The Westbrook Public Schools’ academic year opens for students on Wednesday, Aug. 30. Staff members will return two days earlier on Monday, Aug. 28 for a district-wide conference and professional development before preparing classrooms for the students’ arrival.

Parents can access information about the school district programs, get school lunch pricing and menus, and view bus schedules online at the Westbrook Public Schools website www.westbrookctschools.org.

Although capital projects in many Connecticut school districts were stalled this summer due to uncertainty about the state budget and the level of state aid for each town, Westbrook’s summer capital projects, supported by bond funding already approved, progressed.

Summer Projects

Superintendent of Schools Pat Ciccone said that during the summer of 2017, the school district completed almost all of the capital project work listed in the district’s last five-year plan.

During the summer, crews finished installing air conditioning to the middle school’s second floor classrooms. The parking lots at the high school were also repaved, completing the second half of the project that began in summer 2016. Narrow parking lot islands were filled with stones to minimize maintenance and weeding in the future.

Also completed was the multi-year project to replace the Daisy Ingraham Elementary School classroom window-walls with new energy-efficient windows. This follows the replacement of the high school’s windows with new ones in 2016 and, during last December’s holiday break, the installation of a new energy-efficient window wall in the high school cafeteria.

Work to upgrade and address safety issues in the high school and middle school gymnasiums is now almost complete. Floors were redone, bleachers fixed, and basketball standards made safer. Heating oil tanks were emptied, cleaned of sludge, and refilled. Several dead trees were removed from the Daisy Ingraham Elementary School property. Worn carpeting in high-traffic hallways of the middle school was also replaced.

The most surprising work was unscheduled. In late July, the Westbrook Middle School electrical panel sustained what was later confirmed to be a direct hit by lightning. And although the surge protection system kept the incident from affecting the school’s internal technology systems and equipment, the middle school’s main electric panel and related equipment were damaged. The surge protectors were able to stop the electricity from passing beyond the panel, however the lightning’s electricity found another path to travel—from the middle school along buried electrical conduit to an outdoor shed housing a transformer and the electrical controls for the school athletic complex’s irrigation system. When the lighting surge reached the shed, it blew out the transformer and destroyed the irrigation system controls.

Fortunately, repairing the damage to the school’s electrical panel and to the shed’s electrical equipment in the shed was covered by the school district’s insurance provider, CIRMA.

“The district just had to pay a $1,000 deductible. [The strike] was considered a covered claim,” said Ciccone.

It also covered the district’s costs incurred to pay for labor, services, and equipment to substitute for the irrigation system until it could be repaired.

“We had to bring in a generator to operate the sprinkler system to keep the fields watered. The repair work will be finished before school starts,” said Ciccone.

Soon the district will embark on another planned sustainability project, the replacement of existing interior lighting with energy-efficient LED lighting. The school district has allocated some budgeted funds to jump-start the works however the bulk of the costs will be financed over several years from energy savings achieved by a switch to LED lighting.

Chrome Books for All

Starting in September, the school district will embark on a major new technology initiative. Every one of Westbrook High School’s 245 students will be issued a laptop.

“Every high school student this year will get a Chrome laptop, which is theirs to use in school and out of school,” said Ciccone.

If a student damages or loses the one he or she is issued, the district will handle it as it has all school property loaned to students such as textbooks: If it is lost or damaged, the student and the student’s parents are responsible for the district’s costs to repair the unit or replace it. Parents, when students receive their Chrome Book by signing the district’s technology policy, will have the option of contributing $5 or $10 into a funding pool. This funding pool will act as self-insurance: If students damage a Chrome Book they’ve been issued, this funding source could be tapped to pay for the unit’s repair.

The new technology plan has been received well.

“The high school is so excited,” said Ciccone.

What this initiative also means is that laptop carts at the high school will be moved to the middle school and to the elementary school to support classroom lessons there.

On Sunday, Oct. 15, the high school will have its once-a-decade visit by a New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) Accreditation team. The technology initiative is one that the administration and high school staff are thrilled to be able to spotlight.

Staff Shifts

With the departure of Middle School Principal Cori-Ann DiMaggio in June, the school district has hired an interim principal, Sharon Weirsman, to serve until the ongoing search process yields a permanent replacement. The search for a new principal is underway.

The school year also brings in a new food service director, Mary Conway, to fill a slot left vacant by a retirement. As of press time, the school district planned to maintain the same school meal prices as were in place during the 2016-’17 school year. Susan Speir will fill in for a school psychologist on maternity leave.

To support instruction, the district has hired board certified behavioral analyst (BCBA) Meredith Keller; her time and costs will be shared with the Old Saybrook schools. The district has also put four of Westbrook’s paraprofessional staff through training and testing to become certified behavior technicians. Together with the BCBA, this paraprofessional team supports district students with extraordinary special education needs.

“What this means is that we no longer will have to contract out to organizations like ACES to provide these services,” said Ciccone.

Similarly, the two districts will share a new English language learner teacher. The district already has one as well as a Westbrook world language teacher who recently became cross-endorsed for this skill.

“We have 80 students in the district that have English-language needs. We will be sharing a certified bi-lingual teacher with Old Saybrook,” said Ciccone.

The total Westbrook school district enrollment in the fall of 2017 will be 735 students; 254 at Daisy Ingraham Elementary, 231 at the middle school, and 245 at the high school. As enrollment has declined over the past few years, the district has in some cases chosen not to replace staff that has departed. A high school science teacher who left the district in June, for example, was not replaced, and at Daisy, the kindergarten has been collapsed into two sections to shift one kindergarten teacher into a 1st-grade classroom.

Key Dates

Parents will want to mark down the dates of upcoming school open houses in their calendars.

Monday, Aug. 28: Teachers and Staff Return, Convocation & Professional Development Day

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 9 to 10:30 a.m.: Daisy Ingraham Elementary School Kindergarten Orientation

Wednesday, Aug. 30: First Day of School for Students

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6:45 to 9 p.m.: Westbrook High School Open House

Thursday Sept. 14,
Westbrook Middle School Open Houses: 5th and 6th Grades, 5 to 6 p.m.; 7th and 8th grades, 6 to 7 p.m.

Daisy Ingraham Elementary School: Open Houses will be in grade-level morning breakfasts. Watch for notices.

School Breakfasts, Lunches

Parents can visit the Westbrook Public Schools website (www.westbrookctschools.org), click on the Departments tab, and then click on the “Food Services” icon to view the school menus for August and September 2017.

Prices for breakfast choices are: Daisy Elementary School, $1.25; middle school, $1.50; and high school, $1.55. Prices for lunch are: Daisy Elementary School, $2.50; middle school, $2.75; and high school, $3.