Mrs. Macaluso, Principal

Principal Monica Macaluso

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun!

                Once again I pause to reflect on a year full of challenges and accomplishments for our staff and students. It is hard to believe that another summer awaits and these halls will soon be full of furniture while we clean out the classrooms and get ready for ’09-‘10.

                We have so much to be proud of at Taylor.  Our school shined in a variety of ways this year, so please allow me to brag a little:

·         We continue to grow in our use of technology.  Our staff has strived through the year to incorporate technology into instruction through a variety of ways, such as Powerpoint presentations, website links, Smartboard presentations, digital photography, and more.  It has been so very helpful to have a part-time teaching assistant (Mrs. Shari Hardenbrook) helping in our computer lab. The children visit the lab regularly and have been working hard on their writing and research projects.

·         Our student achievement continues to excel as indicated by the latest administration of New York State assessments.  Our school-wide percent of students passing the English Language Arts assessment is 82%.  This meets the goal selected by our building planning team for the year.  Our fourth and fifth grade percent passing is the best it has been since I became principal five years ago, and the third grade scores have remained steady as well.  Our math scores, with 87% of the school passing, are consistent with last year’s results and are indicative of hard work by our students and their teachers.

·         We have strived to offer enrichment throughout the year and are just completing school-wide enrichment clusters in which our students have explored passionate pursuits such as animation, colonial crafts, papermaking, sports cards, stamping, scrapbooking, on-line storytelling, dance, and cartooning.  We continue to encourage our students to showcase their special abilities through contests, demonstrations, concerts, and special events such as this year’s storytelling contest at Barnes and Noble.

·         Our school is a safe place where each student has a connection with another student or an adult. This year we offered many opportunities for our kids to become involved, such as through the Pals program, spirit team, peer leaders, safety patrol, chorus, band, intramurals, and many other programs.  We will soon administer our first student satisfaction survey, and I am looking forward to additional input from our third-through-fifth graders in terms of what else we can offer our students next year.

In closing, I thank our staff, students, and community for continuing to work together to provide our students with a challenging, engaging K-5 education.  I look forward to 2009-2010!

Please complete our parent survey by accessing the link below.  That will allow our building planning team to reflect on this year's accomplishments and begin setting goals for next year:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=syxzw_2f6DZwQgxZzIf6FQow_3d_3d

Be sure to visit additional pages of this website to get a better understanding of our culture and goals for improvement.  I am so proud of our school and know that you will be, too, when you see the excitement for learning and professionalism we display every day.

Taylor's Building Plan for 2008-2009 (doc file - 119kb)

doc file: You need the Microsoft Word program, a free Microsoft Word viewer, or a program that can import Word files in order to view this file. To learn more about the free Microsoft Word Viewer, visit the Microsoft Word website.