Printer Friendly Version - Westbrook Schools Open Aug. 31

Refurbishing the Daisy Ingraham School Entry Plantings: Contractor crews replaced all of the classroom windows at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School this summer with new energy-efficient and secure ones. The construction should be wrapped up by Wednesday, Aug. 31, the first day of school in Westbrook. Photo by Becky Coffey/Harbor News

Westbrook High School and Daisy Ingraham Elementary School campuses were both construction zones this summer. All of both buildings’ aging and leaky windows were replaced with new energy-efficient, secure windows. Fortunately for students and staff, the construction project is on schedule to be done before school starts for students on Wednesday, Aug. 31.

While there are no new positions this year, there will be new faces filling slots left open when staff retired, left district employment, or changed jobs within the district.

Two new certified staff members have joined the faculty. Hired to fill the middle school band/chorus teacher opening was Matthew Talmadge. A newly-open 3rd-grade teacher slot has just been posted and a candidate finalist will be selected by the start of school.

Other new hires will fill slots that support the district’s special education students. Taylor Price will work at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School, Kara Lesandrine at Westbrook High School, and Rebecca Lyon at Westbrook Middle School.

Two staff members have changed jobs within the school district. Tiffini Hovey, an administrative assistant in the Main Office last year, moved in June to the district-wide position of technology support assistant, working with district Information Technology Coordinator Ben Russell. Brianna Banach transferred from a middle school administrative office job to a special education paraprofessional position.

For the second year, two world language teachers will work at more than one district school. Spanish teacher Mike Donovan will again teach at both the middle and high schools, and French teacher Lisa Finegan was cross-endorsed to teach French and also English to speakers of other languages, working in this program with students from grades K-12 at all three schools.

As of June, the Westbrook Public Schools had 55 non-English language speakers enrolled; 37 of those students were attending Daisy Ingraham Elementary School. For most of those students, their native language was either Spanish or Portuguese. Under state law, the school district must provide special programs when the number of non-native speakers of a particular language reaches 20 or more. This includes instruction in their native language, in English, and respite time during the day when they can speak with fellow students in their native language. Within 30 months of entering school as non-English speakers, the state expects students to acquire English language proficiency, as demonstrated on special state tests.

“We are required to provide a bi-lingual certified instructor,” said Superintendent of Schools Pat Ciccone.

Since the greatest number of non-English speakers are enrolled at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School, the teacher will spend most of her time at that school.

This fall a new math program will be introduced in Daisy Elementary School classrooms.

A new more robust program for families registering kindergarteners is leading to a slight up-tick in the kindergarten registration numbers. Under the new approach, each kindergarten family has an individual interview with School Principal Ruth Rose. Also, parents and kindergarten students will take the practice bus rids together on kindergarten orientation day.

“We find that it helps for parents and students to experience the bus ride together and learn together how to be safe on the bus by following the rules,” said Ciccone. “We’re hoping parents can take a more active role in helping students learn the bus rules and also have fun riding the bus.”

This year will be busy at Westbrook High School for school teachers, staff, and administrators—this is the self-study year before a planned fall 2017 school accreditation visit by a team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). These re-accreditation visits occur every 10 years. To prepare for them, faculty members divide into committees to examine how well the school’s programs, environment, assessments, staffing, and facilities adhere to NEASC standards. A self-study report reflecting the committees’ work will be produced by the end of this school year. It will then be sent to NEASC accreditation team to review before their fall visit.

“We are working to challenge our students. We offer various Honors, AP, and UConn Early Experience courses,” said Ciccone. “We graduated 62 students in June 2016 and 62 students are moving on to post-secondary training at accredited schools.

Westbrook Public Schools has a website at www.westbrookctschools.org on which the district, the schools, and staff post important information.

Under the Community Resources heading is posted transportation information, free and reduced price lunch information, and Westbrook Youth & Family Services program information. The district’s academic calendars are posted there as well as staff listings, school curriculum information, and staff contact information. These are just a few of the items posted on the website.

This summer the district’s Information Technology Coordinator Ben Russell and Technology Assistant Tiffini Hovey redesigned the school district’s website. The goal was to improve navigation between screens and to make the web pages more visually engaging. The newly revamped school district website went live in the last two weeks

In addition to finishing the window replacement projects at Westbrook High School and Daisy Ingraham Elementary School, workers are also refurbishing and replanting landscaping and lawns disrupted by the construction projects, with the goal of having everything ready by the time school starts.

The parking lots on the east side of Westbrook High School and in front of Daisy Ingraham Elementary School have been repaved.

Bleachers and basketball backboards in the schools’ gymnasiums have been upgraded this summer to meet current safety standards.

Prices for the Westbrook Public Schools meals will be the same as the 2015-2016 school year.

Breakfast at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School will cost $1.25 and lunch, $2.50. At the Westbrook Middle School, breakfast is $1.50 and lunch, $2.75. Westbrook High School offers breakfast for $1.55 and lunch for $3.00. Parents must pre-pay to allow students to buy breakfasts and lunches at all three schools. No meals may be charged.

To pre-pay, parents send to the school with their student a check made out to the Westbrook School Lunch Program; the child’s name should be written in the check’s memo field so the funds are applied to the correct student’s name. These pre-paid meal funds are deposited by the school district in the student PowerLunch account. Parents can sign up to receive low-balance alerts through the schools’ on-line Parents Portal to ensure their child never misses a school meal.

Children of parents with qualifying income levels can receive free and reduced price meals. An application can be obtained from the school office or be downloaded from the school district website. Click on the tab marked “Departments” and then “Food Services.”