To the Editor:

The Guilderland Central School District has embarked on a new way to engage our entire community in important conversations using a tool called Thought Exchange. Thought Exchange is an online forum through which the district can ask important questions, and school community members have the opportunity to anonymously respond and engage with other community members.

In this exchange, which you can access using any device, we want to know what you value most about our school district. We also want to know what we can do to better prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

To access the exchange, you can visit our website at www.guilderlandschools.org, or enter the following address: https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#158584112, or use the QR code at the end of this letter.

Once in the exchange, you will have the opportunity to watch a brief video about the process, and answer a few demographic questions. Then you’ll have the chance to share any ideas you may have, and consider and rate thoughts that are being shared by your fellow school community members.

This thought exchange will be open through Feb. 5. We hope you’ll check back frequently during that time, so that you can continue to join in on the conversation and rate thoughts. You do not need to log in to participate; however, by signing up, you will receive notifications when new thoughts are ready to be rated, all the while remaining anonymous.

Your voice matters to us. Thank you for participating in this new way to share ideas and to consider the ideas of others. In doing so you are helping us identify the most important and meaningful priorities for the future of our schools.

Dr. Marie Wiles

Superintendent of Schools

Guilderland

Editor’s note: As of Tuesday, the Thought Exchange has 315 participants and over 7,100 thoughts have been “rated,” according to the school district’s public information officer, Aubree Kammler.