By Michael Piccirillo, Ed.D, CASDA Executive Director
Mobility, fluidity, and accessibility. These are all terms I would associate with CASDA’s new service approach. Change for all of us has become the new normal! Here at CASDA we are experiencing a great deal of change, which I believe will positively impact our ability to provide quality service to our members. In this special end-of-summer edition of CASDA’s newsletter, I thought I would share some of the key changes occurring as we enter a new school year.
First, CASDA will be moving its home base from the University at Albany East Campus to the Main Campus on Washington Avenue. We will be joining the School of Education in the newly refurbished Catskill Building. As you know, CASDA has enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the University. In fact, this partnership is 70 years old this year! To further strengthen efforts to bring research to practice, CASDA is excited to have the opportunity to work closely with the School of Education and other university departments.
CASDA will also operate a satellite office at the new WSWHE BOCES Ballard Road Conference Center. Thanks to the support of WSWHE BOCES, CASDA will be offering many of its services out of this new location, allowing CASDA to be accessible to districts in the northern part of the Capital Region like never before.
In line with our shift in thinking about how we provide services, CASDA is partnering with the New York State Association of School Business Officials to hold workshops, roundtables and other events at their office located at 453 New Karner Road, Albany. If you were to look on a map of the Capital Region and mark CASDA’s new main office, satellite space, and events space, you would see a visual representation of the intentional effort to emphasize our association as “service-focused” rather than “place-focused.” With these changes, CASDA will be better positioned to engage with the field and be more accessible to all of our members.
The changes outlined here are just the beginning. The future for CASDA and its members will bring greater accessibility to services through virtual offerings, increased access to resources resulting from new partnerships, multiple locations for professional learning dispersed throughout the region, and yes, possibly additional satellite offices.
On behalf of the CASDA Executive Committee, faculty and staff, I wish you a successful start to the new school year! We look forward to continuing our support of your efforts to meet the needs of all of the students you care for each day!