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The Year in Review: Full speed ahead for Stonington schools in 2023 | Guest Columns

The Year in Review: Full speed ahead for Stonington schools in 2023 | Guest Columns

Editor’s be aware: At the stop of each individual 12 months, The Sunlight provides an option for place faculty superintendents and municipal leaders to replicate on the year and, if they would like, focus on plans for the new yr.

Stonington General public Schools appears ahead to employing the recently founded leadership team’s momentum to continue on improving upon district programming, lifestyle, and local weather in 2023. A new district symbol and branding specifications have currently set a tone of renewal for SPS as educators, families and college students collectively arise from the pressure imposed by the pandemic. Get the job done will continue in the new 12 months to obtain the Board of Education’s plans as they relate to 4 advancement groups: teachers range, fairness and inclusion family engagement and local community engagement.

Teachers

The district will proceed to create on its history of academic excellence. The Connecticut Department of Schooling not too long ago identified Deans Mill University and West Vine Street Faculty as Universities of Difference in the Connecticut Accountability Report. This report also confirmed that the middle and large school student accomplishment scores were being among the the leaders in the region.

Each individual faculty is building action measures for the rest of this yr towards the goal of all four educational facilities in the district earning the status as Colleges of Distinction in the 2022-23 Accountability Report future tumble. In addition to steady enhancement in scholar accomplishment and progress in the four main tutorial areas, Stonington Community Faculties will incorporate inclusive and revolutionary programming with new encore classes at Stonington Center School and extend courses such as the Pre-Apprenticeship Certification Coaching at Stonington High College.

In a partnership with the Profitable Tactics Community, an group that facilitates potential-centered discussions and setting up periods in universities, Stonington Community Colleges will take a look at and employ modest modern educational methods that foresee the instruction wants and vocation paths of the class of 2035, the latest kindergarten course. These may well include employing synthetic intelligence in the classroom, non-conventional educational designs, and reciprocal experienced improvement options with community businesses.

Variety, fairness and inclusion

Just one obstacle the district carries on to confront is the percentage of persistent absenteeism among the our scholar population. With help from outside the house consultants and the implementation of many new revolutionary tactics, all schools assume enhancement in attendance information, particularly at Stonington Higher School. The district continues to lover with consultants from EASTCONN to maximize university student engagement in all schools as part of the district’s variety, equity and inclusion objective. Each district and college leaders stop by lecture rooms in all subject areas and grade concentrations to observe scholar engagement and collectively assessment that details. Stonington is a leader in this operate and has presented at the state and countrywide ranges with regards to research-based methods to strengthen pupil engagement. The concept powering this get the job done is that engaged students attend faculty often, entry the curriculum meaningfully, and attain at high amounts.

Household engagement

All educational institutions will carry on to satisfy with their newly founded Welcoming Universities Groups and expand the collaborative endeavors in between people and the academic team. These partnerships will further more develop “links to learning” and supply alternatives and assets for people to actively husband or wife in the instructional approach. One particular example of an forthcoming “link to learning” at Deans Mill School will involve Grade 3 academics inviting mother and father into ELA class sometime soon after the winter break. The pupils and teachers will product the use of the R.A.C.E. (Restate the Concern, Reply the Query, Cite the Supply, Explain) system for relatives associates. The pupils and spouse and children users will then collaborate to respond to a story making use of the tactic while the teachers present assist as wanted. The RACE approach is utilized all over elementary school and provides a foundation for supporting students to delve deeper into texts to reveal evidence of knowledge. This approach will enable mothers and fathers guidance their youngster at dwelling with published comprehension. Each individual university will continue figuring out unique means to greatly enhance household-to-faculty partnerships.

Neighborhood engagement

The district strengthened neighborhood partnerships by working with New England Science and Sailing to create new professional progress and co-educating products. We also partnered with the Ocean Condition Chamber of Commerce, applying seasonal student artwork reveals. The district also collaborates with the City to look into doable partnerships, which include sustainability jobs. Stonington Community Schools will continue to expand collaborative partnerships with the Stonington Police Office and other 1st responders, Mystic Seaport, COMO, Mystic Aquarium, LaGrua Heart, and the Yellow Farmhouse.

Mary Anne Butler is the superintendent of colleges in Stonington.

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Busy road ahead for Westerly elementary school building project | Daily-news-alerts

Busy road ahead for Westerly elementary school building project | Daily-news-alerts

WESTERLY — With a $50 million bond authorized by voters to modernize the town’s 3 elementary colleges, officials carefully doing work on the undertaking are hunting ahead to a difficult period.

“We’re about to embark on a three-as well as-year system,” College Constructing Subcommittee Chairman Justin Hopkins stated.

On the horizon, the city is ready for approval from the state Department of Education’s Council on Elementary and Secondary Education and learning of Stage 2 of the Necessity of Faculty Building procedure, which Journey makes use of to establish housing aid reimbursement to municipalities.

The city submitted its Phase 2 software to Experience in September.

“We’re kind of in the beginning phases of figuring out how all of this is going to perform as we wait around for the Stage 2 acceptance,” Hopkins said.

The department of training will get the job done with Downes Development, the job management company, to make guaranteed the application meets all necessary conditions.

“We have to, to the most effective of our skill, get them this info,” Downes Development Enterprise Plan Director Joseph DeSanti said.

Past week, the subcommittee authorised keeping Downes as the project supervisor and drafting two requests for qualifications for layout services — a person for the new Condition Street Elementary College, and one more for renovations at Dunn’s Corners and Springbrook elementary faculties.

“Once that goes out, there is going to be a couple months of consultants asking Downes thoughts, and then we’re likely to get proposals. We’re heading to have to have to established up interviews,” Hopkins stated.

Picking out layout firms for the function could be complete by mid to late January, DeSanti stated.

The group also needs to get an comprehension of how and when permitted money will develop into obtainable, Hopkins included.

The undertaking as proposed incorporates a $29.35 million spending budget for the design of the new State Avenue Faculty, $8.85 million for renovations at Springbrook Elementary School and $11.8 million for renovations at Dunn’s Corners Elementary College.

“Now we’re starting up with a $50 million venture, and within just that there are really hard building expenditures and delicate costs,” Hopkins stated. Component of the tender expenditures are project management expenses, architectural fees, elements testing, furniture and far more, he explained.

“We have the skill to negotiate these fees,” he claimed.

Less than the strategy, renovations at the Dunn’s Corners and Springbrook elementary educational facilities are tentatively scheduled to start by December 2023, with perform at each internet sites concluded by August 2024. In the meantime, the district would get the job done to obtain style and design approvals for a new State Avenue College that would be created adjacent to the current developing, with function beginning in March 2024 and ending in 2025.

The neighborhood is qualified for a minimum condition reimbursement of 35{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, or $17.5 million. If all ailments are satisfied pertaining to Rhode Island’s safety and discovering needs, the town could receive a most reimbursement of up to 52.5{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, or $26.25 million.

The town would be accountable for $32.5 million at the commence of the project as indicated in the bond query, but could see incentives reduce Westerly’s cost-share legal responsibility by as substantially as $8.75 million by the close of development. Included incentives would be based on point out analysis of the concluded operate.

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Hunger strikes, protests rock Oakland ahead of vote

Hunger strikes, protests rock Oakland ahead of vote

Thousands of Oakland’s students, parents and teachers have taken to the streets in the last week — and two teachers are on their eighth day of a hunger strike — protesting proposed school closures that would disproportionately affect Black students in low-income neighborhoods.

The Oakland school board will vote Tuesday night on whether to close eight schools around the city. A board meeting Jan. 31 had more than 1,800 Zoom attendees; dozens spoke during the public comment period, which ran well into Tuesday morning. The list of schools was made public less than two weeks ago, a timeline that critics say is far too short to understand the true impact to students and their communities. 

The proposal comes in response to escalating pressure from the state and from Alameda County Office of Education, which has threatened to withhold funds and even seize control of the budget if Oakland fails to reduce annual school spending by $50 million. Critics of the proposed closures say they will cause significant harm to Black students in Oakland, who have already been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and past school closures. Forty-three percent of students at the schools on the chopping block are Black, compared with 22{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of Oakland public school students overall, according to Oaklandside. 

Left to right: Samantha Sipin, Claire Valderrama, and Jocelyn Deona, all of Gabriela Oakland hold signs calling for a stop to OUSD school closures at the start of the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022.

Left to right: Samantha Sipin, Claire Valderrama, and Jocelyn Deona, all of Gabriela Oakland hold signs calling for a stop to OUSD school closures at the start of the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

Oakland Unified has struggled with finances for years, both because of falling enrollment and — according to a 2018 grand jury report — because of massive overspending on educational consultants and administrative services. (The district spent over $33 million in the last school year on “consultants” and approved construction on a new central office building estimated to cost $48 million.) While the district receives some of the highest per-student funding in the state, its teachers are paid some of the lowest wages in California. Many schools struggle to afford librarians and janitors. 

Proponents of the closures point out that Oakland has a higher number of schools per student than similarly-sized districts, and many of Oakland’s schools are under-enrolled, which spreads resources out across many locations. “The toll of gentrification on Oakland is really severe in terms of the number of families that have left,” Sam Davis, vice president and one of seven members of the school board, told SFGATE. “Right now, salaries in Oakland Unified are very low. Our job is to support the adults who support the children.” Davis will likely vote for closures at Tuesday’s meeting.

Prescott Elementary School supporters stand in unison peacefully protesting against OUSD school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

Prescott Elementary School supporters stand in unison peacefully protesting against OUSD school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

But opponents of the plan maintain that other budgetary mismanagement is the primary reason for the shortfall. “Very rarely does the district show any outcomes for the money being spent” on consultants, VanCedric Williams, a school board member representing West Oakland, told SFGATE at a protest on Saturday. He plans to vote against the closures. “We’re throwing all this money in a dark hole. That’s the challenge — how do you create a system of accountability?”

At a board meeting last week, the district claimed the school closures will save between $4 and $15 million, though critics point out that a round of closures in 2019 doesn’t seem to have saved any money. Promises to provide transportation and other support to students affected by those earlier closures fell far short of community needs, according to Williams and Oakland parents who spoke with SFGATE.

“Those closures did not give any savings whatsoever, or very negligible savings,” Williams said. “That’s what makes it so shocking that they’re pushing this without any conversation or debate.”

Amir Mohamed, 8, a student at Brookfield Elementary reads aloud his own written words against school closures as his father Mokhtar helps with the microphone, at the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

Amir Mohamed, 8, a student at Brookfield Elementary reads aloud his own written words against school closures as his father Mokhtar helps with the microphone, at the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

Like many parents of kids at West Oakland’s Prescott Elementary, one of the schools slated for closure, Tiffany Climens walks her son to school every day. Without a car, and with little public transportation nearby, she’s not sure how she would get her five-year-old son to the next closest elementary school more than a mile away. “This is my community. My child’s father and his parents, they all went to Prescott,” Climens told SFGATE. “Everyone here knows my son. If there’s an emergency, his auntie lives around the corner, and I live two blocks away. As a single worker mom, that’s so important.”


Alicia Simba is a second-year teacher at Prescott, where she teaches “transitional kindergarten” for five-year-olds whose birthdays fall after the cutoff for traditional kindergarten. While she worries about how her students will adjust to changing schools, she’s even more concerned about their parents, many of whom have relied on the school community during pandemic crises. Prescott is part of the wider community, too. The school, which is located in a food desert, has a deal with a grocery delivery company to distribute free boxes of healthy food in the neighborhood, and serves as an election polling place. 

Left to right: Haley Hester, Felisha West, 25 year OUSD teacher Corrin Haskell, and Oakland District 7 Councilmember Treva Reid stand togother against OUSD school closures at the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Feb. 5, 2022.

Left to right: Haley Hester, Felisha West, 25 year OUSD teacher Corrin Haskell, and Oakland District 7 Councilmember Treva Reid stand togother against OUSD school closures at the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk, on Feb. 5, 2022.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

Simba, who received her master’s degree in education from Stanford two years ago, has struggled to convince classmates and other teacher friends to apply for jobs in Oakland. “It’s hard to tell teachers they should come work in the district, or convince parents to enroll their kids, when the school might close in two years,” she said. “The Oakland community — teachers, parents and staff — are doing the best we can. We’ve worked so hard during the pandemic. This feels like a slap in the face.”

The vote will be held during a special meeting on Tuesday, February 8 at 5 p.m. For more information, including a link to the Zoom, click here. 

"This is home," said Prescott School Principal Enomwoyi Booker during her address to the crowd against school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

“This is home,” said Prescott School Principal Enomwoyi Booker during her address to the crowd against school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022. 

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

Zyla Conover, 5, a student at Prescott School speaks out against OUSD school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk with, left to right, her mother Zazzi, young brother Zylan, and father Timothy on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022.

Zyla Conover, 5, a student at Prescott School speaks out against OUSD school closures during the Oakland School Solidarity Rally and 4Peace Community Walk with, left to right, her mother Zazzi, young brother Zylan, and father Timothy on Saturday morning, Feb. 5, 2022.

Kevin Kelleher/Special to SFGATE

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ON THE ROCKS: Members of Jones team are home-schooling, Olympic-training moms a few weeks ahead of trip to Beijing

ON THE ROCKS: Members of Jones team are home-schooling, Olympic-training moms a few weeks ahead of trip to Beijing
Jennifer Jones makes a delivery during the Cooper Equipment Mixed Doubles Curling Classic on Dec. 10, 2021 at the Brant Curling Club in Brantford, Ont.
Jennifer Jones makes a delivery during the Cooper Equipment Mixed Doubles Curling Classic on Dec. 10, 2021 at the Brant Curling Club in Brantford, Ont. Photo by Brian Thompson /Post,edia Network files

At home, the days are spent home-schooling young children, who have been cooped up inside for the last month.

Outside the house, it’s like picking your way through a minefield, in order to do something as simple as going to the store.

A drive in the car, or a walk around the block, are highlights of the day.

How does that sound for people who are slated to represent Canada in the Olympics in three weeks?

“I’m a home-schooling, Olympic-training mom right now,” Canadian women’s curling skip Jennifer Jones said.

“But it’s good. You’re never gonna complain cause you’re going to the Olympics and how fortunate are we to have that opportunity. But you never thought this would be how you’d train to go to the Olympics. We haven’t played a competitive game since we won the Olympic trials.”

Jones, 47, will get together with teammates Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, Dawn McEwen and Lisa Weagle on Saturday in Ontario to start a bubbled training camp ahead of their appearance at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The team is due to fly out of Toronto on Feb. 3 and the women’s curling Olympic competition begins on Feb. 10.

The last month has looked like anything but Olympic training.

“My poor kids,” Jones said of daughters Isabella, 9, and Skyla, 5.

“They haven’t seen anybody since Dec. 17, when they were done school. Even when school is done here, they won’t go back. (Husband Brent Laing) is amazing, so I’ve got that, but we can’t even get anyone to babysit or help with that because we’re not seeing anybody.”

It’s the same situation at the McEwen house in Winnipeg, where Dawn and her husband Mike are dealing with a daughter (Vienna) who is currently being held out of Grade 1, not seeing any friends, getting her schooling from her parents.

“A lot of Olympian moms are doing bigger sacrifices to compete than they have ever been asked to do before,” Mike McEwen said.

Jones and Laing live in Horseshoe Valley, Ont., just north of Barrie. Curling clubs across Ontario are closed because of COVID-19 omicron outbreak, but an exception was made for athletes training for the Olympics. So she’s had to drive an hour each way each day in order to get on the ice at a club that was willing to open just for her and select teammates.

Because most of her teammates live in different provinces, they aren’t able to get together as a group to train until later this week.

Jones is looking at the positives of that situation.

“The one nice thing is it’s pretty focused,” she said. “We’re gonna be immersed in training right before the Olympics because we can’t see anybody else except each other.

“ I feel like we’ve come up with a really good training plan and we’re really happy with it and we’re all pretty excited.”

The Jones team, which represents the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg, will open the Olympic tournament on Feb. 10 with a game against South Korea.

SCOTTIES UP IN AIR

While the Jones team, the Brad Gushue foursome out of Newfoundland and the Rachel Homan/John Morris mixed doubles team are all moving into training bubbles this week ahead of the Olympics, the rest of Canada’s curlers are waiting on pins and needles to see if the national championships can be played in the coming weeks and months.

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated to start Jan. 28 in Thunder Bay, Ont., though Curling Canada is still working with Ontario Health to see if it can even happen amid current restrictions.

Curling Canada is working to establish a bubble-type setting for the Canadian women’s championship, much like it did for several big events in Calgary last year.

That would suggest there will be no fans at Fort William Gardens, curlers will be confined to their hotel rooms and the competition facility, and there will be rigorous testing for all involved.

Talks are proceeding this week, though the clock is clearly ticking, with the event slated to begin at the end of next week.

MISKEW MOVES UP

With Homan selected to represent Canada in mixed doubles curling at the Olympics, her four-player team has had to shuffle the deck ahead of the Scotties.

Emma Miskew, Homan’s long-time vice-skip, will move up and handle the skipping duties in Thunder Bay, while fifth player Allison Flaxey comes in at second and Sarah Wilkes moves from second to third.

The only player staying in her usual position is lead Joanne Courtney.

After the Scotties, Courtney will move into a different role, providing colour commentary during CBC’s coverage of the Olympics. She’ll be working with 1998 Olympic silver medallist Mike Harris and play-by-play man Bruce Rainnie.

ARSENAULT STILL AT IT

If the Scotties are pulled off, there will be an expanded 18-team field, with three wild card teams and no play-in game.

Mary-Anne Arsenault, 53, didn’t need to wait for the field expansion to get in.

A five-time Canadian champion with the Colleen Jones team out of Halifax, Arsenault has retired to the British Columbia interior, but hasn’t slowed down at all in terms of curling.

Arsenault won the B.C. women’s provincial title over a week ago, skipping a team that already included three world champions.

The foursome, with third Jeanna Schraeder, second Sasha Carter and lead Renee Simons, once played with skip Kelly Scott and won two Canadian titles (2006 and 2007) and a world championship (2007).

“It’s pretty exciting going back with this experienced team,” Arsenault said from her home in Lake Country, B.C.

“When I was first moving out to B.C., the rumour mill started churning and I got a number of e-mails, phone calls, looking for me to be on various teams. This was the only one that really caught my eye.

“I was contemplating hanging up the shoes, but when this opportunity presented itself I thought ‘OK, I’m gonna keep playing.’”

“It feels pretty great to win. You can’t ask for much more. The girls said afterward that they never thought they’d be going back to another Scotties, but here we are.”

This will be Scotties appearance No. 15 for Arsenault, though her first representing a province other than Nova Scotia.

“That’s gonna be weird,” she said.

[email protected]

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman

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Westerville’s new Minerva France Elementary School ahead of schedule

Westerville’s new Minerva France Elementary School ahead of schedule
Westerville’s new Minerva France Elementary School ahead of schedule

The Westerville Town Faculties is on routine to open its to start with new elementary university in 20 a long time with the recently named Minerva France Elementary College, 4990 Farview Generate in Columbus.

Scott Dorne, Westerville assistant superintendent of operations, explained the new $16.1 million college, scheduled to open in August 2022, will be the initially new elementary to open in the district due to the fact 2002, when Fouse and Alcott elementary faculties both opened.

He stated completion is scheduled for May perhaps but that Heath-based mostly Robertson Construction Services Inc. is focusing on March to finish.

“In typical, Robertson has performed very nicely taking care of the job,” Dorne reported. “With all the adversity in building, to be two months forward of schedule is amazing.”

The university is named in honor of a Black librarian and former Westerville scholar, Minerva France, but the design and style recognizes the former Minerva Park amusement park, with a curved portion of the exterior staying inspired by the park’s Scenic Railway roller-coaster.