Dear Minisink Valley school community:
Welcome to the 2024-25 school year! .
Our faculty, staff and administrators are privileged to work with your children for this upcoming school year. We know this forthcoming year will be filled with academic achievements and accomplishments. We have a never-ending commitment to our students' success, and we know you feel the same way about your child as well.
Your support and partnership continue to be instrumental in our success, and we’re very grateful. We all look forward to continuing this essential relationship in the forthcoming school year.
The opening days of school are a good time to ask for your help and share some important reminders.
The first is to remind you and your child about the importance of school attendance. Students maximize their learning opportunities by being on time for school and being in class. Of course, we don’t want our students in school if they’re feeling unwell. But, we want to be sure everyone understands the academic consequences of chronic absenteeism and lateness.
It’s also a very good time to remind you and your child about the critical need for good behavior on our campuses. This includes proper behavior on our buses, in classrooms, cafeterias, gymnasiums and outdoors.
As part of this, we want to stress the district has zero tolerance of all hateful actions and speech on our campuses and school buses. This includes all acts of racism, gender, ethnic, religious and sexual orientation discrimination. It’s important for you to reinforce this to your child as part of your conversations about proper conduct. We will be doing the same, in age-appropriate conversations, with students in all buildings during the first days back to class.
We’re also asking you to review the proper use of cell phones during school hours with your child. For K-5 families, please note cell phones are not permitted; and cell phones use is prohibited during the day in Grades 6 to 8.
Lastly, please remind your student about the appropriate use of social media. This also includes usage beyond the seven hours of the day that they’re not in school. Many of the disciplinary problems we handle each year deal with cyberbullying issues tied to inappropriate use of social media.
For additional information, we encourage you to read the district's 2024-25 Code of Conduct, which was also recently mailed home to all district families.
As our trusted partners, you play a key role in reinforcing to your children about the importance of the learning process, always making good choices, striving for excellence and fostering inclusivity and acceptance.
If you have any questions about your child’s upcoming school year, please reach out to your child’s building principal. We want everyone to feel comfortable and knowledgeable this school year. Thank you for your attention to this important information.
Sincerely,
Brian C. Monahan
Superintendent
Kenneth Hauck
Principal, Minisink Valley High School
Michael Larsen
Principal, Minisink Valley Middle School
Julia Downey
Principal, Otisville Elementary School
Paul Dombal
Principal, Minisink Valley Intermediate School
Deborah Gallant
Principal, Minisink Valley Elementary School