On September 12, 2022 Mr. Pierce, Principal of Booth Hill, and I were officially notified that Booth Hill Elementary School was selected by the National Blue Ribbon School program for this honor. Booth Hill School was selected as one of 270 schools from across the Country to receive this honor. Booth Hill received recognition as an Exemplary High-Performing School. On Friday, September 16 we held a pep rally for all the students and staff at Booth Hill Elementary to celebrate the news! We thank First Selectman, Vicki Tesoro and State Representative, David Rutigliano for joining us in celebration!

The 2022 Trumbull Capital Plan included support to hire an outside expert to complete a Master Plan Study and presentation for the Trumbull Public Schools. The Trumbull Public Schools Master Plan Committee selected Tecton Architects to conduct the study and who will provide multiple options to the Board of Education for consideration. Tecton has been meeting with all building leaders and head custodians over the past several weeks to better understand the physical and educational needs for our different schools. Over the coming months there will be opportunities for the Trumbull Community to share their visions for the Trumbull Public Schools. When I have those dates and locations I will share them with all families and staff as well as post them on the town website. At the October 25th BOE meeting, Tecton Architects will present some initial findings to the BOE. The link below provides some of the work that has already been accomplished including a timeline for the remainder of the work.

We presented the Smarter Balanced Achievement (SBA) results to the Board of Education on Tuesday, September 27. We were generally pleased with the results of our students as a whole. Our ultimate goal is to return to pre-pandemic achievement results of 2018-2019 and then outperform those results. However, the loss of in-person learning during the pandemic greatly impacted student learning and our teachers are working hard to eliminate those gaps. As an example, when our 6th graders took the SBA assessments last year, the last time they had a full year of in-person learning was during the 18-19 school year when they were in 3rd grade. Please see our presentation for a deeper dive into the data!

Improving our heating and cooling systems remains a priority for the Trumbull Public Schools. As part of the 2022 Trumbull Capital Plan, funds were set aside to conduct a full evaluation of the HVAC systems in our schools. That study has been completed and will be used for a variety of purposes. First, Tecton Architects (see above) will be incorporating the HVAC study into their work around the future of the Trumbull Schools. Second, the study was required in order to apply for a portion of the 150 Million dollar grant from the State of CT. In terms of this grant, it is important to note that it is a matching grant that requires the Town of Trumbull to pay for about 67% of the costs. This grant from the State is like roof projects and other general construction grants. Therefore, our application to the State will be cognizant of this and will align with HVAC projects identified in the 2023 Trumbull Capital Plan.

We are excited that our eSports program had a successful launch. Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using non-violent video games that focuses on teamwork, communication, strategic thinking and leadership. All of these skills are directly aligned with our Vision of the Graduate work in the Trumbull Public Schools and allow another opportunity to engage students in meaningful after school activities. We appreciate the support and vision from the Trumbull Board of Education and the ACE Foundation for supporting this worthy program. Attached is the presentation on eSports to the BOE which includes more information about the team.