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Mendon Center principal highlights culture, SEL and literacy initiatives
Summary
Mendon Center Elementary principal Rich Albano described school-year programs focusing on social-emotional learning, family engagement and early reading practices, citing a welcome-back picnic with more than 1,000 attendees and new classroom routines to support phonics and reading-for-meaning.
Principal Rich Albano told the Pittsford Central School District Board of Education about efforts at Mendon Center Elementary to strengthen school culture, social-emotional routines and early literacy programs during his annual report.
Albano said the building leaned on three guiding mantras this year — “focusing on what's best for kids, supporting our colleagues, and also having fun” — and that staff used those mantras in leadership and student-support meetings. He described social-emotional learning routines, including morning meetings from kindergarten through fifth grade, restorative conferences to resolve student conflict, buddy programs pairing younger and older students, and fifth-grade student safety greeters who help with arrival and dismissal.
Albano also described family and community events that he said shaped the year. A welcome-back picnic in September drew more than 1,000 students, parents and staff to the school green, and the school’s International Day in March included more than 25 country or culture tables staffed by parents, grandparents and families. New school events included an MCE “Stride and Shine” fun run organized by the PTSA.
On academics, Albano said Mendon Center served as a district hub for early literacy and English-language learning with about eight students arriving without English this year. The school implemented science-of-reading practices in kindergarten through second grade, including a foundations routine and Heggerty phonemic-awareness work; upper grades emphasized reading-for-meaning and a new fifth-grade “Battle of the Books” program that encouraged novel reading and group competitions.
Albano closed by noting the school’s theme “we care” emphasized circles of caring that include families and the school community. He thanked staff, the PTSA and families for support during the year.
No board action was taken on the report; it was delivered as part of the board’s regular reports.
