Superintendent's Corner

As you heard from Dr. Miller we are taking a deep dive into data throughout the district in a variety of ways. As an ongoing cycle of improvement, we are always identifying strengths and opportunities for growth so that we can provide the highest level of instruction to RLASD students.  To that end the Educational Services team has started an exploration for finding a data warehouse tool to take our multiple data points and migrate them to a common platform.  We are interviewing a number of vendors to meet our district needs.  Ultimately, the purpose of securing this will allow for multiple data systems convergence to streamline data analytics.  More succinctly, it will summarize and synthesize a broad range of data points into meaningful and useful information for our instructional leaders and teachers.  Ultimately, we want to be able to respond to our students’ needs in a very precise and timely manner.  This also allows us to further develop and refine our communication initiatives we have district wide to provide detailed and meaningful information to our faculty, students and families.  We will keep the board apprised of our research as we complete this process in the coming weeks. 

In addition to our curriculum frameworks and processes we continue to focus on our Cyber Security planning and communication under the leadership of Dr. Smith.  We recently convened a team of core administrators with Dr. Smith and Mr. Beard to review our processes, procedures and communications associated with cyber security.

Several District administrators including myself had the opportunity to participate in Senior High mock interviews.  I would like to thank Mr. McCleary and the Senior High team for engaging a wide array of community members and district personnel.  I have had several people within the community that volunteered for this experience and intentionally make a point to reach out to me to tell me how impressed they were with our students.  They specifically mentioned how impressed they were with our students’ preparation, speaking abilities and professionalism. I could not agree more with all of the feedback I received and could not be more proud of how our seniors represented themselves.   

Dr. Martino and I also had the opportunity to attend our National Honor Society Induction on Tuesday evening.  Congratulations to all of our recent inducted students.  Thank you Ms. Axe for leading the ceremony.  I would also like to thank Ms. White and Mr. Murray for their mentorship and leadership as advisors for the National Honor Society.  I would also like to congratulate Dr. Ayala from our Senior High English Department for being selected by the inductees to provide the faculty address.   Thank you also to Mr. Simpson for his address at the ceremony as well.  

Congratulations to our November Rotary Students of the month Miss Ana Smith and Miss Serenity Williams.  Thank you to Mrs. Sentz from our High School Counseling office for attending today’s luncheon and recognition.  These two young ladies are superb examples of service, commitment and excellence in the Red Lion Area School District.

Finally, as the Thanksgiving break approaches us, I would like to wish all of our district families, faculty, staff, students and our Board of Education a joyous, healthful and safe Holiday.

     On Saturday, September 21, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Rotary Club of Red Lion Dallastown with our annual Fall Chicken Barbeque.  We had over a dozen volunteers that supported our club to sell approximately 380 dinners.  All proceeds go towards supporting our Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) scholarship which is an opportunity for one of our Red Lion Area High School Students to attend the summer Rotary Leadership Conference at Messiah University.  I would like to thank Mrs. Stuth and her students for baking and delivering cookies, brownies and other desserts that were also for sale at the barbeque.

     Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Fall IU 12 superintendents symposium.  During that time we discussed current trends and issues facing our districts across Adams, Franklin and York counties.  We also participated in a day-long summit led by the Schlechty Institute where we engaged in various roles and responsibilities associated with the modern demands of the superintendency.  The specific focus was on research and case studies to promote and enhance the superintendency in regards to moral and ethical leadership.  Topics included developing personalized relationships with district-wide and community-wide stakeholders, creating unified vision and enhanced district capacity.

     The Senior High would like to recognize the following students as Commended Students for the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program.  Those students are Charlie Bupp, Connor McQueen, Justin Danner and Christopher Varnell.  

     Finally, I would like to commend the High School Pride committee for their design and facilitation of our class cup assembly last Friday.  It was a hard fought battle, but the Junior class came out on top as our winners in a variety of exciting contests!  I would also like to thank the faculty, staff and administration for all of our weeklong Homecoming festivities and Student Council Sponsored Homecoming Dance that hosted nearly 900 students.  

     In closing I also wanted to recognize the LEO club for their induction of two distinguished alumni of Ms. Erin (Cearfoss) Fry class of 1998 and posthumously, Mr. Tom Sechrist class of 1964.  Thank you to Tammy Grove and the Hall of Fame induction committee for their outstanding work in celebrating the excellent achievements of our Alumni.  Thank you to all who played a part in our banquet, recognition ceremony and student led video production led by Maddie Van Houten Gonzalez!

I would like to thank the faculty, staff and administration for a great opening to the 2024 school year.  We began our journey this year on August, 19 when we welcomed our 7th and 9th grade students to the junior and senior high schools as well as our students in first through sixth grade.  On Wednesday, August 21 we welcomed all of our remaining secondary students into their buildings as well as new kindergarten students.  On that same evening we held our Junior High meet the teacher night which was followed by our Senior High meet the teacher night on Thursday evening. 

On Thursday, August 29 Ms. Schmidt, Mr. McCleary and I attended the York County Alliance for Learning annual meeting and reception.  During our time together at Willman Business Center - Yorkview Hall on York College’s campus we had the opportunity to hear from current and former board members as well community business partners and educational institutions.  Thank you to Kevin Apnell and his team as he gave a presentation that highlighted the numerous career exploration, internship and apprenticeship experiences our students in Red Lion will have as a result of this partnership.  

On September 5, our Rotary of Red Lion and Dallastown held their meeting at the Red Lion Historical Society which is formerly known as the train station.  Housed inside is an amazing collection of memorabilia from its incorporation in 1880 as a village of 200 people through its   rise as a millionaires’ town with a rich history of tobacco and furniture through its current history today.  I encourage those who have not had the opportunity to visit to take advantage of that opportunity to learn more about our history here.

I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Kristin Phillips Hill on Friday, September 6.  During our time together we discussed opportunities for support and areas of need for Red Lion and the greater educational community.  I would like to thank the Senator for her willingness to continue to meet with educational leaders within our community to remain connected and have a pulse on the issues that face us on a daily basis.  

I would like to thank Dr. Martino for joining me at our inaugural Red Lion Area Education Foundation meeting that we attended on Monday, September 9.  I also would like to thank the foundation for their continued generosity and support for the district as we plan for the 2024 school year.  They are an extremely engaged and supportive organization that is always eager to support and help wherever needed for our students!

  As the year moves on we continue to address and work towards many of our strategic initiatives though our Education Services Team as well as the continued work of our comprehensive plan through our Instructional Team of administrators.  Thank you for your great work and dedication to our vision of success here at Red Lion.  

Congratulations to our Rotary Students of the Month - Clara Bradshaw and Matthew Yost.

WOW - what an amazing and busy last 13 days!

Induction began on Monday, August, 5th for all new professional staff.  It was a great four day session led by a variety of members from our Administrative Team.  I would like to thank Dr. Martino and Dr. Miller for their dedication to this process and really taking an innovative and differentiated approach to onboard and prepare our new staff for the 2024-2025 school year.  

As we officially kicked off the new year, we began with our celebration and district opening this past Tuesday.  Our opening presentation featured the work of our Instructional Innovators, our model for continuous improvement for the district and an uplifting presentation by Dr. Tyler Cook that really resonated with our staff.  

We also introduced our new concept of READY which has been collaboratively developed with staff and administration. This concept moves us to a place and space of preparation so that no matter where students are in the K-12 continuum they are prepared and ready for what comes next!  The morning was jam-packed with positivity, collaboration and new learning for our entire teaching staff!  Although I’m not sure the Bean Boozled Jelly Bean challenge or Hot Takes with Dan and Rob will return for next year, we will have to wait and see!  It was great to see the enthusiasm and excitement for the new year.  WE ARE READY!

The past TWO days have included our summer administrative planning to launch all of our new strategic objectives.  This incorporated our work from our summer retreat as well as defining what success looks like personally and what success looks like for the Red Lion Area School District.  We also talked about what the evidence and artifacts will look like to measure our success.  As we move forward with our instructional innovators, buildings began critical work regarding how all classrooms will develop and implement Standard Operating procedures, Classroom Codes and Visions.

As part of our PBIS and Pride reboot all teachers K-12 were introduced and trained with new information and learning as to how we can continue to improve our culture and climate.  We also began our professional development and training to implement our new mathematics program Into Math and our new K-12 STEELS science curriculum under the leadership of Mrs. Lankford, Mrs. Smith and Dr. Miller.  Also, thank you to Dr. Miller and Dr. Smith for spending a huge amount of time revising and developing our K-12 digital ecosystem and curriculum hub so that all teachers have an easy one stop shop for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment.  

Dr. Martino and I have also made stops at various sports camps and we look to continue those opportunities to visit with our teams and the marching band in the coming weeks as their seasons get started.  We wish them all a safe and successful season.  

And finally as we approach Monday we wish all the students, staff and family a safe, productive school year.  I want to personally thank all of our administration and faculty for the hard work they have put in to be ready for this year and taking on the ambitious objectives we have begun to implement.  I would also like to thank the board for your support and commitment to the vision and journey we seek to achieve as a tema here in Red Lion.  We could not do this work without your partnership and endorsement.  We are excited to implement our new programming and curriculum as we begin the 2024 school year.  We are READY!