March 16
Dear Parents,
It is production time for the school play. This time of the year is always intense for students, teachers, and especially the adults coordinating the actors, props, sets, and costumes. Charlotte’s Web will be performed next week! Information for performance times is found later in this newsletter.
As you know, students did not attend school for half of Monday and all day Tuesday due to inservice. On Monday teachers at HES worked on analyzing the NECAP results, working in cross grade level groups to redefine expectations for students entering and leaving each grade, and preparing for the WSSU inservice day on Tuesday. Tuesday was spent in Windsor with Jeri Thompson, a curriculum consultant. She presented the new Common Core Standards to the entire WSSU teaching staff. This is just the beginning of the work needed to educate the teachers, revise the curriculum and implement the practices necessary to meet the new requirements. The Common Core needs to be fully implemented in the 2014-15 school year. It is expected that our NECAP assessments will be replaced that year with a new assessment called Smarter Balanced assessment, which will be taken online.
Today I am off to meet with high school guidance counselors. One of the goals set for me by the school board is to gather as much information as possible about how well our high school students are doing. We have given surveys to students and parents in grade nine to determine how well they feel they were prepared. We have gathered as much data from PSAT, SAT, and NECAP results. We look at honor roll lists and plans of our students after college. Finally, we have joint meetings with our core middle level teachers and the high school teachers from Windsor and Hartford. I hope to present all of this information to the Board in June with recommendations for future improvements.
Candidates for the Principal’s position will have interviews next week. The School Board reopened the search after meeting with 5 candidates last month. Hopefully they will find the right match for the school and community. My role in this process is to give each candidate a tour of the school. I really enjoy doing so as it gives me a chance to promote the many aspects of the school that we are all proud of.
Have a great weekend. Wear green! For that matter, wear shorts! It is supposed to be beautiful. As always, give your child a hug for me.
Judy Callens, Principal
