The first day of school is always an exciting time. This year was no exception. Unfortunately some of the excitement was caused by having two buses break down causing delays that left parents rightfully upset about children arriving home late. As a result of that first day of confusion we have established the use of our automated phone messaging system, School Messenger, to notify parents when there is a significant transportation delay. In the future when there is a bus situation the principal will be able to make one call to activate the messaging system to simultaneously call and inform all parents of children on a particular bus.

We currently use School Messenger to notify parents of early dismissals due to weather or other situations and are considering its use in other applications. Therefore, if you have children in Willington Public Schools, keep in mind that if any of your phone numbers change you must notify the appropriate school.

Other than the first day bus delays both schools are off to great start. The students seem enthusiastic to be back in school, contrary to what some of them might say. The staff is ready and energized and I am looking forward to a very successful year.

It will be a challenging year as we continue to focus our attention on improving primary grade reading, developing and implementing new curriculum, and working with all of our stakeholders to develop a budget that maintains the quality of our system while reflecting the very difficult economic realities that we currently face.

I would like to welcome our new staff hired for this year. Lauren Catalano, who was a student teacher at Center Elementary, is teaching third grade due to a teacher retirement. As a result of additional retirements in fourth grade, Rebecca Pilver, who worked at EASTCONN as a Literacy and Technology Specialist and Christine Nyser, who worked in our Special Education department have joined our fourth grade team. Christian Kollegger joins our Special Education department to work with sixth graders. Due to a resignation, Kyle Dunnack is our new sixth grade math teacher. Kristen Stevens, a former third grade teacher is now the Literacy Coach at Center School. I am pleased about what I have seen thus far with the new staff and look forward to their success in Willington Public Schools.

We have also been very successful with the implementation of the Parent Portal section of PowerSchool, our student information system. We currently have 58% of our parents using the system at Hall Memorial School, with 65% of parents in grades 6-8 enrolled. The system allows for parents to log in to our system from home and view their child’s grades. The feedback from the parents has been very positive. We would like to see all of the parents sign up for the service. To acquire the information needed to enter the portal, a parent/guardian of the student must come to the main office and present a photo ID (such as a driver’s license) at which time you will be given instructions and a password for access to the portal. Eventually we hope to phase out distributing paper progress reports as they will become obsolete when parents can view grades and note progress on a weekly basis.

Be sure to check out our website www.willingtonpublicschools.org for updates on a variety of topics.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation.