The 2021-2022 school year has officially begun, and it is wonderful to see our students, families, faculty, staff and partners in education returning to each of our schools. We have a very special year planned for the Suffield Public Schools, and the safeguards we have in place and the support of our community can help to ensure a full year of in-person learning for our students. This may be an objective that is difficult to attain, but we will do everything in our power as we strive to achieve it.
For each academic year, the Board of Education (BOE) reviews and updates its annual goals for our school district. The establishment of these goals is important, as they assist the BOE in prioritizing the needs of the district, establishing policies and allocating necessary resources. The administration, faculty and staff then takes and operationalizes the goals through the development of advancement plans with specific objectives and anticipated outcomes for each goal. As a district, we implement these advancement plans and review our progress throughout the school year. BOE meetings and workshops, as well as district and school-based conversations about goal-related initiatives, are just a few of the forums we use for these important progress-oriented discussions. The following will serve as our 2021-2022 Board of Education Goals:
- Continue to establish healthy channels of outreach, communication, engagement, and collaboration with town government and the community;
- Continue to systematically use meaningful data to drive student achievement and outcomes, and track student success and instructional practices;
- Continue to design and implement an integrated plan for professional learning aligned with district needs;
- Continue to revise curriculum and programming with an emphasis on alignment and fidelity of implementation;
- Continue to engage in a process to develop a five-year Strategic Plan;
- Continue to promote diversity, equity and inclusion for students, faculty and staff by fostering acceptance, mutual respect, civility and non-discrimination, per BOE Policies 4118.11 and 5145.4, across all areas of our District including employment, policy, curriculum and instruction, professional development and the working and learning environment.
Anyone who is interested in reviewing our 2021-2022 district and school
advancement plans will be able to access them on our district website
following their presentation to the BOE in October.
Prior to
concluding this update, I would like to draw special attention to
several staff members who are being recognized for the significant
contributions they are making to the children and families of Suffield.
Mrs. Kate Sweeney, PreK-2 Literacy Specialist at A. Ward Spaulding
School has been named our 2021-2022 SPS Teacher of the Year and district
nominee for the Connecticut Teacher of the Year. Mrs. Sweeney will not
only be our education ambassador for the year, she will be representing
the district in the statewide Teacher of the Year program. We are also
proud to recognize Mrs. Doreen Tapper, Para- educator at Suffield Middle
School, for being named our SPS Paraeducator of the Year. Mrs. Tapper
has been nominated to represent the district in the State of Connecticut
Anne Marie Murphy Paraeducator of the Year Award program. There are
also two additional special recognitions that our SPS educators have
received for the contributions they continue to make to their respective
fields. Mrs. Denise Raymond, PE Teacher at McAlister Intermediate
School has been recognized as the CTAHPERD (CT Association for Health,
Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) Elementary School Physical
Education Teacher of the Year for 2021. In addition, we congratulate Mr.
Justin Kaput, Environmental Science Teacher at Suffield High School,
for being named a Change Fellow to the North American Association for
Environmental Education. These faculty and staff distinctions are
well-deserved, and they are truly representative of the very talented
educators we have working within the Suffield Public Schools. In future
updates, I look forward to highlighting many of the state and national
recognitions that our student scholars and athletes will also be
receiving this school year.
In closing, and on behalf of the Suffield Public Schools, we wish you all a very nice month of October!