As of February 1st, the SLS publishes a monthly newsletter using Smore. 
If you are not getting the newsletter, please contact the School Library System as soon as possible. You should receive the monthly newsletter in your email around the first week of every month.
Thank you for reading and your feedback about the move to Smore. A newsletter helps the SLS meet its communication goals within the system.
It’s National History Day season and the judge search is on! A few more judges are needed. The Lower Hudson Regional History Day contest will be held March 29, 2025 at St. Thomas Aquinas College. If you are interested in the judge role, register at Judge for LHV History Day Contest.
The application to be a Fall into Books 2025 discussion leader is open! Gather your favorite titles on a single topic and get ready for another exciting FIB. The planning committee is looking for volunteers to lead discussions for picture books, elementary, middle, or teen level books. If you're interested in becoming a book discussion leader but would like help with a topic, contact me at the School 
Library System. The application closes April 1, 2025.
Fall into Books 2025 will be held October 23, 2025 at The Venue Uptown in Kingston, NY. This year's keynote is David Ezra Stein, author of the Interrupting Chicken books.
A mandatory practice session for the discussion leaders will be held in-person from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, June 16, 2025, at the Ramapo Catskill Library System office in Middletown, NY. Book discussion leaders attend FIB for free and get a book by the keynote author!
Fall into Books, annual conference celebrating literature for children and youth, is collaboratively organized by the Dutchess, Orange-Ulster, Rockland, Sullivan, and Ulster BOCES School Library Systems, the Mid-Hudson Library System, Ramapo Catskill Library System, and the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council.
Don't forget to take the updated Mandated Reporter training by April 1st!
"The NYS Education Department has adopted a new Mandated Reporter workshop that ALL CERTIFICATE holders MUST complete in order to maintain certification. This concerns all Teaching Assistants, Teachers, Non-Classroom Professionals, and Administrators, as well as anyone not in one of these roles who is a certified educator in the NYSED TEACH system that wants to maintain that certification."
This is an updated version of the Mandated Reporter training workshop that all certificated staff had to complete.
The NYSED DUE DATE for completion of the workshop is April 1, 2025.