NORWICH – While Norwich students are enjoying their last few days of summer vacation, the district’s teachers and administrators are already hard at work putting the finishing touches on their plans for the new school year. And while there is a lot to celebrate, there is also plenty of work ahead for the district as it strives to continue to move forward in a positive direction.
“This is the first time in the last eight years that we’ve started the school year with all of our buildings in good standing,” Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan said, referencing a letter he received from the State Education Department last week regarding the district’s test scores.
There is no doubt that the district is still celebrating some major accomplishments from last year, such as the Middle School making it off the School In Need of Improvement list, academic achievement on the rise district wide and contracts in place for both the district’s support staff and teachers unions. But they don’t plan to rest on their laurels.
“This is a nice opportunity to go back and review the programs we have in place,” O’Sullivan said, explaining that the district and board of education has already identified four areas on which they will focus in the coming year. Those areas are guidance, secondary level curriculum, technology and culture and climate across the district.
According to the superintendent, two years ago the district invested in a thorough evaluation of the guidance department.
“We spent a lot of time, energy and money on this,” he said. Items which were identified as critical in the study were addressed immediately, he explained. Now the district will look at “the next step,” and work toward further strengthening and improving the program by implementing some of the other suggestions.
For the last two years, the district has committed a great deal of resources to redeveloping the curriculum and improving instruction at the elementary levels, particularly in math and English language arts. Now they will turn their attention to strengthening the secondary curriculum.
“It’s a very strong program, and we want to make it stronger,” O’Sullivan said, explaining that the district plans to put as much focus and emphasis on reinforcing the secondary program as they have at the elementary level.
The district has made great strides over the last few years in acquiring state-of-the-art technology for use in the classroom, according to the superintendent. Going forward, the focus will be on making sure that students and staff are able to more fully realize the potential of that technology.
Perhaps less tangible, but no less important, will be working to improve what is referred to as the “culture and climate.”
“We have to strengthen the culture and climate of the district across the board,” O’Sullivan said. This goes beyond improving the environment in each of the school buildings, he explained, but also includes building better relationships with the school board, the administrative team, labor organizations (such as the NEO and NESSA), the community, staff and students.
“It’s everybody,” the superintendent said. “Everyone is in this together. The goal, he explained, is to get a little better every day.
The significance of building these relationships is something that each of the schools in the district are taking very seriously. At Stanford Gibson Elementary School, which houses the district’s pre-kindergarten through second graders, the focus this year will be to increase the involvement of parents and the community with the school. According to Principal Dara Lewis, this will begin with the building’s Meet and Greet from 1 to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8.
“It’s a chance for families to come in and see their children’s classrooms, meet their teachers and walk the hallways,” Lewis explained, but there are plenty of other opportunities for parents to stay connected with their children while school is in session as well. According to the principal, parents are always welcome to come have lunch with their child, and there are daily opportunities to read with their children in the classroom.
“Students love to have their parents in,” she said. “It’s a big deal for them.”
Community members are also welcome to come in to read, or to lend an extra set of hands in the classroom, Lewis reported. “We desperately need volunteers.”
At Perry Browne Intermediate School, increased collaboration between teachers is being encouraged through the school’s new shared literacy libraries.
According to the building’s new principal, Jennifer Post, the materials were purchased through a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) grant.
“Instead of reading a textbook, now we have books to match the various needs of the learner,” Post explained. Because these new literacy libraries are shared, the school’s professional staff will need to work together planning their use.
The grant was also used to purchase materials and components to facilitate guided reading in the classroom, including horseshoe shaped tables, organizers and teacher resources.
Over the summer, the building’s teachers also engaged in collaborative professional development, Post reported. More than a dozen signed up for “classroom makeovers,” where they worked with the building’s reading specialists to determine which classroom configurations would better meet the learning needs of their students.
Post and the Perry Browne staff are so proud of the changes they’ve made that they are holding a ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Parents and community members are invited to attend the event, which will be followed by a Meet and Greet.
There is certainly no less enthusiasm at the Norwich Middle School, where culture and climate is also a focus this year. Through the LINKS planning process, they have identified a number of ways to build teacher to teacher, teacher to student and student to student relationships, according to Principal Lisa Schuchman.
One of the initiatives will be the Tornado Award, which will be awarded monthly to those who are helping to “make Norwich Middle School a better place,” Schuchman said. Faculty, staff and students will be encouraged to nominate anyone they think fits the bill. One faculty member will be selected each month, but for students the number is unlimited. Each child nominated will receive an award and be recognized at a breakfast held in their honor.
There will also be a new advisory program this year, where faculty and staff members will be matched up with students to help foster stronger ties between the two, and to provide a support network for students who may be struggling whether academically or with other issues in their lives.
“Middle school is a tough age for kids,” Schuchman said. “It a tough one for a lot of our students.”
Both the middle and high schools will be participating in Rachel’s Challenge. The program, inspired by the journal entries of Rachel Scott, one of the students killed in the Columbine tragedy, is designed to encourage compassion among students and combat bullying.
Culture and climate are of paramount concern at the Norwich High School.
“The overall focus is trying to build connections between kids and schools,” High School Principal Dr. Bob Cleveland explained.
Continuing to build the student leadership project, which debuted this past spring, will help work toward this goal. As will the new student-run freshman orientation program and the creation of an alternative school program, to help those who don’t achieve success in a traditional classroom setting stay in school.