Twice a week, 54 Branford second-graders are now confidently swarming the swimming pool at Walsh Intermediate School (WIS). The effort is the first toe in the water for a new swim and water safety initiative collaboration of Branford Public Schools (BPS), Soundview Family YMCA and Branford Parks and Recreation.

The collaboration, currently only at the starting line with a pilot program, has the ultimate goal of providing basic water safety and swimming instruction to every BPS second grade student, using the WIS pool.

The program currently underway was offered via sign-up for an elementary enrichment program. In the future, the hope is that “...a large segment of second graders will be exposed to safety courses as part of enrichment,” said Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez.

Hernandez noted the concept began years ago in discussions with former Soundview YMCA director Doug Shaw, but was interrupted by Covid. It’s now swimming along with assistance from current Soundview YMCA director Matt LaPrino, working together with BPS assistant superintendent Rachel Sexton and with assistance from Branford Parks and Recreation assistant director Dale Izzo.

“Its something we’re very excited about,” said Hernadez. “The idea is to make sure that, as a shoreline town, we expose our kids to water safety at the earliest age. YMCA has a national program that starts with second grade because they’ve found that, developmentally, that’s the age that does well with it.”

“It’s a really cool partnership,” said LaPrino. “This really started about eight years ago between the Rec Department, the Board of Education and the YMCA to say, ‘What can we do to get kids in the water and be water safe?’ Three years ago, when I started at the YMCA, my first conversation with Hamlet was that I wanted to do this program. It’s been a vision of mine.”

The current group of second-grade participants represents about a third of the BPS grade two population, said Sexton. The current Tuesday and Thursday, six-week afternoon program offers hour-long basic introductory swimming and water safety lessons.

Students are bused to the pool by BPS. They learn from Soundview YMCA staff with Branford Recreation lifeguards on hand and BPS staff also there to lend support, such as Branford High School (BHS) athletic director Tom Ermini.

“Our initial goal is for students to have some confidence moving into the water,” said Ermini.

“It really exciting to see how readily kids have gotten into the water,” said Sexton. “That’s the goal, is to have all kids feel comfortable in the water and the confidence that brings.”

Izzo said Parks and Recreation’s participation to help with the grade two program is similar to the department’s work to assist BHS girls swim coach Sally Noel with generating swimming skills in younger students. There are currently four Branford students on the collaborative high school boys competitive swim team with Daniel Hand High School in Madison.

“Sally saw a need to get fifth-through-eighth graders in the pool, so we reached out to [WIS principal] Raeanne Reynolds, and they’ve now been in the pool since January, swimming Tuesdays and Thursdays prior to this group,” said Izzo of the middle school swim program, which finished up in March.

“So we’re trying to build up Branford’s swimming program; plus, being a shoreline town, it’s important for kids to know how to swim,” said Izzo. “And this is also great for the second graders because they’re getting exposed to this pool at the school they’re going to be at in three years.”

For the current group of second-graders, following a fun evaluation on Day One, beginners, intermediate and advanced level students were broken out into three groups for the remainder of the program. In the pool, Soundview YMCA aquatics director Alex Hunter captains the teaching team.

The Sound visited the WIS pool to see the program in action on a Tuesday afternoon in March. During that week, the program had additional volunteer assistance in the pool from 10 Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) swimming and diving team members, together with men and women’s head coach Tim Quill, and assistant coach CJ Moran.

“We are all on the same page of making sure every child is water safe,” said LaPrino.

As an SCSU swim/dive team alumnus (and current SCSU home meet/conference championship announcer) LaPrino reached out to Quill to offer the team a chance to volunteer with the program.

“We had Matt come in and meet with our team and explain the purpose of this,” said Quill. “It’s a good volunteer opportunity for our student athletes. A lot of them want to be teachers, so this is great opportunity to come in and work with some young students, especially in a sport that they’re truly masters of.”

“We hope that it’s a partnership that will continue, moving forward,” LaPrino added.

Also there to view the pilot program in action were representatives of Central Connecticut Coast YMCA (CCCY), which is the overarching agency of local YMCAs including Soundview Y. CCCY president/CEO David Stevenson, senior vice president/COO Tim Bartlett; Marketing and Communications Director Donna Gill Lisitano; and board chair Christal Esposito came to the WIS pool.

“I think it’s a great opportunity. What we’d like to do is expand it to the other YMCA’s that we serve,” said Esposito. “Having kids learn to swim as a second grader is amazing, and it’s important.”

“Part of our strategic plan is that all kids will be safer on the water; however and where ever we can do that. We live in a shoreline community. Any drowning is preventable. It’s important to all of us that every kid feels safe on the water,” said Bartlett.

Stevenson said seeing the joy and hearing the laughter of the second grade participants illustrated another important aspect of the YMCA’s water safety and swimming programs.

“I think we forget about the fun and the joy that comes with learning to swim, as well as the confidence that comes with learning to swim,” said Stevenson.

Next steps for the Branford-based collaborative swim and water safety initiative will be to build on the pilot program to offer another program in the coming school year, on the way toward the goal of expanding the offering to all BPS second grade students in the future, said Sexton.