The Mission of the Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District is to provide an environment which engages all students as active learners in gaining knowledge, acquiring skills, and developing attitudes that encourage them to embrace learning as a life-long endeavor, and prepare them to function as responsible citizens and contributing members of society.               

We promote a safe and healthy environment for our students through:

• School wide discipline and attendance policies;
• Classroom protocol;
• Sufficient administrative personnel to monitor student infractions and ensure consistency in the enforcement of the discipline code;
• Appropriate security measures and personnel;
• Programs that promote positive interactions among students;
• A health services program;
• Health and safety awareness;
• Properly equipped and supervised classrooms, laboratories, and athletic fields;
• Compliance with state and local health and safety regulations.

We value the development of caring, respectful and ethical attitudes toward ourselves and others through:

• Instructional strategies;
• Curricular and co-curricular programs;
• Pupil personnel services that effectively meet the needs of all students;
• Written communication that defines the responsibilities of the members of the school community;
• Community service expectations.

We value the importance of partnerships among students, district employees, parents, and the community at large through:

• Scheduled meetings that provide a forum for discourse and elicit school-wide participation;
• Building compact committees that fulfill state and local mandates for shared decision-making;
• Student government organizations;
• An involved and supportive Parent Teacher Association;
• A Blind Brook Enrichment Program that supplements district funding;
• A "teaming" concept that provides opportunities for collaboration among teachers in order to meet student needs;
• Community service opportunities;
• School-wide programs that encourage family and community participation;
• Written communication that informs the school community of curriculum, programs and events;
• Accessibility of the school facility to the community.

We believe the school system should recognize and respond to student strengths and weaknesses in order to meet individual needs through:

• The continual professional development of teachers;
• Curriculum, pedagogy and co-curricular activities organized to meet the varied abilities and needs of all students;
• Class sizes appropriate to the needs of the students and the area of study;
• Special education programs and services;
• Grade level and Child Study Team meetings to address individual student needs and those whose needs are beyond the ordinary purview of the school program;
• Student recognition awards;
• Ongoing communication between school and home.

We emphasize the importance of developing creative and skillful communicators, critical thinkers and problem solvers through:

• A rich and varied curriculum and co-curriculum that provides knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for learning and life;
• Programs, publications, and activities that encourage student expression;
• Listening, speaking, reading and writing tasks across the curriculum;
• Instructional strategies and varied activities that cause students to compare, contrast, induce, deduce, hypothesize and analyze;
• Authentic (real life situational) performance tasks and assessments.

We recognize the relationships among all disciplines and the necessity of linking them to learning and life through:

• The need for scheduled time during the school day for teachers to connect curriculum;
• An effective staff development program that supports creativity and encourages collaboration among various team members;
• The support of off-campus learning experiences;
• The availability of scheduling alternatives;
• The use of technology and media to expand the learning environment;
• Planned interdisciplinary curricula and co-curricular programs that stress connections among disciplines;
• Strategies that encourage students to have a personal investment in class projects and goals;
• Professional staff who serve as coaches and mentors for students.

We recognize technology as an essential component of communication in our world and a practical tool that imparts teaching and learning through:

• A variety of technologies than enhance curriculum;
• Access to global information systems;
• A district Internet use policy that governs the ethics of communication;
• Implementation of a community supported technology program;
• Professional development opportunities for faculty and staff;
• An emphasis on the evaluation and synthesis of information.

We encourage the use of diverse methods of assessing student growth and success which:

• Establish clear, precise, and meaningful assessment standards and criteria;
• Are on-going and encourage students to revise past work and to improve performance on specific criteria over time;
• Promote a common set of standards among teachers;
• Inform students why and how they are being assessed on a particular task;
• Inform students about the standards upon which they are being assessed over time;
• Provide a diagnosis of individual student performances for improving student learning and guiding instructional strategies and curriculum development;
• Encourage and facilitate student self-assessment and reflections as well as assessment by their peers;
• Invite student input on assessment standards and criteria;
• Are open to revision.

Adopted by the Board of Education, 12/15/97