Superintendent's Message for October 2024

October has arrived in “T-Wolves Territory” and many exciting things are happening on all of our campuses. The students and staff are working hard as we near the end of the first quarter.  The first quarter ends on October 11th and the second quarter will begin on the 14th.  Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for October 23rd and 24th.  October 7th is a professional development day for staff and October 25th is a day for compensating teachers for their extra hours during parent-teacher conferences.

In September, there were some questions about the Corning district running another bond referendum.  We want to clarify that neither district is running a bond referendum.  The confusion may have arisen from our legal notice of selling bonds.  We have divided the bond sales for the Corning project into three sales as we progress through the project.  Our initial sale was in November of 2023 for $14,015,000. The second sale was in June for $2,960,000, and our final sale will be in early 2025 for the remaining $2,225,000, bringing the total to the approved bond referendum amount of $19,200,000.  So, just to reassure you, you will see one more posting in the paper for our final bond sale and that will be the end of the bond sales for this project. 

The Corning bond project is underway.  Currently, walls are being erected and the building is beginning to take shape.  The project is on target for a mid-June completion date and ready for student and staff occupancy in August 2025!  The baseball and softball fields are being renovated as well and these improvements will be completed and ready for play next summer! You are welcome to come down and check the progress, but we ask you to remain behind the fence out of the construction area.  Large machinery is used to install the precast and pour the footings and we do not want to see anyone get hurt.  Updates on the project are available on our Facebook page and our website (southwestvalley.org), scroll down to “latest news” for the link. 

Kyle Williams of Massena was recently selected as the new transportation supervisor for the Southwest Valley district.  Kyle has been working on updating and servicing our vehicles. Kyle has experience as a transportation director and in the customer service area.  We are excited to have him on board.  Dawn Shuler is serving as the transportation secretary and will assist Kyle with bus schedules and route development, among other things. 

I want to wish the farmers a safe harvest and ask that we all be more careful and aware of their vehicles and equipment as they move from field to field.  Happy October!