To the Editor:

The Guilderland Central School District is in the process of developing the budget for the 2021-22 school year. As we face many uncertainties about what the next school year will look like and the financial impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on funding for education, our goal is to continue providing the quality education our students deserve with a responsible spending plan.

As always, we genuinely appreciate and value the opinions and insights of our community.

In order to gather input from our community, the school district is hosting a thoughtexchange, an anonymous online forum. We ask parents/guardians and community members to give their advice as the district develops the budget for the 2021-22 school year. Participants have the opportunity to share thoughts and rate feedback from other participants.

We will share the results of the exchange on our website and respond to questions and concerns raised at upcoming board of education meetings. The exchange will remain open through 5.p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.

Members of the school community might also wish to view the panel presentation and discussion that the district hosted on Wednesday, Jan. 13, where information was shared about in-school COVID 19 testing and our plans for the second semester of this school year as well as information about the 2021-22 budget. That presentation is also available on the district website.

Thank you for taking the time to participate in the development of our spending plan for next year. Your input will help shape the decisions we need to make over the next several weeks.

Dr. Marie Wiles

Superintendent of Schools

Guilderland Central

School District