At a glance it may appear that BOCES serves many types of students. At Pines Bridge, we serve students with severe multiple disabilities. At The Tech Center, we serve typical high school students. At the Walden School, BOCES serves students  

with a variety of social, emotional and learning needs.

Yet, through the BOCES Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee (CIA), administrators and teachers are finding that all BOCES students have much in common. And the keys to successfully educating those students can be shared.

Walden Principal Michael Sowul is an enthusiastic participant in the BOCES CIA Committee.

"The challenge is to take the great ideas we come up within the committee and to apply them to our very unique students," Mike said.

The Walden School serves students with emotional disabilities as well as those on the autism spectrum and students with learning disabilities. Still, the characteristics of a successful Walden student are similar to those of a student at The Tech Center.

"What is interesting are the commonalities," Mike said.

In a CIA exercise with a Wordle program recently, successful students in both programs were described as: responsible, flexible, skilled and resilient. For Walden students, resiliency is especially important, Mike said. "We want our students to be clearly ready for whatever's 

coming next."

READING PROGRAM, under way this year, is geared to help Walden's unique student population.

For the Walden School, understanding, describing and documenting successful students is essential and challenging. To be eligible for Race to the Top funding (of close to a billion dollars), New York State requires teacher evaluations to be tied to student outcomes. Graduating students are expected to be college or career ready.

"Our students are so unique," Mike said, that standard assessments don't apply. "How do we know that our students are successful? How can we prove it? How do we do the best job possible? We have to learn how to hold our students to the highest standards they are capable of" and be able to document their success. The standards must be research- and evidence-based; aligned with college and work expectations; rigorous, and internationally benchmarked in recognition of the global marketplace.

At monthly CIA meetings, the Walden staff is hoping to find answers for these extremely challenging issues. "If we live in our own bubble, we don't have the opportunity to see ways we could pair up or partner up with other BOCES programs," Mike said. The CIA uncovers common ground. A recent Tech South lecture by a holocaust survivor, for instance, was attended by both Tech Center and Fox Meadow students, suggesting that a BOCES-wide speaker's bureau could be beneficial to all programs, he said.

CHECK-UP participant Marta Ramirez, a Tech Center teaching assistant, welcomes the Vein Care screening opportunity.

More than 100 BOCES employees took advantage of a free cardiovascular screening recently in the School Services Building on the Yorktown campus. The opportunity, which was offered from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on January 11, was made available by Vein Care of New York and sponsored by the BOCES Wellness Committee.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to find out what's going on with your health," said Patty Gallo, health and physical education teacher at Fox Meadow, one of numerous walk-ins during the event.

Some people came out of curiosity, they said; others came because of family histories or specific health concerns. Marie Russo, a teaching assistant from The Tech Center said curiosity motivated her, "but it's always good to have a checkup and it's nice that BOCES is offering it."

Three technicians from Vein Care took participants' blood pressure, reviewed results, scanned carotid arteries and discussed risk factors with each individual. Debbie Johnson, Vein Care's Westchester administrator, said her colleagues didn't even stop for lunch, they were so busy. Vein Care has been offering this program to schools throughout the county for more than a year, she said. It is privately funded.

Grocery carts, borrowed from a local A&P supermarket, are turning up in BOCES buildings to collect food donations for the Hearts for Hunger campaign this month to benefit homeless people in Peekskill.