For students and parents of young children, the end of August means one thing: back to school. Here is a rundown of what that means for Clinton students.

The first day of school this year is Tuesday, Aug. 30. Superintendent of Schools Maryann O’Donnell said the return to school will look a lot like it did in June with regard to COVID guidance.

“From a school health perspective, our schools will be operating similar to the way we were at the end of June. Our school classrooms, events, and activities will operate without restrictions, and we are excited to be starting the new school year in this manner,” said O’Donnell.

“We have received updated guidance from the CT Department of Public Health and the CT State Department of Education that we will utilize. The document, ’Launching into Healthy Learning 2022’ highlights steps schools should take to implement to support a healthy environment and to have all of our students in school learning as much as possible,” she continued.

This year, several towns around the state have had trouble finding enough bus drivers to adequately provide transportation service like in normal years. However, O’Donnell said there won’t be much of an issue in Clinton.

“There are no major changes to bus routes this year, only small adjustments required with students. We are always looking for additional drivers to support the committed group of drivers that we have in Clinton, but we hope that we will have minimal disruptions to our bus routes this year,” said O’Donnell.

Asked what kinds of minor changes will be made O’Donnell said “Adjustments to routes will be based on students promoting from Joel to Eliot and Eliot to Morgan and new students to the district. That changes who is riding the buses, and therefore we need to slightly adjust the routes. Other than that, most routes are remaining the same.”

In terms new policies or curriculum, O’Donnell said that the schools will continue to work on strategic plan that outlines “…our priority objectives, goals, and action steps to create a road map for the next three years of district work. Our focus is to establish a district approach to supporting equity in access to student academic success and belonging in our school communities.”

O’Donnell said that each school has certain steps that will be taken this year “… to support student engagement in learning, to improve academic achievement, to provide learning supports to students who need them, to continue to support the mental health and social-emotional needs of our students, and to enhance our school communities to create a strong sense of community and belonging. We are very excited to welcome our students and families back to our school this year.”

Meanwhile at Joel Elementary School, O’Donnell said the district is starting a bilingual program for Spanish speaking students.

“The emphasis will be on developing math and literacy skills while becoming proficient in English. Currently there are 33 students in grades 1 through 4 who will be participating,” said O’Donnell.

For more information, visit clintonpublic.net.