Superintendent's Update
September 2015
The Start of Another Successful School Year!
Welcome back to what promises to be another great year in Regional School District 13. Our first two weeks of school have been successful and students and staff are back into a schedule of exciting teaching and learning. I am proud of how easily this happens here. As we move through the school year, please remember to reach out to us on behalf of your children if you have information, questions or concerns to share. This newsletter has information on the progress of the Utilization Committee, School Lunch, School Safety and SBAC testing.
See you at the Durham Fair!
Memorial School students ready to learn on day one!
Strong School sends an important message.
Lyman learners diving into reading.
Utilization Committee Update: Information Session CRHS October 6th at 6 p.m.
The Utilization Committee continued to meet throughout the summer and the Board will vote on the recommendation to close Korn School at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. If this happens the current 2nd graders will stay at Brewster to become 3rd graders, and this year’s 3rd graders will go to Memorial one year early and have their fourth grade year at Memorial beginning in Fall of 2016. An information session regarding the Korn School closing recommendation will be held on October 6th in the CRHS auditorium. There will be a presentation by members of the Utilization Committee and an opportunity for members of the community to answer questions.
School Lunch: General Information and Debt Responsibilities
Information on our food service program has been sent to all families and is available on our district web-site. Information is available on payment processes as well as reports available to parents including their child’s transactions i.e. date, time, items purchased, and cost. Any student who has a balance equal to the amount of two school lunches ($6.50) will not be permitted to charge more lunches until the debt is resolved. If this is the case, a student will be provided a cheese sandwich and milk at a cost of $2. Students will not be allowed to charge a full-priced meal until such time as their lunch debt is settled. Alternate lunches will be provided for not more than 2 weeks. All debts must be resolved within a 2 week period. If your child qualified for free or reduced priced lunches you should submit your paperwork by October 15th. If your child did not previously qualify or did not need the free/reduced lunch provision, you can obtain a form from your child’s school office or from Central Office. ALL INFORMATION ON FREE/REDUCED LUNCH IS CONFIDENTIAL.
Durham Middlefield Local Wellness Coalition Survey
Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DMLWCCommunitySurvey2015
School Safety
Our school district has a comprehensive safety and security protocol manual that outlines responses to various situations. One of the best ways to prepare for an unexpected incident is to have “drills” or practices and then to debrief and make changes and improvements afterwards. Last week’s Liberty Bank robbery where our Durham schools were put into lockdown by the state police, was an example of our school leaders, staff and students responding quickly and seriously to an unexpected and potentially dangerous situation. As parents we ask that you contribute to the safety of our schools by not parking in fire lanes, calling your child in if he or she is sick, and being sure to report to us any concerns about your child or the school environment that you think warrants our attention. In the event of an emergency or unexpected event where you may get information via text or social media prior to an official report from school via email or an Everbridge message, please wait for an official confirmation from school before disseminating unconfirmed information.
Larry Morello, Durham’s new Resident State Trooper has assisted us so far this year in having a safe and smooth opening to our school year. Trooper Morello will continue to work with our staff and students in several areas including assessing our lockdown drills.
CRHS leaders committed to safety.
Brewster warmly welcomes young learners.
Korn School is proud to have Teacher of the Year Mrs. Noelle Durkin.
SBAC Information
We have received the results of SBAC testing for our district and will be releasing individual student test results in October after administrators, teachers and the Board of Education can review the results. As a reminder, the SBAC tests students’ skills in ELA/Literacy and Mathematics in grades 3-8 and 11. Students are required to apply their skills and knowledge to more complex problems on performance tasks and complete other test items on the computer which adapts the questions as the student progresses through the testing situation based upon the student’s performance. In this way the test is more individualized and “adaptive”. You may have read the information provided in the newspaper and may therefore have some information about the test itself, the results and a wide array of opinions on both. If you have not read available published information, the letter from Dr. Berry that will accompany your child’s report will provide information on the test and your child’s performance. Some key points to remember:
· The SBAC test is a more rigorous test than the CMT and is aligned with Common Core State Standards.
· This is the baseline year for the test for all schools; therefore analysis and interpretation of results as a point of comparison to previous years cannot be done.
· Lower scores on the SBAC do not mean that our students are learning less, it is a reflection of a more ambitious set of standards and a new assessment with more demanding types of questions. As a result, SBAC scores should not be compared to previous CMT or CAPT results.
· The same caution should be exercised with respect to comparing the SBAC achievement levels to CMT and CAPT performance level descriptors. There is no correlation between the Smarter Balanced Level 3 and Goal or Proficient for CMT or CAPT.
· Additional information can be found at SBAC - Understanding the individual student report.
· If you have further questions after you have reviewed your child's results and the accompanying letter from Dr. Berry, please contact your child's teacher.
Dr. Kathryn Veronesi
Email: kveronesi@rsd13.org
Website: www.rsd13ct.org
Phone: 860-349-7200