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SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

SUCCESS STORIES
                                                  CHAMPLAIN VALLEY EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

       CV-TEC LPN STUDENT ALEXIS RHINO
          practices drawing a precise dose
                   for an injection.

                                                     EXPANDING EMPLOYMENT
                                                         OPPORTUNITIES FOR
                                                  STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

                                                      LAUNCHING NEW VISIONS:
                                                         APPLIED ENGINEERING

                                                PARTNERING WITH COMPONENT
                                             DISTRICTS: GRANTS & RE-BRANDING

                                                                                                         1
SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
ADMINISTRATION
                         Mark C. Davey, Ed.D.
                  District Superintendent/CEO
                       Teri Calabrese-Gray
                Assistant Superintendent for
      Instruction and 21st Century Learning
                                                    OUR MISSION
                                     Eric Bell
                  Assistant Superintendent of       Champlain Valley Educational Services empowers students, schools and
                        Management Services         communities by providing exemplary education, training, support and

                          Michele Friedman          shared services.
    Director of Career & Technical Education

                           Matthew Slattery
                 Director of Special Education
                                                    OUR VISION
                                                    We aspire to be a nationally recognized, premier provider of dynamic and
                                 Christine Myers
                                        Treasurer   innovative programs and services, serving as a catalyst for personal and
                                                    regional economic growth.

                CVES BOARD
                                                    OUR CORE BELIEFS
                Larry Barcomb, President
                                                       • Students are our first priority.
          Michael St. Pierre, Vice President
                                                       • We value open and honest communication.
     Bruce Murdock, Deputy Vice President
                                 Leisa Boise           • We embrace collaboration and shared decision-making.
                              Patricia Gero            • We promote creativity and innovation.
                              Evan Glading             • All students can learn and be successful.
                      Linda Gonyo-Horne
                                                       • We all lead by example.
                    Richard Harriman, Sr.
                         Donna LaRocque                • We act with integrity, fostering respect for all.

                         Richard Malaney               • Students, family and community are valued partners for success.
                                   Ed Marin            • We ensure a safe, supportive learning and work environment.
                         Thomas McCabe                 • We all impact the educational process and are dedicated to perform
                             Lori Saunders                at the highest possible levels.
                             Doug Spilling
                             Scott Thurber
                                                    Public Non-Discrimination Notice:
                                                    Clinton-Essex-Warren-Washington BOCES a/k/a/ Champlain Valley Educational Services
                                                    does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age or any
                                                    other legally protected status in its programs, activities, employment and admissions; and
                                                    provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups.
                                                    Inquiries regarding this nondiscrimination policy may be directed to:
                                                    James McCartney – Civil Rights Compliance Officer   Bonnie Berry– Section 504 Compliance Officer
                                                    Cathy Snow – Civil Rights Compliance Officer        1585 Military Turnpike
                                                    1585 Military Turnpike                              P.O. Box 455, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
                                                    P.O. Box 455, Plattsburgh, NY 12901                 Phone: 518-561-0100 Ext. 299
          Edited, Designed & Printed by the         Phone: 518-561-0100 Ext. 236
       CVES Communications & Print Shop Teams
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SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

Dear Colleagues and Friends,
                                                                             IN THIS EDITION
This year’s issue of Success Stories features
the students, programs and partnerships                                      COVER STORY
between with our component school
                                                                             Advancing Medical Careers
districts that make CVES (as our Vision                                      CV-TEC Division                                             4
Statement declares) “the premier provider
of dynamic and innovative programs and
                                                                             Creating Mindfulness
                                                                             Special Education Division                                  6
services.”

                                                                             Granting Education
Our Special Education Division is expanding its Pre-Employment
                                                                             Instructional Services Division                             8
Transition Services through a five-year $1.5 million grant secured from
ACCESS-VR. They have also created a space for students to practice self-     A New Vision
control skills – the Mindfulness Room.
                                                                             CV-TEC Division                                           10

CV-TEC is launching an exciting new program, New Visions: Applied            Pre-Employment
Engineering with a series of events geared toward attracting potential       Transition Services
                                                                             Special Education Division                                12
students for this senior-year program. Its Adult Education LPN program
is growing, and the story features students who had completed Allied         Above Brand
Health or Adult CNA programs at CV-TEC and have returned to further          Instructional Services Division                           14
their education and employment opportunities. There is a great need
                                                                             (App)lications for the Future
for LPNs in the North Country, and graduates of our LPN program have         Instructional Services Division                           15
virtually guaranteed placement.
                                                                             Supporting Employees
The Instructional Services Center is an essential partner for our            Management Services & ISC Divisions                       16
component districts, providing many necessary services. The two
services featured in this publication, Grant Procurement and Graphic
Design/Communications, have seen exceptional success this year.
Working through the Grant Procurement service, the Peru CSD has
received a grant to expand its Pre-K program. The Plattsburgh City
School District partnered with ISC Graphic Design service on a recent re-
branding campaign that won a NYS-wide award for excellence.

Our programs and services are recognized as being among the best in the
state; our students are thriving and contributing to the well-being of our
communities. However, we will not rest on our laurels, we will continue
to innovate and create new and improved programs and services. And,
we look forward to a strong continued partnership with our districts and
communities.

                                                Mark C. Davey, Ed.D.
                                           District Superintendent/CEO

                                                                                                                                          3
SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
Cover Story

                                                                                                       Brandon Kiroy practices checking
                                                                                                         a patient’s blood pressure on
                                                                                                            classmate Alexis Rhino.

Advancing Medical Careers
CV-TEC Division
                                                                                         Top 10 Opportunity
Alexis Rhino first attended CV-TEC in         Alexis said, “as a CV-TEC student in the
                                                                                         Occupations in NYS

                                                                                                     2
the Allied Health program during her          Allied Health program, I was able to
                                                                                         Licensed Practical Nurses ranked
junior year of high school. In her senior     become a CNA in my first year, and
year, she went to work at Plattsburgh         in the second year, I studied EKG and
Rehabilitation & Nursing Center as a          Phlebotomy. I got a lot of medical

                                                                                            #
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). Alexis     experience and I knew that I wanted to
then wanted to continue her education         further my education, and that the LPN
in the health care field, so she applied to   program was going to be a good step in
                                                                                                                                      Source: www.labor.ny.gov/stats/enys_index.shtm Date: 2018

CV-TEC’s Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)       furthering my career.”
program, was accepted, and is thriving.                                                  Projected Job Growth          +18.4%
                                              The LPN program runs from September
                                                                                              Median Annual Wage
Once she graduates, she plans to              to June - 10 months, 1160 hours of
continue her employment at Plattsburgh        combined classroom work and clinical
                                                                                                  $49,470
Rehab, but as an LPN.                         experience. According to Dena Tedford,     Post-secondary non-degree award
                                                                                              needed for entry to field.
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SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

                             Alexis Rhino: CV-TEC                         Brandon Kiroy: CV-TEC
                            Allied Health Graduate                         Adult CNA Graduate

CV-TEC Health Careers Coordinator, “they have clinical practice   Brandon said. “I had multiple teachers telling me that they
two days a week at local nursing homes, hospitals or other        wanted me to move on and continue my education, so I
health care facilities getting hands-on experience. There’s an    applied to the LPN program. I plan on working for a year as
entrance exam for the program, we offer the test, called the      an LPN, while taking some nursing classes and then applying
TEAS exam, once a month beginning in February, and we also        for North Country Community College’s Registered Nurse
offer a short TEAS exam prep course for applicants.”              program.”

Brandon Kiroy was in CV-TEC’s adult CNA class last summer,        Alexis likewise sees the LPN program as a way to further her
then got a job at the hospital as a clinical assistant. When he   career as a nurse, “I’m going to work as an LPN for a little while
wanted to continue his education, he applied to CV-TEC’s          and gain some experience. Then I plan to further my education
LPN program. “The teachers at CV-TEC were very supportive,”       to become an RN and a nurse practitioner.”

                                                                                    Current LPN students who had previously graduated
                                                                                           from a CV-TEC Health Career program.

                                                                                                                                        5
SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
A student at William A. Fritz
                                             Special Education Center chooses to
                                             work on a puzzle while visiting the
                                             Mindfulness Room. Each session is
                                                      about 20 minutes.

Creating Mindfulness
Special Education Division

A key strategy in our transformation is to   mindfulness training.                         frequent crisis situations.
build relationships with students and to
                                             CVES Social Worker Toni Perez has had         According to Toni Perez, “We started
help students with coping strategies. This
                                             two years of trauma training under Dr.        with 10 students and we took pre-data
year in our Strategic Plan we developed
                                             Perry and says that, “a lot of his training   in order to get a Baseline, and now we’re
one of the targets to look at students
                                             is teaching kids about their body and         using the room for a couple of months
at high stress levels and track restraints
                                             their reactions to emotions.” Staff           and then we’ll be taking post data so that
and break room use for them to help
                                             researched what worked with students          we can graph anxiety events.” Thanks
us in addressing their stress levels and
                                             and one of the key pieces was the use         to Toni and her intern the room was
providing them with a toolkit to help
                                             of a Mindfulness Room. A group started        prepared and ready for use by November.
with self-care. Staff members attended
                                             planning to collect data in September
conferences with Dave Melnick and                                                          The Mindfulness Room is a supportive
                                             and October to prepare a Mindfulness
Dr. Bruce Perry regarding trauma and                                                       environment set up to teach children
                                             Room for use by those students in
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SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020
                                                                                                              Mindfulness Room and must be using it
                                                                                                              to maintain self-control. In Toni Perez’s
                                                                                                              view, “it is there to use when they’re
                                                                                                              escalated a bit prior to being totally out
                                                                                                              of control, but when they feel their body
                                                                                                              becoming angry or getting emotional,
                                                                                                              they can choose to use the room to help
                                                                                                              them deescalate and get back down
                                                                                                              to baseline.” The Mindfulness Room
                                                                                                              includes self-regulating and sensory
                                                                                                              activities to promote self-control and
                                                                                                              calming effects. It is not a Time Out Room
                                                                                                              and will not be used as a punishment.

                                                                                                              Students can do a variety of activities
 Students have access to a variety of activities where they   calming techniques including yoga,              like create stress balls using balloons and
           can be creative, calming, and fun.
                                                              mindfulness breathing, and play therapy,        filling them with sand from a sandbox in
                                                              in order to help them learn about their         the room. They can try different tactile

“...when they [a student] feel                                body and how their body works and how           and sensory items like a rain stick that
                                                              to calm their body. The room will assist        makes calming rain noises. They have soft

their body becoming angry or                                  students in their self-calming efforts by       plushies and pillows to sit on to meditate
                                                              providing them with a quiet, safe, and          or read. There are activities such as a
getting emotional, they can                                   relaxing environment. When students             trampoline, puzzles, and coloring books.
                                                              are in distress, a crisis could occur that      The hope is that students will identify
choose to use the room to help                                results in the use of a restraint and/          that this is a great place to go, it’s safe,

them deescalate and get back                                  or break room use. CVES is committed            and it’s somewhere they can go to calm
                                                              to eliminating this intervention and            their body down.
down to baseline.”                                            believes that the Mindfulness Room is
                                                                                                              “In the future, our goal is to build more
                                           - Toni Perez       a tool that can assist in this effort. The
                                                                                                              spaces that are calming, to provide
                                                              Mindfulness Room is in a central location.
                                                                                                              options for our traumatized kids,” stated
                                                              It is designed and furnished to provide an
                                                                                                              Toni. “We plan to open the room and
                                                              area of low stimulus and away from other
                                                                                                              train other therapists and possibly some
                                                              peers/individuals. The entire room, from
                                                                                                              teachers in case a therapist isn’t available.
                                                              the color of the wall to its furnishings, has
                                                                                                              Therefore, it also has an educational
                                                              been designed to facilitate the process of
                                                                                                              purpose for our staff: to teach them. Also
                                                              self-calming and soothing.
                                                                                                              the benefits of their spending 30 minutes
     Additional features in the Mindfulness Room              The Mindfulness Room will be used by            of calm and peace in this environment
                                                              a counselor for students on a voluntary         has lasting benefits for them as well.
                                                              basis. A student must continue to               Students and staff have had an amazing
                                                              demonstrate self-control to use the             response to the Mindfulness Room.”

                                                                                                                                                             7
SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
First day of Pre-K
Michelle Rawson greets students in
   Peru’s new Pre-K program,
       funded by the grant

  Granting Education
  Instructional Services Division

  Shelly Manchester, who oversees ISC’s Grants Procurement           operation when it was compelled to downsize due to the lack
  Service, helps school districts access millions of dollars each    of certified teachers in their partnering agency. Even prior
  year for a myriad of purposes. From improving literacy, arts,      to downsizing, the district maintained a growing wait list of
  counseling and physical education programs to buying new           students for the program. As soon as Shelly confirmed the
  cafeteria equipment, increasing energy-efficiency or decreasing    NYS budget included another round of Pre-K Expansion Grant
  bus emissions, Shelly works to identify the needs of component     funding, she went to work with Peru Primary School Principal,
  districts, both instructional and operational, and finds grant     Michelle Rawson.
  funding to address them.
                                                                     Grant writing requires a variety of skills, including data analysis,
  Shelly identifies strong partnerships with our component           program and budget development and concise technical
  districts as the key to winning grants. “As a grant writer who
  works with school districts, the best thing I can have is an
  administrator, teacher or staff member acting as a point person
  at the district who is really passionate about what they want to
  accomplish. They must be willing to put the work in with me
  because I can’t be the expert in all areas.”

  Shelly first became involved with the Peru Central School
  District’s Pre-Kindergarten program in March 2018, when she
  stepped in to help administer their state and federal grants.
  Peru’s grant funded Pre-K program was only about a year into       Partnership in action: Shelley Manchester, ISC grant writer (Co-Ser 645 Grant Procurement & Data Analytics)
                                                                                               and Michelle Rawson, Principal - Peru Primary School

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SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020
writing. According to Shelly, “The districts that are successful
in obtaining grants are working far in advance of answering
requests for proposals from the funding agencies.”

Shelly continued, “Michelle worked very hard on collecting a
lot of data, which she was able to give me well in advance. I
wrote this application with Michelle in about 3 weeks, which
is pushing it, but Peru had a sound Pre-K program that was
primed for expansion. Since it wasn’t a new program, I could
write about their existing curriculum and use their assessment
data, and ultimately we were successful in securing the grant.”

Michelle Rawson agreed that data, and Shelly’s technical
expertise were critical to their success. “At Peru, we had a Pre-K
program, so the challenge was looking at out existing program
and extending those practices in the new expansion grant.            grant, discussions with North Country Kids, Inc. uncovered
We already had collected data on outcomes, so we knew that           their excitement to expand their working relationship with the
                                                                     district and their willingness to meet all program requirements
                                                                     to serve an additional classroom of 10 students.

                                                                     The combination of Peru’s compelling need for Pre-K program
                                                                     expansion, data demonstrating the effectiveness of their
                                                                     existing Pre-K program, strong collaborative partnerships and
                                                                     effective writing by Shelly of ISC’s Grant Procurement Services
                                                                     spelled success in a highly competitive funding arena. Peru’s
                                                                     award of $341,847 annually will support the three new Pre-K
                                                                     classrooms which accepted their first students in January 2020.

what we were already doing was working well for our Pre-K
students, preparing them with a strong foundation to succeed
in Kindergarten and beyond. Shelly and I collaborated over the
phone and through email. Honestly, I talked to her more than
I did my husband during that time, but she was great to work
with. She is knowledgeable about what the funding source was
looking for in the grant application.”

At Peru Primary, Michelle Rawson found space to add two
new Pre-K classrooms, doubling the size of their full day Pre-K
program to four rooms of 18 students per class and greatly
reducing the waiting list of 85 students from September 2019.
While canvasing for a collaborative partner as required for the
                                                                                                                                         9
SUCCESS STORIES - Champlain Valley ...
Teamwork
  Brennan Mazzotte, Crown Pt.
CSD tapes together the walls of a
       cardboard shelter.

A New Vision
CV-TEC Division

New Visions: Applied Engineering           participate in daily half-day sessions for   high school and college credit-bearing
is a new, competitive, application-        the course of the school year during the     coursework.
based program for high school seniors      senior year. The purpose of this program
                                                                                        The program will have two locations:
expressing an interest in a post-          is to increase student success with
                                                                                        one in Essex County and one in Clinton
secondary educational experience in the    determining a college major and career
                                                                                        County based at the respective CV-TEC
field of engineering. This rigorous one-   pathway in the field of Engineering and/
                                                                                        centers; each with dual credit options at
year exploratory program is for select     or related fields while completing dual
                                                                                        both Clinton Community College and
college-bound seniors planning to major
in Engineering or related fields.

The academic curriculum is combined
with practical applied work experience
as students engage in STEM concepts at
the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing
and clinical observations with business
partners in the field. The program
will incorporate dual enrollment in
college and high school credit-bearing
coursework with career exploration
and Work-Based Learning experiences
in Applied Engineering. Students will

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SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020
North Country Community College.

CV-TEC Director Michele Friedman
described the new program, “CV-TEC is
thrilled to be developing a New Visions:
Applied Engineering program to satisfy
the needs of our community along with
aligning our programming to what we’re
finding a large population of our high
school students are aspiring to study.”

“In keeping with our New Visions
model of excellence, this program
                                              the potential students were
will allow students to explore a broad
                                              organized into teams to design and
spectrum of components in the
                                              build an emergency shelter with
engineering field - many of which
                                              found materials (cardboard, duct
students may not have been aware
                                              tape, etc.) to be used after a disaster
of. We also wanted to broaden the
                                              such as a hurricane. Brennan’s team
scope to include opportunities at The                                                         participate in Junior Experience Kickoff
                                              won the competition.
Institute of Advanced Manufacturing                                                           Day, “I conducted a survey among
to allow students to see the                  “I thought it was a really good experience
                                                                                              eligible candidates, those who met all
engineering connection for the additive       that shined a new light on me for what
                                                                                              the initial criteria and who would like to
manufacturing technologies and other          engineering is,” said Brennan. “I’m really
                                                                                              go to CV-TEC and check it out. It’s going
advanced manufacturing opportunities          excited to see what else there is to come
                                                                                              to be a competitive program. Students
within the area.”                             of the next 2 days, to see more of what
                                                                                              have to be on track to earn an Advanced
                                              the course is going to be like. It was really
On December 3, 2020, CV-TEC held the                                                          Regents Diploma with a minimum
                                              fun, I got to meet new people who were
first of many events to introduce this                                                        overall GPA of 85 and also have interest
                                              really cool.”
new program to potential students – the                                                       in engineering. Seven of our eligible

Junior Experience Kickoff Day. This event     “The design was the most interesting            students were interested in the program.”

was attended by 50 students who are           part. I thought that construction was
                                                                                              CV-TEC Director Michele Friedman
interested in engineering, including an       just following a design, but sitting down
                                                                                              summed up the aim of the New
impressive number of female students,         and building it was the most challenging
                                                                                              Visions: Applied Engineering program,
representing most of our component            part, but was also fun. I think that we
                                                                                              “Ultimately, we would like the
school districts. It will be followed up by   followed the rubrics that they gave us
                                                                                              students to go and explore the field
the Junior Experience Day on March 17,        really well. For example, the roof had
                                                                                              of engineering, get their degrees in
2020 at Clinton Community College’s           to be pitched a certain degree, which
                                                                                              engineering, and then come back to the
Institute for Advanced Manufacturing.         I made sure to incorporate into our
                                                                                              North Country and serve our community
                                              design.”
Crown Point junior Brennan Mazzotte                                                           in that field. That is the goal.”

attended the Junior Experience Kickoff        Brennan’s mother, Crown Point Counselor

Day at CV-TEC’s Satellite campus, where       Joanne Mazzotte recruited students to

                                                                                                                                            11
Pre-Employment
Transition Services
Special Education Division

                                                                         Readiness Training to develop social skills and
                                                                         independent living, and Instruction in Self-Advocacy.

                                                                         They applied through an RFP to ACCES-VR , and one
                                                                         grant is awarded per ACCES-VR district office.

                                                                         Tonya explained that, “we currently provide the Pre-
                                                                         ETS services that are in this new contract, but only for
                                                                         individuals who are referred to us by ACCES-VR for
                                                                         services. These are individuals who applied to ACCES-
                                                                         VR, if they are approved, they are referred to us for
                                                                         the service - we do that already. The new contract will
                                                                         enable us to extend our services to potentially eligible
                                                                         individuals without the need for an ACCES-VR referral.
                                                                         This would include self referrals, school referrals, family
                                                                         referrals or agency referrals. We are in the process of
                                                                         creating a referral system to facilitate this process.”

                                                                         New clients must be between 14 and 21 and enrolled
                                                                         in some kind of educational program in order to
                                                                         qualify. They must also have a barrier to employment,
Tonya Robinson, Coordinator of Transition Programs, has
                                                                 for example an IEP, 504 plan or other barrier for which they
received a five-year grant for $1.5 Million from the NYS
                                                                 would require assistance. For example, mental health issues,
Education Department through ACCES-VR to provide Pre-
                                                                 drug or alcohol abuse, or a medical condition for which they
Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) for Students
                                                                 might need accommodations at work would qualify them as
with Disabilities. It will provide Pre-ETS to students with
                                                                 well.
disabilities in secondary, post-secondary, non-traditional or
alternative education programs (between the ages of 14 and       The program would cover Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St
21) who need such services and are potentially eligible for      Lawrence counties – this is a huge area, but all are within the
Vocational Rehabilitation services in Clinton, Essex, Franklin   Malone ACCES-VR District Office. The rollout plan was to cover
and St. Lawrence Counties. Pre-ETS services may include Job      Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties this year, and then add St.
Exploration Counseling, Work-Based Learning Experiences,         Lawrence county next year. The region overlaps with FEH and
Counseling on opportunities for enrollment in comprehensive      St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, so by applying to provide services
transition or post-secondary educational programs, Workplace     for all the regions and partnering with FEH BOCES, CVES had an

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SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

                                                                     Pre-ETS may combine individual
                                                                     services in a meaningful way to
                                                                     enhance job readiness.
                                                                          Post-Secondary Counseling for Students -
                                                                          To provide students with counseling related to
                                                                          education options after high school;

                                                                          Job Exploration Counseling for Students -
                                                                          To provide students with counseling related to careers
application that was more likely to be successful.                        options after high school;

                                                                          Self-Advocacy for Students –
Tonya continued, “my hope is that students will gain valuable
                                                                          To develop self-advocacy skills;
work experience and opportunities so that their transitions to
                                                                          Work Readiness for Students –
either the workforce or to college are strengthened. Studies              To enhance career exploration and develop soft skills;
show that individuals who have work experience prior to
                                                                          Work-Based Learning Development for Students –
exiting school have better outcomes when they leave school.               To develop an internship, work try-out or work-based
                                                                          learning experience. Work-Based Learning Development
Our goal is to provide a lot of opportunities while they are still
                                                                          may be used as a stand-alone service;
in school to improve those outcomes upon exit.”
                                                                          Work-Based Learning Experience for Students –
                                                                          To assist with paid work experience in instances where
“The contract requires us to provide services to a minimum of
                                                                          the employer is unable to place the student on his/her
250 students per year, and those students can be repetitive               payroll; and
from year to year. We’re making an operational plan for each              Work-Based Coaching Supports for Students
region depending upon the needs that we’ve received. For                  (for employment) – To provide coaching supports for
                                                                          youth engaged in paid work experiences.
example, we might have a group of students who are 14 this
                                                                     More information: http://www.acces.nysed.gov/vr/new-services-meet-wioa-requirements-
year who we will follow through for 5 years and will be able to      vocational-rehabilitation

document their growth. We might have others who are referred
to us from a college campus from out
of the region who are attending one of
our local colleges and need additional
supports.”

There is definitely a great need for these
services. Not every school can provide
school-based learning, and Regents-
bound students spend so much time on
academics that they need time outside
of school to work on those other skills
that are important for employment.
Tonya’s team will work with the students
at night, on weekends, during school
breaks and summer vacations, in
addition to working in partnership with
some school districts.

                                                                                                                                                            13
Above Brand
Instructional Services Division

Plattsburgh City School District decided it was time to       designed
bring their entire school district under one brand and        to be a
through working with Megan-Jean Manson, Publications          delight to
Specialist at Champlain Valley Educational Services, their    children.
rebranding project has won the New York School Public
                                                              NYSPRA’s
Relations Association (NYSPRA) annual Award of Excellence
                                                              Award of
(1st place) in the category of Overall Graphics and Design.
                                                              Excellence
Plattsburgh’s Assistant Superintendent for Business David     in Overall   Megan-Jean Manson, CVES Publication Specialist presents David Baroody, Plattsburgh
                                                                            CSD’s Assistant Superintendent for Business with the NYSPRA Award of Excellence.
Baroody requested a new look for the city school district     Graphic
that would focus on the athletic “Hornet” mascot and its      Design was judged among dozens of entries from other
current color palette – black and orange. This required       school public relations professionals throughout the state.
not only creating a new and original Hornet logo for the      While it is awarded to the Plattsburgh City School District,
middle and high school but also an animated, kid-friendly     it is Megan’s third award from the association and the ISC
and “Happy” Hornet that would appeal to the three             Communications Department’s fourth in the last five years.
elementary schools that would be retiring their various
                                                              David Baroody said that, “The Communications
existing mascots.
                                                              Department at CVES was a tremendous help in the
With Megan’s background in graphic design and                 Plattsburgh City School District’s re-branding initiative.
animation, she developed a diverse suite of logos that        Ultimately, our project was successful due to the strong
would accommodate the district’s needs through multiple       partnership, exceptional communication, and commitment
platforms. They picked a font that drove home the “point”     to excellence that was shared between the School District
for their athletic division and created “Happy” the Hornet    and BOCES Services.”
who is an uplifting and innocent-looking character that is

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SUCCESS STORIES - ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020

(App)lications for the Future
Instructional Services Division

As more BOCES explore adding applications for mobile devices         US-21 District.
as helpful communication tools for parents and students, an
                                                                     “When it comes to winning the Congressional App Challenge,
opportunity arose through Upward Bound to place an intern
                                                                     it’s not often programming gets looked at in general, or
with Communications Department at ISC to develop an in-
                                                                     awarded at the very least, “ Seth continued. “Because app
house CVES App for mobile devices.
                                                                     design alone is such a competitive field, being awarded as a
                                   Seth Albertus, Northeastern       youth helps compel me to continue working on this as a career.
                                   Clinton CSD senior (then          The addition of using this as a way to help my community
                                   junior), spent the month          makes it that much more important to me.”
                                   of July learning how to
                                                                     The ISC Communications team and Upward Bound were
                                   independently develop a
                                                                     ecstatic for Seth’s success.
                                   functional android-based
                                   application for a mobile          Seth hasn’t yet decided which college he plans to attend after
                                   phone under the supervision       graduating from Northeastern Clinton, but he is interested
of Megan Manson at ISC. Working for a total of 35 Hours              in pursuing a degree in Software Engineering or Computer
spread out over the month, Seth coded an application that            Science.
pulls content from the CVES website into a tool for parents and
students to receive important alerts, current events, the latest
news, and find contact information for CVES personnel.

“The internship at CVES BOCES was my first time ever using my
programming skills to achieve something both helpful, and as
part of a team. In the past I’d only ever developed things I’d use
for competitions such as programming for a robot or working
on an app,” Seth explained.

The project was generally a success and gave the school
public relation team and CVES administrators something to             Seth demostrates the coding behind the app (seen on the phone) which scans the current CVES.org website
                                                                              and turns information like the site’s blog into a “Latest News” post on the mobile device
consider for the future. In the fall of 2019, Seth inquired about
submitting the app to the United States Congressional App
                                                                     “I’m not quite sure what I want to do in the future, but I know I
Challenge, which he had already won the previous year. With
                                                                     want it to involve programming. I also feel as if helping people
some guidance on his presentation from CVES, Seth submitted
                                                                     would be important as well.”
a 10-minute video demonstrating the CVES app to the
challenge website.                                                   As for the CVES App, further development of the
                                                                     communication tool is currently under investigation by
In early December 2019, Congresswomen Elise Stefanik notified
                                                                     administrators and the Communications team.
Seth that she had selected his CVES App as her choice for the

                                                                                                                                                                            15
Supporting Employees
Management Services/Instructional Services Divisions

2018-19 was the first year that                                        food insecurity, mental health,
Social Emotional Wellness                                              financial guidance and work/
was added to our Strategic                                             life balance.
Plan’s priority targets for
                                                                       A series of posters were
improvements. While this had
                                                                       designed by the Print Shop
always been an important goal
                                                                       and the Communications
to address for students, new
                                                                       Department added a directory
attention was now being paid to
                                                                       to the CVES website (www.
the needs of CVES employees.
                                                                       cves.org/support) for
Under the direction of Assistant                                       employees to visit anytime
Superintendent of Management                                           they need to. The campaign
Services Eric Bell, in the spring                                      was launched by all divisions
of 2019, Management Services                                           before the winter Holiday
and the Instructional Services                                         Break of 2019 – with posters
Center began working together                                          displayed in employee break
to develop an awareness                                                rooms, restrooms, and offices
campaign for the Employee                                              and a CVES-wide email sent to
Assistance Program offered by                                          all staff by Eric Bell to introduce
CVES BOCES to all employees. It                                        the EAP Support web page.
began with the development of
                                                                       It is the hope of all who worked
a resource web page listing local
                                                                       on the project that the Employee
agencies and organizations that
                                                                       Assistance Program campaign
could be contacted for any form
                                                                       will help any CVES staff members
of assistance, such as addressing
                                                                       who are in need of such services.

SUCCESS STORIES
16
                                               ISSUE: XI - 2019-2020
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