NFPS Update
March 10, 2023
Dear New Fairfield Community,
With the spring sports season beginning shortly, it is a harbinger that warmer weather will be arriving soon. Spring will officially be here in just 10 more days even as we are expected to receive some inclement weather this evening. At the end of this newsletter, we highlight many of the wonderful accomplishments of our winter sports teams. Did you know that New Fairfield High School has 26 fall, winter and spring sports teams and over 400 unique athletes? Go Rebels!
The budget process continues into March during discussions with New Fairfield's Board of Finance (BOF). Last Saturday, the Board of Education presented its FY24 Operating Budget to the BOF. Click here, or on the image below, to access the presentation. The presentation contains information regarding the budget, our positive academic growth trajectory in reading and math and other important facts about our schools. For example, did you know that:
- NF students are making substantially more growth than other districts (see charts p. 7 & 8),
- NFHS offers 25 Advanced Placement (AP) courses,
- NFHS offers 14 UCONN Early College Experience courses (8 combined with AP),
- 87% of the Class of 2022 enrolled in 4-year colleges, 11% enrolled in 2-year colleges or trade schools and 2% decided to take a gap year, enter the military or go right to work.
There are upcoming BOF meetings on Wednesdays, March 15, 22 and 29 at 7:30 pm with opportunities for public comment at the beginning and end of the meetings. The next meeting on March 15 will be virtual and the link to the meeting can be found on the town's website.
And finally, don't forget that we'll be moving into daylight savings time this weekend.
Warm regards,
Ken
Kenneth G. Craw, Ed. D.
Superintendent
Internet Safety Education
The district is pleased to partner with Scott Driscoll of Internet Safety Concepts to provide a series of informative presentations on Monday, March 13. Mr. Driscoll is a former law enforcement officer specializing in cybercrimes, and he will present to students in grades 4 through 12 during the school day regarding internet safety and the use of social media. The day will culminate in an evening presentation for parents in the Consolidated/Meeting House Cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. We hope to see you there.
Teaching and Learning
Classrooms across the district are buzzing with student conversations. The district continues to focus on high-quality instruction where all students can engage. Last week, John Antonetti, an educational consultant, visited the district and worked with middle and high school teachers on designing opportunities for students to demonstrate their thinking about content. These instructional strategies can be applied to all content areas and support building critical and creative thinkers, one of attributes in the district’s Vision of the Graduate. These strategies also give students authentic opportunities to communicate thinking and reasoning to their peers.
Pictured above are students in one of Ms. Tovino’s sixth grade social studies classes applying reasoning skills during a small group discussion about different social strata in Egyptian society. Prior, with Ms. Tovino’s questioning and as a whole class, the students brainstormed four subsets and then moved into groups to reason through pros and cons. This reasoning activity was designed by Ms. Tovino to help answer the essential question, ”Are pharaohs wise investors or wasteful spenders?” Critical thinking in the small group environment strengthens students’ ability to explain their reasoning, which they need to do when they construct written responses that demonstrate understanding, across all content areas.
100 Days Smarter!
Kindergartners in Mrs. Rohwedder's class were very busy learning while having fun this month. They enjoyed celebrating the 100th day of school with their kindergarten friends on February 10th. It was a fun day learning about the number 100. The children participated in many fun learning activities such as the 100 Physical Challenge, rolling to 100, building with 100 Legos, making towers using 100 plastic cups, and doing the 100th Day puzzle. We discussed how much we have learned in 100 days!
Read Across America Day!
The students of Consolidated and Meeting House Hill Schools continued a tradition last week by celebrating Read Across America Day on March 2nd. In honor of Dr. Suess’ birthday, students enjoyed reading in a variety of ways. In some classes, students were treated to a Reading Camp Out, where students brought in their favorite blankets and created cozy tents to read in by themselves, with a friend or their favorite stuffed animal. Some teachers chose to dress up as their favorite characters like Madeline (Miss Sullivan) and Amelia Bedelia (Mrs. Hannon). Many classes were excited to have Mystery Readers who were actually Rebel Leaders from New Fairfield High School. Mrs. Woodard's and Mrs. Duffy’s first grade classes even gave a warm welcome to CT State Representative Pat Callahan as their reader for the day. The joy of reading was shared by all!
Mrs. Brown's Kindergarten class celebrated Read Across America with their how-to writing unit. Students learned how to make slime and wrote all the steps with pictures that taught and had so much fun. They got to bring home their slime and how-to-make-it book so that they could do it at home too.
Fifth Grade Peer Leaders' Food Drive
5th grade Peer Leaders collected boxes of mac and cheese to be donated to the New Fairfield food pantry. They collected nearly 100 boxes of mac and cheese!
2023 Kids Heart Challenge
Consolidated and Meeting House Hill students participated in the annual Kids Heart Challenge from January 30th - February 17th. During these weeks, students participated in movement based lessons dedicated to students learning about teamwork, leadership, saying no to tobacco and vaping, the importance of exercise, healthy food choices and how to manage stress.
During the week of February 14th, Consolidated and Meeting House Hill Schools celebrated heart health awareness through a Kids’ Heart Challenge event. The Kids’ Heart Challenge event is a fun and exciting event where our students celebrate what they have learned about healthy hearts and all their hard work raising donations for the American Heart Association.
Thanks to all the efforts of our students, Consolidated School and Meeting House Hill School raised over $29,000 for the American Heart Association!
Sixth Grade Students Study South Asia
Mr. Dudas' sixth grade students are studying South Asia.
Sixth Grade Landscape Illustrations
Sharla DiStasio's sixth grade students created a landscape illustration inspired by the artist, Maxfield Parrish. They became familiar with landscape drawing techniques. Students gained experience with creating value, tints and shades. Oil pastels and colored pencils were the media used to complete the piece.
No Place for Hate
On Thursday and Friday of last week, the NFHS No Place for Hate Committee kicked off their No Place for Hate campaign by inviting all members of the New Fairfield High School Community to volunteer to take the pledge to stand up against acts of hate within our school and community. Students and staff who took the pledge signed the Community Tree, designed and painted by our student leaders, which represents our students and faculty standing together as many individuals coming together for one cause, to call out and stop acts of hate when they see it in our school and community. The Committee's message was a request to support our friends and classmates, and show them that we are here with them and for them and that all of our students and staff matter, and to sign the pledge as one more step in making our school the safe and welcoming place that we all want it to be.
Winter Season Athletics Recognitions
New Fairfield High School has had a successful winter season with numerous league, state, and regional accolades.
Our wrestling team had the following team accomplishments:
- 3rd Place - Southwest Conference Championship;
- 2nd Place - CIAC Class S State Championship;
- 2nd Place - CIAC State Open Championship;
- 10th Place - New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championship.
Our wrestling team had the following individual accomplishments:
- Joseph Mahoney: SWC Champion, CIAC Class S State Champion, CIAC State Open Champion, and 3rd Place New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championship;
- Thomas Bock: SWC Champion, CIAC Class S State Champion, and CIAC State Open Champion;
- Vincent Tripaldi: SWC Champion, CIAC Class S State Champion, and CIAC State Open Runner-Up;
- Douglas Traynor: SWC Champion, CIAC Class S State Champion, 3rd Place CIAC State Open, and 4th Place New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championship.
Indoor Track had the following accomplishments:
- 4 x 800 Relay Team - SWC Champions, CIAC Class S Runner-Up, 5th Place CIAC State Open, 9th Place New England Interscholastic Indoor Track Championships.
On March 2nd, members of our Athletic Leadership Group, Rebels With a Cause, visited Meeting House Hill and Consolidated Schools to act as guest readers for Read Across America Day. Members of this group have been actively working to improve sportsmanship at our athletic contests while also working on ways to give back to the community. In February, members of this group coordinated an officials appreciation week where we honored 12 officials in four different sports.