Welcome back to the 2023-2024 school year at Barker Central. I hope everyone had a fun, safe summer and enjoyed doing whatever makes you happy.

Summer was busy for the teachers and staff at Barker. Many faculty members helped with our summer program and worked with kids directly. Others attended workshops and conferences on such topics as literacy and providing social-emotional support to students and families. Many teachers spent time working on mapping out their curriculum and instruction for the coming year and beyond. As part of this work, grade level and content area teachers are developing a sequential plan that indicates the order in which content will be taught and learned, as well as the in-depth planning of instructional units of study.

Several of our elementary faculty members were trained to be mentors to any new hires at Barker over the next few years. This training emphasized providing new teachers to Barker and the profession in general, strategies and ideas on how to successfully navigate the first 3-4 years of teaching.

Finally, plans for opening the school year with our faculty, staff, parents and students in September were finalized and put into place.

If you have any questions regarding your child’s educational program, or the instructional program of our school, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. You can email me at ccornwell@barkercsd.net, or reach me by phone at 716-795-3388.

Yours in education,

Christian Cornwell
Coordinator of Curriculum & Professional Learning/AP