Hughes Middle School News

Citizen Action of New York and The Alliance for Quality Education in conjunction with Syracuse United Neighbors, NAACP, National Action Network and Partners for Onondaga Creek are hosting a Candidates Forum featuring the candidates for the Syracuse City School District Board of Education.

Across the United States and here in our community childhood obesity has tripled in the last 30 years. In an effort to address this major health issue, the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation has awarded Crouse Hospital a $10,000 grant to expand nutrition education activities at Hughes School. The grant will provide funding for a monthly after-school program to educate parents and children on how to move in the direction of better eating, specifically by using portion control and adding more fruits and vegetables into their daily diet.

The Healthy Habits at Hughes program kicked off this October at the schools open house. Some 300 students and parents learned about the program and enjoyed healthy food samples. Crouse employees Maureen Fauler and Leesa Kelley joined Chef Todd Corcoran in providing parents and students from Hughes a “taste” of the upcoming nutrition education program.

Each month, an executive chef from Crouse Hospital will partner with the Crouse Registered Dietitian, Heather Neely, and they will teach parents and students how to cook and eat healthy foods. Information presented will include healthy food choices, how to shop for and prepare healthy food and portion control. A different topic and recipe will be focused on each month. At the end of the each educational session the family will take home a meal they helped to prepare. The next day the entire student body will sample some of the fresh fruits or vegetables that were served with the meal.

In partnership with the Syracuse City School District, Say Yes to Education will once again provide free law clinics for families with children currently attending Syracuse City Schools. The clinics will open Monday, October 24th in seven locations throughout the District. Attorneys and paralegals will assist families by providing free advice, brief service and referrals related to legal matters that may interfere with their child’s ability to succeed in school.

Child support, child custody, guardianship, landlord disputes, public benefits, and credit problems, are some of the more common issues addressed. Any parent or student in the District can attend a walk-in clinic regardless of where their child attends school.

Legal clinics are one of several supports offered by Say Yes to Education to ensure that every child has every opportunity to reach his or her dreams of not only graduating from high school, but attending college. To learn more about other supports offered, go to www.sayyessyracuse.org.

Clinics will be open from Oct. 24 – May 25th, 2012 at the following times and locations. There will be no law clinics when school is closed for holidays, administrative closings or when after-school activities have been cancelled.

The school district has begun a series of externally funded, departmental reviews in Special Education, Information and Technology, Curriculum and Finance. These reviews are designed to provide us with insight into how we can better support our teachers, administrators and staff in our schools. They will also provide us with the expertise to build capacity and to move our district forward.