District starting club to educate students, promote community events

The Webutuck Central School District hosted the Celebrate Amenia committee spring meeting at which Superintendent of Schools Ray Castellani offered to start a student club to help get the word out about the great things happening in the town.

The club will have an adviser, and students will assist the town in sharing its news with proposed short documentaries, social media, emails, podcasts, a quarterly Amenia night, weekly print page and prepared press kits for media.

“We’re working as partners to benefit our students, to help them grow with different opportunities and programs, as well as to bring out, using our students and our student voices, the great things that are happening in this community,” said Castellani.

Castellani serves on the committee with Amenia community and business leaders. Town of Amenia Supervisor Rosanna Hamm leads the committee. Several Webutuck administrators joined the spring meeting held in the intermediate school/high school library.

“This is an ongoing standing committee that I was invited to back in the winter,” said Castellani. “It’s the town supervisor’s committee, and she brings in a bunch of stakeholders who have an impact on the community about ideas to promote our community, promote Amenia, and talk about some of the needs and the great things that are happening.

“When we met last, we wanted to host that meeting so we could highlight our school district, our programs, our facilities and continue to build a partnership with stakeholders.”

Following the discussion, the committee enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches, salads and cookies prepared by Food Services Director Dan Trotter.

After lunch, Castellani led the committee on a tour of the Webutuck campus with stops including the high school auditorium, high school gymnasium, teacher Aaron Howard’s shop/technology class, the elementary school and the School-Based Health Center operated by Open Door.

The School-Based Health Center is the only medical office of this nature at a Dutchess County school. Webutuck also has the only pre-K3 program in the county.

“We tried to highlight some of the key areas in our high school, some of the programs that we have,” said Deputy Superintendent Robert Farrier. “We featured the School-Based Health Center, that’s really been a pivotal component of our district. The auditorium has really become a central point of our schools and even for the community, we’ve had some community events there.

“The shop and technology programs, a lot of great things are coming out of that program and it’s really allowing our students to use those skills as they transition from high school into the workforce.”