Students across the Kingston City School District return to class this week, ushering in the opening of the 2025-26 school year. Unlike many other districts, they’ve already tackled a major change mandated statewide: Device-free campuses.
“We don’t have to deal with that being new this year,” said KCSD Superintendent Paul Padalino; the district’s program uses the Yondr pouch system, which sees students lock their mobile devices in a pouch at the start of school, and unlock it as they leave at the end of the day. “We put that into place last year.”
But Kingston still has plenty of other changes in store this year.
“We had a really hectic summer,” Padalino said. “We’re implementing a whole new math curriculum and reading curriculum, which we piloted last year. We’re using iReady and CKLA, which is Core Knowledge Language Arts, which is really focused on using the science of reading. We’ve done a lot of work with our teachers a lot of work with our administrators to get ready to implement that.”
The district is in Phase I of a $162.5-million facilities improvement project set to last through the summer of 2029, with window replacement and HVAC work having been performed at both Harry L. Edson Elementary School and J. Watson Bailey Middle School. Uncharacteristically for the KCSD, some of this work has gone down to the wire.
“It’s going to be tight,” said Padalino during an interview last week. “My director of facilities (Dylan Bogart) says we’re all right, we’re going to make it, but I just walked through Edson and got a little sick to my stomach…We may have to do some third-shift work over there just to get some things done, but we have new HVAC, air-conditioning, and windows, and all those things people wanted. I’m sweating it, but I’ll be excited when it’s done.”
This year, Kingston High School will look to make further progress on their four-year graduation rate, which reached a modern peak this summer at 88 percent.
“We had a new principal at KHS last year (Dr. Rachael Scorca), and we’re continuing to develop her administrative team,” Padalino said. “We’ve got a lot of great people in place, and I’m looking forward to continuing to focus on our curriculum initiatives.”
Districtwide, the KCSD is continuing its longstanding mission to prepare students for the modern world, which includes the state of technology.
“We spend a lot of time talking about AI, and how do we use it as a tool, helping our students understand the value of using it properly,” Padalino said.
Outside of the classroom, Padalino said he is working with a board of education that for the first time in his 13 years with the district does include a trustee responsible for his hiring.
“That’s a new feeling,” he said.
And as always, the KCSD is looking forward to working with community partners, old and new, for the enrichment of its students. Padalino mentioned groups like the Cornell Cooperative Extension, Family of Woodstock, Wild Earth Mountain and Brothers at Bard as providing critical services to students.
The superintendent expressed hope that the 2026-27 budget cycle, preparations for which are already underway, will be less difficult.
“It was tough putting together this (2025-26) budget, but we’re making it work with what we’ve got,” Padalino said. “And hopefully that will right itself with the next budget cycle. But right now we’re kind of in a different reality than we were in the past as far as access to grant money and high amount of state aid. We just want to do whatever we can to make sure the kids don’t feel that.”
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