Superintendent Describes Another Smooth School Start

By Laurie Borst

Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff described for the Board of Education this week a successful start to the school year.

“We seem to have had another smooth opening of school,” he said. “There are still some areas of overcrowding on buses, one bus on the first tier. We are working to sort it out.”

The Western Connecticut Academy of International Studies Elementary Magnet School has opened. Nineteen Newtown students are attending. “We had 20 spots available to us. At the last minute a fourth grader dropped out. We had no other fourth grader on waiting list, so only 19 are attending,” Dr Pitkoff said.

Board of Education member Paul Mangiafico asked, “What happens to that seat? Is there any penalty to us if the student does not attend?”

Dr Pitkoff confirmed that there is no penalty. “We only pay for the students that do attend. Other towns served by the magnet school will have the opportunity to take the vacated spot.”

The district has almost filled vacancies at the schools. Dr Pitkoff reported that the middle school Spanish teacher position has been filled. At the last moment, an experienced, certified high school biology teacher was hired.

Still open are positions for a high school psychologist and an elementary school social worker. A candidate is being interviewed this week for the psychologist position, and a social worker has been hired pending a reference check.

The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) continued to be a sticking point with the board. The Board of Finance has requested the school to assign priorities to the projects it has proposed to complete over the next five years. The board easily prioritized items three through eight.

Items one and two, projects for the upcoming year, continued to split the members. These two projects are HVAC work at Hawley Elementary School and the high school expansion project.

The Hawley project has had preliminary studies paid for. Some equipment has been installed, but the work needs to be completed. Hawley School’s current heating system has been cobbled together as the building was added onto over the years.

Presently, there are areas of the building that cannot control the heat. Sometimes the humidity is so high that floors become slippery. In the warm weather, in an effort to cool their rooms, teachers open windows, only to have to shout over the traffic noise from Church Hill Road.

While acknowledging the seriousness of the Hawley issues, some board members are worried that if the high school is not given number one priority, it will be viewed as unnecessary. With a follow-up vote pending with NEASC, they note that taking steps to improve the high school and maintain accreditation is essential.

In other business, the board voted to accept a donation of $500 from the GE Foundation. Last April, Kaitlin Sullivan, Class of 2006, was awarded a GE STAR Award. Kaitlin nominated her chemistry teacher, Denise Mendoza, to receive the award also. The school receives the $500.