JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Sullivan West Central School is preparing for a brand new school year in a big way. The school is in the process of updating their strategic plan, managing a constantly changing tech landscape and beginning to implement new state standards.

The River Reporter sat down with Sullivan West Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Bressler to discuss the upcoming school year. Questions and responses have been edited for consciousness and clarity.

Is Sullivan West using AI, and if so, what directives or guidance is given to faculty and students about its usage?

We do use AI. What we've tried to do first is definitely educate our faculty and staff, making sure we're attending training and professional development. Then we have a technology facilitator, Shannon Henke, and she does things like Tech Tuesdays, where faculty and staff can come down, learn more, get tips and tricks on helping them understand and where they're comfortable at using with students, or just making sure students see the positives and the pitfalls. 

We also have one program that is AI driven. It's called Thinkverse, and it's for math support. We find that in high school math, as you get up to algebra one and geometry, the number of faculty and staff in the building that can really assist with that level of math, is few and far between, unfortunately. Not only can students generate questions where they can kind of help themselves, but the AI aspect is where you kind of have a tutor that when they're trying to figure out a problem helps them answer it step by step. We felt like that's one example of where we're showing a responsible use of having AI, which would prompt you to help you answer questions, not solve problems for you.

This is the first school year that New York has banned cell phones in schools under state law. What benefits and what problems have you seen arise from this policy change?

We were wondering if there was going to be what it was going to look like, last year going into it. Our policy is for students to store their devices in their lockers during the day, and then we have a progressive disciplinary actions that are taken if you have them.

What our faculty and staff have reported is that students are paying more attention in their classrooms. We actually did a little internal survey 10 or 15 weeks into the policy to kind of see how this was affecting our classrooms and we certainly felt that our student engagement has increased. Certainly students are very wise and so they find new ways to try to work around it but we haven't seen it really rise to any kind of crazy level. So far we've been managing it well and seeing positive benefits.

Was this a huge adjustment from your previous cell phone policy, or was it pretty much in line with your previous policy?

Our previous policy was off and away, and it was pretty much in line. The only difference was in the cafeteria or study halls or in the hallways. So that was the one difference that we thought was going to be a bigger adjustment for students, but it really wasn't in the end.

Have there been any concerns over private or charter schools popping up in the district, encroaching on Sullivan West?

There are not any charter schools in our district, but there are private schools in this county that are reputable that students go to. But we truly rely on the education that we can give here and all of the extracurriculars and the clubs. I don't see that as competing with us, and I just hope that if people were interested in that, that they would just continue to look at all the good things that we have to offer and make sure that they see what you can do being a student here in a public school.

There are some schools across the region that have constant worries about shrinking enrollment. How has your enrollment been? Have you seen any declines?

We actually conduct longitudinal studies that project our enrollment. When I first became superintendent, we did a study right at the beginning of 2022, which said, ‘You're going to lose about 58 students in the next 10 years,’ and largely that was going to be due to bigger classes graduating and an average of around 70 student class sizes coming in. But pretty much it was going to be consistent. I had that study redone this spring, and now it says in the next 10 years we’ll lose 10 students, so less than 1% of the population. We also looked back and asked, ‘Was the last study right?’ And actually, the last study we feel overestimated how many students we would lose. We haven't seen a significant decline. 

I think the study has been a good predictor, and I'm happy that we're kind of staying even. We're going to see slight ups and downs because I'll have a class that's 110, and then we’ll have a class that's 63, and I think that's just any small school. But honestly, Sullivan West merging over 25 years ago was probably what has helped us have steady enrollment currently.

Where is your favorite place in the district?

In the school building, my office is in the elementary school, and I have to say, nothing does your heart more good if it's a gloomy day, then visiting a pre-K classroom. I enjoy going down that hallway in particular. I enjoy just walking the halls if I can buy the time, or walking outside. Sometimes people invite me into their classrooms to see things. That's always like the best part of my day is a day where I'm watching students learn. No matter the age, that's certainly the best part of my day.

We are lucky because actually there are so many amazing places in this community. I could never pick one, because I think I go to several businesses for a quick snack or whatever we need. Probably my most frequented place is Pecks and the dollar store, but I'm definitely thankful that I can get a cup of coffee and be around really amazing kids.

Also, one of my favorite places to be is the afternoon sports games in the fall. It could be a Friday night football game, but it could also be an afternoon cross country meet or soccer or volleyball. Usually, the weather's good and It's absolutely beautiful here at Sullivan West. I love it. That's my favorite place to be.

What's your favorite school event that you do? 

Our concerts are unbelievable. I just need to give a shout out to our entire musical department. Our elementary school concerts have been practically standing room only because they are so well attended, and our high school select choir and jazz band. I love all that stuff. Anytime I see kids that are connected and involved, and seeing their passion, I have like a huge smile on my face. I love seeing our students pushing themselves. Whether it's the field, or the concerts, or in different clubs or doing projects in the classroom. Whenever there's student passion, that's my favorite place to be to get to witness it. It's such a joy because as superintendent, I can visit and see that in many different capacities. 

What's a hidden gem about the district? 

We try not to hide it, but I just want to say that our community partnerships are absolutely phenomenal, and when we talk about Sullivan West and we say school, family, community, I truly, truly believe that people here are so giving. During the good times and the bad times, we could not offer our students what we are able to offer them without the parents and community support and pitch in when we need something. We are always getting over delivery on whatever it is we ask. And I've worked at many different schools and districts in state and out of state and Sullivan West is truly special because of that support, so to me that’s really the best part of Sullivan West. Not too hidden.

What are some of the challenges that you'll be facing this year, and problems that you see might see arise? How do you plan to deal with them?

I think that one of the challenges is always that we keep ourselves current and addressing all the student needs. We get a variety of different needs every year, and we've been reviewing our data, and we're always like, how do we keep building literacy? How do we keep focused at a time when the Portrait of a Graduate is coming out and is new? And we've been doing some work around this. And how are we really preparing our students and our teachers to take on the competencies? Critical thinking-that's always been a goal and would continue to be a goal under Portrait of a Graduate. But maybe there's new ways of doing this. I say that's like the biggest challenge right now is knowing that the state has changed to Portrait of a Graduate, and how are we going to meet that challenge? 

I think the use of technology and AI, I think that's always a challenge. You never know what the new thing is going to come out. How can we make sure that we are addressing both sides, the positives and the negatives, at the same time? So I think those are just two things. Portrait of a Graduate comes up as a challenge. I'm excited for it, but I know that that is going to take a little bit of work.

What is Portrait of a Graduate?

The New York State Department of Ed has really looked at what a New York State school graduate should be, and they've developed competencies that they would like to see in graduates. It's basically focused on a well-rounded student, and then there's been a lot of talk about changing the standards to meet this. What are the skills we need? And they include a lot of skills that we do want, like communication skills and being able to have productive conversations around difficult topics. There's a lot of skills and competencies that are in this. It's just a shift.

And also with it has come how there can be alternate ways for students to demonstrate that they've achieved meeting these competencies in their classes. So that traditionally was Regents exams, and so they've talked more about maybe having some project-based outcomes. None of that has been defined by the state yet, so that's what makes the work a little challenging, right? Because the state hasn't given us a real clear roadmap on where we're supposed to be with our students. 

What is something that you're really excited for this year?

I am excited to see what our new strategic plan looks like and where those priorities really fall for the community. We have a great administrative team that has been working hard this summer, so I'm excited to see what they do with priorities and goals set with a community partnership. I think we can do really great things here, and I think that this is a year that we're really going to see, you know, new things. But I don't exactly know where those priorities will land until we meet in August.