CTE Staff Welcomes Back Students to Start the 2024-25 School Year
Students from SWBOCES' component districts began classes at CTE on Sept. 5, 2024
On a sun-splashed, blue-sky day in Valhalla, the Center for Career Services campus bustled with anticipation Thursday morning. Students arrived in two waves — one in the morning, another in the afternoon — for the first day of classes, bringing a new-year, new-school buzz that proved energizing.
“I just said to some of our teaching assistants, this is the best part of the school year,” CTE Director Dahlia Jackson said.
There were a host of students back for their second year on campus, and many of them greeted instructors and staff members with smiles, fist bumps and even hugs. There were also new first-year students, a group that was welcomed with open arms to begin a new journey in one of the school’s career-based programs.
“I saw one student who looked nervous and needed some help,” Jackson said. “I just asked, ‘Can I give you a hug?’”
Unlike past years, when students from different districts trickled in over the course of several days, the majority of the approximately 825 students enrolled this school year arrived on Thursday. Jackson said that meant more staff members, which included administrators, teaching assistants and office staff, were on hand to check in students. They disseminated new schedules to the students and some then directed them to their new classrooms.
Although Thursday marked the first day of the year and classes will give new students time to get orientated, instruction is already underway for some. Second-year culinary students started Thursday by helping to prepare breakfast for the following morning when SWBOCES Superintendent Dr. Harold Coles hosts a monthly superintendent’s meeting on campus.
That underscored how eager and prepared some CTE students already are to begin the school year.
“A lot of them were coming back and asking our staff about their summer,” Jackson said. “It shows the strong bond that we have here with our students.”
