Welcome to the 2024-2025 School Year

Dear Students, Parents, and Caregivers,

I hope you and your families had a relaxing and fun summer. As summer comes to an end, it is time to begin preparing for the school year. We are excited to have the students back in the building and our staff is eager to see them on September 5th. 

I want to make you aware that one of our biggest changes this year will be in our PE curriculum. We value physical education here at Ballston Spa and believe that developing physical literacy is an important part of the high school curriculum. We also understand that, like in life, everybody will be active in different ways. Some people enjoy yoga versus a pick up game of basketball. So this year we will be offering PE “Strands” instead of the typical PE curriculum. What this means is during PE class the first week of school, students will be asked to pick one of three “strands” of PE to take. The options are Team Sports, Fitness, or Lifetime Activities. The PE teachers will be discussing these in more detail during the opening weeks. We are hoping this gives students the ability to pick a PE curriculum that fits their needs and wants while also increasing the participation in our PE classes. Please be aware that we have limited space so not every student will get their top choice. We are excited to make this adjustment and are hoping students enjoy having choices in PE. 

Also, as many of you are aware, there has been discussion in several capital region schools about changing their cell phone policies. At Ballston Spa we will be keeping our current building rule of “silent and away.” I want to reiterate that students need to have their phones away during instructional time. I often tell our students to "be where your feet are" and this is tough to do in a classroom if you're on your phone while a teacher is teaching.  So, if a student is on their cell phone during a class, they will be sent to the assistant principal’s office where the phone will be confiscated for the remainder of the school day. The phone will be kept in a safe place where only administrators have access, and it will be locked. At the end of the school day the student may then retrieve their cell phone from the main office.  Please discuss this with your student, and use this as an opportunity to talk to them about appropriate behavior in the digital world and on their social media pages. I truly believe that we need to be united as a community to help young people understand the pros and cons of social media. So please, help us in this educational process. 

Finally, some important upcoming dates:

Last week of August: Student schedules released

September 4th: Freshman/New Student/Parent Orientation, 8:00-11:00 a.m.

September 5th: First Day of Classes

September 20th: Homecoming Street Fair in bus loop

September 27th: Staff Conference ½ Day Students, dismissed at 10:40 a.m.

September 26th: Meet the Teacher Night 7 p.m.

 

We are looking forward to seeing everybody this school year. It’s a great day to be a Scottie!

Sincerely,

Matthew Robinson, HS Principal