Lake Shore Central School District

Welcome back everyone!  I sincerely hope that you had a fun, relaxing summer and are ready for the 2023-24 school year.

The safety of our students and staff remains a top concern for us.  Over the summer, we have installed safety film on all of the District's first floor windows and doors.  The film makes the glass panes shatterproof. As we start the school year, I'd like to remind everyone that the District maintains a single point of entry on our school buildings.  That means that visitors should enter through the main entryway and provide their driver's license to the building secretary, to be scanned by our Raptor Visitor Management System, in order to obtain a Visitor's Pass.  No students or staff should open an outside door to let anybody into the building.

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, we will be exploring the possibility of moving our 5th grade classrooms to the William G. Houston Middle School. We are studying this because our elementary school buildings have very little space given the current elementary enrollments.  Over the past year, we studied enrollment trends and had an enrollment projection provided to us by an outside firm.They predicted that our enrollment would stay right around the current level for the foreseeable future. We are looking at ways to create some space in each of our elementary school buildings to ease the crowding.  While we have considered a couple of options, moving the 5th grade classes to the middle school seems to make the most sense, as the middle school was designed and built to house many more students than it currently serves. Making these moves would free up two or three classrooms in each of our elementary school buildings, which would relieve some of the crowding issues. During the next several months, we will take a close look at the issues involved with this possibility - things like how it would impact student transportation, schedules, staffing, etc.  We want to take a careful, thoughtful approach to evaluating the idea and make sure we try to consider all of the issues and address any problems if the decision is made to move forward. If you would like to serve on a committee to provide input into the process before the Board of Education makes a decision on this, please watch for upcoming opportunities to serve.

I want to welcome our new faculty and staff members who are joining us this year.  I think you will find Lake Shore to be an exciting, dynamic place with wonderful students and a seasoned staff.  Attendance will be important this year.  As we continue to recover from the learning lag created by the covid closure period, having students and staff present every day in school is important.  A review of our student test results would indicate that we have a lot of room for growth.  We all know that a kid is more than a test score, but we also know that we can do better.  We have put a lot of effort into curriculum work and alignment this summer in an effort to raise the bar for our kids. 

Last, I want to thank everyone for what they're doing to make the start of our 2023-24 school year smooth and successful. A strong start to the school year can pay off in great achievement in the end.My vision is for Lake Shore to continue creating a culture where students feel welcome and comfortable, and where they become involved and strive to excel. We hope our buildings and facilities reflect our effort to provide a safe, welcoming environment that students and employees want to come to every day. Lake Shore CSD is a truly special place, and I'm humbled and honored to  work with so many special people.

Sincerely,

Daniel Pacos,  
Superintendent of Schools