Dear Minisink Valley parent/guardians:

Last evening, Dec. 16, at the conclusion of the boys modified basketball game at the Middle School, several members of our team were sitting in the middle school gym’s bleachers and found a bullet on one of the bleachers’ steps.

The students appropriately gave it to the team’s coach, who appropriately gave it to a member of our administrative team who was on site for a Board of Education meeting. The administrator called local State Troopers for assistance and guidance.

The troopers quickly had a conversation with the students and concluded there was no reason to believe they had any role in placing a bullet in the gym.  With the assistance of law enforcement, we have initiated an investigation with the hope of determining how this item was brought into the gym.

During the overnight hours, our law enforcement partners brought specially trained dogs into the middle school to do a thorough search of all parts of the building. The middle school has been fully cleared and classes will be held as usual.

In the interest of transparency, and particularly in light of recent news reports involving fire arms and ammunition, we wanted to alert you about last evening’s finding.

At the same time, we want to assure you that all proper steps were followed in the reporting of this finding. These students, the coach and administrator did the right thing: When they found something suspicious, they immediately reported it.

The middle school building remains safe, secure and open for school for today, Dec. 17.  At our request, and out of abundance of caution, there will be an added police presence on campus today. We appreciate the rapid assistance and support of our law enforcement partners.

As I regularly stress, the safety and security of our students and staff remain our highest priority at all times. We appreciate your continued support as our partners in school safety.

Sincerely,

Brian C. Monahan
Superintendent