We are excited to announce "Take 5 with Dr. Berry-Brown," a new bi-weekly video series featuring our Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Andrea J. Berry-Brown. In each 5-minute episode, Dr. Berry-Brown will provide important updates, share district news, and highlight key initiatives that impact our students, families, and staff.
This series is designed to keep you informed and connected to the latest developments in the School District of the City of York. Whether it’s new programs, upcoming events, or important district changes, "Take 5 with Dr. Berry-Brown" will ensure our community stays informed and engaged.
Each video will be accompanied by a transcription, available below the video, to ensure accessibility and ease of translation for families who may need it in another language. We encourage you to check back bi-weekly for new updates, and thank you for being an essential part of our school community!
Watch the latest episode of "Take 5 with Dr. Berry-Brown" below:
Transcription:
"Greetings Bearcat community. This is the first of a bi-weekly series where we will be talking about some of the strategic plan goals in the School District of the City of York. I wanted to be able to provide some information to the community on a bi-weekly basis that tells about what we are doing as a school district. Those pieces of information will be centered around the acronym S.O.F.I.T., S-O-F-I-T, which is an acronym that summarizes our strategic plan and comprehensive plan goals. The "S" is for Strategic Fiscal Management, and that is where we will start. We have applied for a grant for $3.2 million for reimbursement for capital improvement project. We are so excited to be able to receive that reimbursement from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the United States Department of Education. That money will help us to continue to improve our schools.
We have a series of different activities that go on centered around Organizational Health, which is the "O" in S.O.F.I.T. This month, we participated in our monthly Mental Health Collaborative, which happens here at the School District of the City of York, which is a partnership with a local agency where we are talking about Black and Brown mental health in the City of York. There are several community members that participate in this forum, and we have great conversations about how we can help Black and Brown families with mental health and how we can educate families on where to get services and how to be our best selves.
We are promoting and talking about that it's okay to not be okay, as long as we are providing opportunities to be well. With that being said, on the 16th of September, we had our first meeting and it was very productive. We had an opportunity to speak as a whole group and break down into smaller groups and begin to dissect the work to really be able to impact the community. I look forward to being able to report the progress and to share the resources that we are creating. The "F" in S.O.F.I.T. stands for Family and Student Support. In this district, we take pride in helping families as well as our students. That being said, there are an abundance of resources available to families in the School District of the City of York.
Please be on the lookout for some of those resources in your schools, on the website, on individual school pages, and through other communications at your schools. There's laundry service and an abundance of food pantry items that you can take advantage of. We want to be of service to the schools, the children, and the community, so please take advantage of these opportunities. The "I" and S.O.F.I.T. is for instruction. Instruction is paramount in the School District of the City of York. We are working hard to improve, enrich, and remediate instruction. That being said, as a community, those of you who have students in the school district, it is important that you are paying attention to their Sapphire websites, so you can see their grades weekly, as well as their attendance. Attendance plus grades equals graduation, so we want to make sure that we are prioritizing opportunities to be a partner with the schools by looking at your students' grades and performance, and if when you're looking at those grades you're seeing that grades are not being put in, it is your right as a parent and a community to question whether or not grades are being put in, in a timely manner. We want to be of service to you and we want to help you help your students, so please check their grades and attendance weekly.
The "T" in S.O.F.I.T. is Talent Management. So we are constantly trying to improve talent in the School District of the City of York. We're trying to hire, we're trying to recruit, and we're trying to retain the talent that we have. That being said, the district is actively looking for several positions.
If you check our website and you know people with certification in those positions, please encourage them to apply. Currently, one of the biggest positions that we are looking for teachers for is special education. Our special education population continues to grow, and with that being said, we continue to look for quality special education teachers to be in front of our students. Special ed has become a critical needs area, which we are highly aggressive about recruiting teachers for. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has a new pathways program that offers alternative certification for special education and other majors. Please check the website for that information as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Education website for pathways to education information which will help you see how if you have a degree in a non-related area, you can become certified as a teacher in the state of Pennsylvania. Have a great week, Bearcats!"
By offering a transcription, we hope to further our commitment to inclusivity by providing information in a format that can be translated using the translation tool that is available on the top right-hand side of the website. Stay informed with "Take 5 with Dr. Berry-Brown"!