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The Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES Character Education Study Group
is a committee of professionals representing Westchester, Putnam and Rockland
County school districts and community organizations. According to the
new section of Education Law §801-a, all public school districts
must provide instruction in civility, citizenship and character education,
as part of Project SAVE. The New York State Education Department encourages
districts to establish a process for analyzing their existing efforts,
K-12. The goal of this study group is to assist school districts in the
effort and work together to develop a K-12 Comprehensive Character Education
program that can be integrated throughout the curriculum.
Meetings are held on a regular basis. Members share and support each
other and identify areas of concern and interest. In 2001 the committee
developed a needs assessment tool that can be used by a district or building
level teams to help assess current policies, procedures and practices.
Upon completion of this Character Education Needs Assessment Tool, it
is hoped that district/school teams can make informed decisions about
the next steps in the development of a character education program. That
tool is available on this site.
The Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES Character Education Study Group
has sponsored two conferences one in 2001 and the other in October of
2004. At this last conference, Creating a Safe and Secure School Culture,
the keynote presentation was made by Joel Haber, Ph. D., noted expert
on bullying. It also included presentations by two local programs of promise,
Tom Gill discussing the PBIS model as applied in the Walden School at
P/NW BOCES and a description of the Town Meetings held at the Pawling
Central School District. The conference also featured a Superintendent’s
Forum which included Dr. Robert J Reidy, Jr. of the Mahopac Central School
District, Thomas M. Kelly, Ph. D. of the Valhalla Unified School District,
and Mr. Frank DeLuca of the Pawling Central School District discussing
School Climate and Character Education at the District and Community level.
(Adobe Acrobat Version 5.0 or higher. Click
here to download Adobe to your computer.)
If you are interested in joining the Character Education Study Group,
please contact Dr. Jeanne Gold at jgold@pnwboces.org.
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