by Eli Ruiz
FALLSBURG – As always, Fallsburg Central School District Superintendent Dr. Ivan Katz has high hopes for his students and staff during this new school year.
“I’m hopeful that our upward trend of student achievement will continue,” offered Dr. Katz in an email exchange with The Sentinel. “We, as a school district, have made a multi-year effort to improve instruction so that student achievement would improve. Our rising graduation rates have, in my estimation, been a direct result of these coordinated efforts.”
Dr. Katz said he is also looking forward to the district’s capital building project moving forward―a $15.9 million buildout that will replace and/or repair various areas of the elementary and junior/senior high schools, as described on the district’s website. Voters approved the project in May.
Students at Fallsburg have much more to look forward to this year than the recently approved building project―expected to begin sometime in 2018―though, Dr. Katz explained.
“Since early spring, we have been planning school improvement strategies for 2017–18 that will improve teaching and learning,” Dr. Katz said. “The base strategy is to share and implement our ‘Key Features of Instruction and Learning,’ in every classroom. This strategy was developed based on our vision statement. The base strategy will detail what we expect to occur on a daily basis for every student.”
A former high school English instructor with the Liberty Central School District, Dr. Katz will be entering his twelfth year as the leader of the county’s third largest school district. Asked the differences, for him, between being a teacher and an administrator, Dr. Katz said he believes he’s still every bit the teacher now that he was then.
“My classroom has just changed…it’s bigger and involves more people,” Dr. Katz said. “I look forward to working with kids, parents, staff members and the entire school community to create the best opportunities for kids that we can, in and out of the classroom.”
In Dr. Katz’s eyes, the classroom is just the beginning of his students’ achievements.
“To our district’s students, I will say that I am awed by the great things that Fallsburg graduates have done with their lives and how so many have impacted this world so positively,” Dr. Katz said. “Our Hall of Fame is a testament to that. I look forward with eager anticipation to the great things our current students will do when they leave our schoolhouse gate, ready to make their mark on the world.”
For more information about the Fallsburg Central School District, and for complete details on the approved building project, go to www.fallsburgcsd.net.