Anthony J. Panella
Superintendent


Debbie Custodi
Secretary to the Superintendent and District Clerk

September 2023

When a new school year starts, it’s exciting to anticipate all the wonderful things that will occur over the next 10 months. At Amherst Central Schools, we’ve completed the traditional August events that herald the start of school. We brought our student leadership teams into the middle and high schools for training. Our high school Pathfinder and Trailblazer student leaders had several days of fun, interactive training. Throughout the school year they will have many roles helping their underclassmen. At the middle school, the eighth-grade student leaders involved in W.E.B. (Where Everyone Belongs) got to know one another and learn more about the ways they will assist within their building this year. One of their first tasks was to help with sixth-grade orientation.

Our student orientations for kindergarten, middle school sixth-graders and for high school freshmen aim to introduce them to a new building, new teachers and new schedules. Starting school at a new building can bring a range of emotions to students from excitement and happiness to fear and unease. Through our orientations where students get to meet one another and interact with teachers and counselors, we hope to make all students feel comfortable, relaxed and accepted in their new surroundings.

Our staff and faculty also participated in our traditional late August events. We held our New Teacher Orientation sessions for 24 new faculty and three new administrators where we provided four days of orientation. All faculty and staff returned for our opening day sessions.

On Sept. 5 we welcomed our students back for the first day of class. As many of our students walk or bike to school when the weather is nice, please be watchful for them on our sidewalks, streets and crosswalks.

By the time you read this, several of our sports teams have already had their first games and matches. We invite our community to come out and support our student-athletes. Likewise, with our music and drama programs throughout the school year, the community is welcome to attend the concerts, plays and Amherst Operetta that showcase the talent of our students. Our website calendar includes performance dates.

We have established many ways for our community to follow the good news from our district and we encourage you to follow or like our accounts on social media or our district website at amherstschools.org. Our school district also has a mobile app that can be downloaded - look for the orange A.

During the first few weeks of school, students and families will be adjusting to new schedules and routines. It’s all part of the process in a new year. I’m looking ahead with great anticipation and can’t wait to see how our staff and students will exceed expectations over the next 10 months.