Students from Dutchess BOCES’ Career & Technical Institute, Resilience Academy and Salt Point Center were welcomed back to school Sept. 8 for the first day of classes by principals, teachers and other staff guiding them to their classrooms and wishing them well for the 2026-27 school year.
Career and Technical Institute Nursing Assistant Teacher Maureen Seipp and Security & Law Enforcement Teacher Steve Price were among the many CTI staff to greet this year’s crop of seniors in the hallway as they entered, while waiting for the students in their respective classes to arrive. They both agreed that their favorite part of the first day was seeing their students come back and being able to get them over the finish line as they prepare for life after high school.
Second-year nursing assistant student Isabella Caraballo is excited for this coming year, especially to participate in clinicals, the supervised hands-on patient care experiences students are required to do in order to compete the program. “I can’t wait to go out to clinicals in a real healthcare facility,” Caraballo said. “I'm looking forward to putting into practice all of the knowledge and skills I've been learning here at BOCES.”
Resilience Academy
This year, 146 students will be attending RA. Returning students gave high fives and hugs to their favorite teachers, support staff and crisis intervention staff while new students asked how to get to classes, as some of the classrooms recently moved to the upper F-Wing hallway. Staff were also readily available to help students with their new locker combinations. “It’s always good to be a helping hand,” Principal Kiesha Tillman said.
Tillman is excited to see more adolescent day treatment (ADT) classes being offered and representatives from the Mediation Center of Dutchess County return to talk with students about restorative justice practices. She hopes students and staff will lead restorative justice circles by the end of the school year. She noted that while students have first-day jitters, they were excited to see their friends and teachers and ask how their summer was. “The best part of the first day is seeing students and their smiles, happy to be in the building,” Tillman said. “It’s really great to have them back.”
Christopher Plant spoke with his first class of the day, a mixture of returning RA students and high school freshmen, about the expectations he has and important events, such as Regents exams and the fall open house. He hopes his new students do well and predicts his returning students will be good role models. “They (freshmen) are wide-eyed and shocked because this is information that is brand new to them,” Plant said. “I enjoy when the students hit their stride and really start to know the routine and see success, that’s what keeps me going.”
Senior Jared “Jax” Durso is most excited to graduate at the end of the year and looks forward to taking one class that he knows will be helpful for his future. “I’m hoping that financial math goes well because it’s something that’s really important,” Durso said.
SPC
At SPC, teachers and staff greeted students enthusiastically as they got off the buses and welcomed them back to school for the start of the school year.
“This is my first year teaching third fourth and fifth grade,” Teacher Michelle Santini said. “I'm excited to have the kids back and to get to know them as students."
Santini distributed cards to students, each with the name of a month. She then asked them to identify which month was first and second and put them in order at another desk. Once that assignment was completed, she handed out cards with numbers on them and asked them what day it was. Receiving the correct answer from a student, she asked who had eight and placed it on the calendar on the board. She then asked students for the number before eight and so on until numbers one through eight were appropriately placed on the calendar.
Second-year teacher Nicole Pastre had calming music playing in the background as students chose items from the sensory bins to start the school day. She welcomed them before they began their breakfast of mini waffles, syrup, orange juice and milk.
Pastre's class is a mix of students she had last year and two new students. “I'm excited to get to know the new students and to build on what I did with the others,” she said.
John Joseph was in Pastre's class last year and was happy to hear of some of the schedule changes. “I'm excited about the changes because now we have PE at 10:30 because now we have it before lunch,” he said, adding that, “I'm in second grade now.”
For the morning meeting, classmates learned how to greet each other. Pastre shared what she did over the summer and asked students about their favorite summer activity. Being at the beach or lake was a common theme, though Joseph said his favorite was going to the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum. The class also learned to identify their regulation zone so others would know how they are feeling during the course of the day.
There were many changes and improvements made to the building over the summer, which staff certainly appreciated.
“Our students adjusted wonderfully (to all the changes and improvements made to the building over the summer) and our staff did an amazing job remaining flexible, supportive and focused on making every student feel safe and welcomed,” Principal Melissa Murphy said. “We are so happy to have our students back with us. We are looking forward to an amazing school year ahead.”