Schoharie Looking to Change School Climate

SCHOHARIE - As the new school year begins, Schoharie school officials are looking at different ways to improve the "school climate."

With a new high school principal and assistant principal in place, officials are looking at suspension rates and other information, Superintendent David Blanchard told school board members at their August meeting.

Schoharie is strict on discipline, Mr. Blanchard stressed.

"We are not soft on discipline," he told board members. "The principals do not ignore bad behavior." He noted that there were 274 one-day in-school suspensions during the 2023-24 school year and 127 out-of-school suspensions.

Suspensions are the end product, Mr. Blanchard explained.

"Suspension isn't the answer. We have to work more on restorative practices," the Superintendent said.

"We can't suspend our way out of this problem. We have to come up with alternatives."

Both the new principal, David Russell, who previously served as assistant principal, and the assistant principal Carley Ryan, know about the issues and "are working on it," Mr. Blanchard added.

Board members also approved the 2024-25 district-wide safety plan at their August meeting.

The board received a letter from a parent who complained about the increase in bullying in the district. The letter, which was read at the meeting, did not specify which building or grade the parent was referring to. 

The parent wrote, in part, "We have to do better...Bullying has gotten out of hand. Something has to be done."

The parent also complained that there was "a lot of bias" in the district and adults are "not listening."

Another complaint was that when the victim of bullying fights back, they get in trouble, the parent wrote.

The letter was in response to the district-wide safety plan, which was published for review by the public.