For the sixth year in a row, Hall Memorial School will be sending a group of students to represent Connecticut at the Nation History Day competition in Washington D.C. All of the projects were on display at the school last month and the students held an auction to raise money for the trip to D.C. Thank you to everyone who contributed items for the auction. Congratulations to Mrs. Pinney, the coordinator of Hall Memorial School’s History Day, who received the 2008 History Day in Connecticut Teacher of the Year Award and congratulations to all of the students who participated. Good luck to our students traveling on to National competition.

On May 6, the referendum for the school budget passed with a vote of 227 to 150. Thank you to everyone who supported this budget. The process is not easy and both the Board of Education and the Board of Finance deserve recognition for their sensible and fiscally responsible approach to ensuring a quality education for Willington students.

With the help of some fantastic weather, Center Elementary School’s annual Earth Day celebration was a huge success. A number of parent and community volunteers assisted students in a variety of activities ranging from backpacking to building vacation homes for our insect neighbors. I sat with a group of second graders as they built terrariums out of recycled plastic bottles. It was a great day for learning about how to be more environmentally conscious and to have some fun at the same time.

I am pleased to announce that Hall Memorial School has been awarded a State of Connecticut Title II grant to Enhance Education through Technology in the amount of $59,918.00. The staff who worked on developing this grant includes Deb Sullivan, Hope Zettwoch, Peg Curtis, Kate Levesque, and Jason Lehmann. The grant focuses on several different grade levels as well as content areas. Students in grades 4-8 will respond to different literary genres with blogs (on-line forums) created by teachers. They will also learn how to create podcast and video book reviews. Students in grades 5 and 8 will collaborate on a science unit titled Earth, Moon and Sun. The 8th graders will study astronomy using telescopes, Celestia software, Meade Astronomical software and on line resources. They will then develop multimedia presentations that will be accessible to 5th graders as a supplement to their classroom instruction. The 6th grade class will use scientific probe-ware to study how river resources influence past and present human communities. They will investigate the human usage and impact on the quality of our local rivers. Using the Willimantic River, local factory sites, print and internet sources, the students will collect river information. Next, students will determine what the information means about the current state of their local river. Students will build a data base for the collected data. This data base will be updated by subsequent groups of students and used by local and state authorities to provide information about the Willimantic River. Students will use a variety of multimedia presentation formats to share their findings with the school and community. The grant also includes a significant amount of professional development for staff. Being awarded this grant will certainly enhance the quality of instruction at Hall Memorial and will make for an interesting, and enriching experience for the students.

As I come to the end of my first year as the Superintendent of Willington Public Schools I look back on the incredible number of meetings that I have participated in and all of the conversations that I have had about how to improve the quality of our schools. I have to admit that out of all the conversations the most enjoyable have been with students who make suggestions such as “we have too much homework” or “we need more recess.” I feel very fortunate to be working in an incredible community with such a supportive staff and great students. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. I look forward to the next school year and wish you a safe and relaxing summer.

Upcoming Events:
There will be a retirement ceremony for Willington Public Schools’ retiring staff at the beginning of the June 10, Board of Education meeting at 6:30 p.m. The Board meeting will be held at the town office building.