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Mrs. Sarah VanLiew, Principal My name is Sarah VanLiew and I am proud to be the principal of the Cherry Road School. I am the sixth principal of CRS. As one enters our school you walk up front steps which were first built in the mid 1920's. Our building is the oldest of the four Westhill schools. Our school began as a two-room school. Over the past seventy plus years, eight additions have been added to the original structure. Other changes over the years have been the students served by CRS. For many years CRS was a K-8 school serving the Westvale Community. Graduates went on to Solvay High School or various schools in the city of Syracuse. It has also been a K-6 building in the Westhill Central Schools. It also housed seven sections of grades 3, 4, and 5 for the entire Westhill District. In 1997 the building was renovated to become compliant with the American Disability Act and became a two grade school: grade 3 and grade 4. Cherry Road School always brings warm memories to all who have attended or served here. It is a very warm, cheerful, child centered school in which its rich history and excellence is respected and reinforced. In the past, reunion festivities of former graduates usually include a tour of the building. Fortunately, through the efforts of caring and talented people, the building has been able to keep much of the "old" flavor, including the original trim around the doorways and the much-remembered wooden window benches in the library.
In the 2008-2009 school year, we have 155 students in seven classrooms of grade 3 and 132 students in seven classrooms of grade 4. We have 25 iMac laptop computers in our computer lab housed adjacent to the library, in addition to the five iMacs laptops that are housed in each classroom. Our library boasts an extensive shelf list and an outstanding wall sculpture done through an artist residency program with artist Sharon Bumann. The sculpture, which honored the school's 70th anniversary, contains tiles depicting the history or this area and the school. We offer students weekly classes in music, art, library and computer classes. Students also attend physical education classes two times each week. These programs are instructed by area certified teachers. In addition, we have a third grade and a fourth grade chorus to which all of our students belong. We present two concerts each year. In the area of support services we are fortunate to have the full time services of two special education teachers, and one remedial English Language Arts and math teacher. We also have the part time services of a speech teacher, an English Language Learner teacher, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, a social worker, a psychologist and a nurse. In addition, the district Director of Technology and Supervisor of Building and Grounds are housed at CRS. We have an active Character Education Program, WE CARE (see other areas of the Web site), and a community reading program called Cherry Road Reads. Throughout the year we have seasonal celebrations such as a Meet the Teacher Night, a Halloween Parade, a Holiday Assembly/Sing Along, a March Open House, a Flag Day Parade, June Field Days and a final Awards Assembly on the last day of school. Two prestigious awards are presented at this assembly: the Marion Parsons Award, honoring the first CRS Principal and the Ron Hill Award, honoring Ron Hill who was principal at CRS the longest-seventeen years. We also provide a rigorous academic program at CRS. We are entering our ninth year of the implementation of the K-6 mathematics program, Everyday Mathematics. Our language arts program is built around strong writing and reading instruction. Our District is in the second year of implementing the Houghton-Mifflin Core Reading Program. We are in our first year of integrating Lucy Calkin's Units of Study writer's workshop into our core reading program. Our social studies is instructed through a variety of materials. Our science program is centered around science activity kits which we use through the OCM BOCES. The fruits of this labor have been evident in our students' results in the recent New York State Assessments in the area of English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science.
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| Last updated on 8/29/2008 |
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Welcome to Cherry Road School
