Watch For Parent Toolkits For Guidance

By Eliza Hallabeck

Students in each grade have different needs and wants, and Parent Toolkits, information packets provided by Newtown Public Schools to students at different grade levels, can help parents establish a home and school collaboration.

“We give them out to students in the kindergarten, second grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, and ninth grade,” said Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda.

All grades are covered by the Parent Toolkits, which outline Basic Human Needs, Self Esteem, Living And Working With Others, and other points of interest and growth for parents and students. The packet handed out to kindergarten students for example, focus on students in kindergarten and first grade.

Dr Gejda said the Parent Toolkits were first developed to strengthen the connection between schools and home.

“The thing I really like is each book looks at the same basic needs,” said Dr Gejda, “but it looks at them for that specific grade level.”

The toolkits, she said, look a how to meet student needs and how to develop responsible students.

The project to put the toolkits together began in the summer of 2006 and the last book, the ninth through twelfth grade book, was written two years ago.

“This is a process that we continue to review,” said Dr Gejda.

Within the next year or so, she said, the toolkits could be looked at for revising, but the basics remain the same.