A Welcome Back Message from the Superintendent and the Board of Education

Dear Waterford-Halfmoon Families and Community Members,

Welcome to a new school year! We hope you had a wonderful summer. As we begin the 2025–26 year, we are proud to reflect on the accomplishments of 2024–25 and excited to share our focus for the year ahead. Together, our students and staff accomplished great things in 2024–25, including:

• Celebrating the Class of 2025, whose graduates demonstrated both academic excellence and college and career readiness: 38% earned an Advanced Regents Diploma, 53% earned a Regents Diploma, 28% completed business and technology or career and technical education sequences, 80% planned to pursue college, and 20% planned to enter trade school or the workforce.
• Expanded learning opportunities, including enhanced Universal Pre-K services, the implementation of our new elementary reading curriculum, and new high school course offerings, such as AP Psychology, Public Speaking, Computer Programming, and Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop.
• Enhanced safety and security, including improved emergency communication, increased camera coverage, additional vape sensors, and the reintroduction of our Safe School Helpline.
• Reinstatement of Distance Learning (DL) courses, which provide high school students with opportunities to access electives, advanced courses, and college courses not otherwise available.
• Participation in the Advanced Course Access (ACA) Grant, which covered tuition and exam costs for students in college and advanced courses such as College Algebra with Trigonometry, Statistics, Reading Literature, and AP Psychology.
• Impressive student extracurricular involvement, with more than 80% of Jr/Sr High students participating in athletics or clubs offered by the district.
• Professional development in MagicSchool AI, which supported teachers as they introduced and modeled ethical AI use while enhancing lesson planning and creating engaging learning opportunities for students.
• Introduction of our K–6 Makerspace program, giving elementary-age students hands-on experiences in robotics, coding, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) challenges.
• Continued collaboration with our BOCES Educational Technology Specialist, which provided students with unique opportunities, including clean energy activities, a variety of STEAM and career and technical education experiences, and virtual reality and student podcasting projects.
• Demonstrated fiscal responsibility by maintaining spending growth under 1% and a 1.85% tax levy increase for 2025–26, while successfully completing Phase 2B of our capital project.
• Launched our new district website and expanded social media presence to celebrate student success further and highlight the positive events happening across our district.

To guide our continued progress, the Board of Education, working with the Administration, has established a formal planning cycle. This process generated three- to five-year strategic goals, supported by focus areas and specific district objectives for the current school year, ensuring clear direction for our work and decision-making.

Building on this foundation, the 2025–26 school year will also be guided by our mission to provide every student with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and character to lead productive and rewarding lives. 

As a school community, we will focus on five focus areas:

• Safe, Supportive, and Inclusive Learning Environments: Expanding social-emotional supports, strengthening safety measures, reducing bullying, and promoting kindness and inclusion with guidance from a districtwide committee.
• Academic Growth and Excellence: Increasing student proficiency on state assessments, Regents exams, and mastery-level scores across all subgroups.
• Equity, Access, and Opportunity: Ensuring every student has equitable access to advanced courses, support programs, enrichment, and extracurriculars. A Board subcommittee will also assess the athletic program to expand participation and enhance student-athlete development.
• Attendance, Engagement, and Connectedness: Reducing chronic absenteeism and hosting at least four district- or school-wide events to strengthen partnerships between students, families, and the school community. A Board subcommittee will guide expanded community engagement.
• Operational Excellence and Fiscal Responsibility: Maintaining safe, efficient, and innovative operations, presenting a balanced budget within the NYS tax cap, completing scheduled facility projects on time and on budget, and implementing innovations in technology, transportation, food service, and facilities.

We are excited to welcome our students back and to continue building on the strong partnership between our schools, families, and community. Thank you for your ongoing support as we work together to make 2025–26 another successful year for every Waterford-Halfmoon student.

Wishing you a great school year, 
Michael Healey, Superintendent of Schools
Members of the Waterford-Halfmoon UFSD Board of Education