“Again, we’re very fortunate that we have this, and I’m confident that it’s going to be used a tremendous amount,” McPartland said.

BALLSTON SPA — The Ballston Spa High School Science Olympiad team placed third at the Capital Region Science Olympiad Tournament, which was recently held at Ballston Spa High School. Eighteen high school teams from throughout the Capital Region competed in the tournament.  

Ballston Spa students won medals in 19 out of 23 events including first place in five of the events. The first-place medal winners and their respective events include Maddie Burns and Lee McKinley in “Write It Do It” and “Trajectory,” Maddie Burns and Max Amodeo in “Chemistry Lab,”  Maddie Wilson and Jax Skylstad in “Rocks and Minerals,” and Max Amodeo and Riley Box in “Flight.”

Their successful finish qualified the team for the New York State competition at Le Moyne College on March 17 and 18. The team is coached by High School science instructors Theresa Rousseau and Jim Poirier.

The Science Olympiad tournament is a rigorous, academic, interscholastic competition that consists of a series of individual and team events which the students prepare for throughout the year.  The events are well-balanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers and technology. The team of 15 students competed in 23 events which range from the construction of a rubber band propelled plane to college-level pen-and-paper assessments.

SCHUYLERVILLE — Schuylerville Middle School seventh-grade students got a unique opportunity to see life through a Revolutionary War soldier’s eyes, during an in-person visit from Ft. Ticonderoga educators. 

All of Rebecca Nesbitt’s social studies students experienced the “A Soldier’s Life” presentation, given by Johanna Hambly and Nathan Schultz. The engaging 45-minute program incorporated history, geography, and math to provide context to the daily experience of American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Students explored the equipment and food of soldiers and discussed the challenges of equipping and feeding an army in a remote location.

“One of the things I really like about programs like this is kids often have trouble conceptualizing what happened so long ago,” said Nesbitt. “This program is hands-on and makes it real.”

Students also had an opportunity to examine high-quality reproductions of items that soldiers carried during the Revolution, as well as try on clothing. The program aligns with Schuylerville Middle School’s Revolutionary War curriculum, which is taught to all seventh-grade students.

BALLSTON SPA — Ballston Spa Middle School’s Launching Pad Productions is proud to present Matilda the Musical Jr. The students will present five performances, including Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 11 and 12 at 1 p.m. at the Ballston Spa High School.

Seating is general admission, and tickets are $5.00 for students/senior citizens and $10.00 for adults. Tickets may be purchased at the door up to 45 minutes prior to each performance. 

Over 100 BSMS students are busy preparing for opening day, with 51 students performing in the cast and 60 backstage helping as part of the production crew. 

Matilda (Maeve deFrancqueville) has astonishing wit, intelligence… and special powers! She’s unloved by her cruel parents, Mr. Wormwood (Liam Brooks) and Mrs. Wormwood (Lucy Dooling) but impresses her schoolteacher, the highly loveable Miss Honey (Libby Stavers). 

Matilda’s school life isn’t completely smooth sailing, however – the school’s mean headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (Charlie Davis), hates children and just loves thinking up new punishments for those who don’t abide by her rules. But Matilda has courage and cleverness in equal amounts, and could be the school pupils’ saving grace!

The Ballston Spa Rotary Club will also be at each show for the annual Spread the Love Food Drive. Non-perishable food and monetary donations will be accepted in the high school lobby prior to the shows. All donations will be distributed to food pantries in Ballston Spa.  Audience members are asked to please consider bringing a donation to help support the community.