The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/schools/page/38/)
Girls soccer team coaches Tim Percoski (left) and Brittany Whiteley (right) are pictured with Carly Matthews, who received her Class L All-State Soccer Award February 10 at the Aqua Turf. Congratulations, Carly!
In Connecticut, we believe all students have the ability to learn, grow and rise to the challenge of high expectations. The Connecticut Next Generation Accountability System helps us deliver on our promise of a high quality education for all by creating a more comprehensive, holistic picture of how our students and schools are performing. What is the Connecticut Next Generation Accountability System? Connecticut’s Next Generation Accountability System is a broad set of 12 indicators that help tell the story of how well a school is preparing its students for success in college, careers and life. The system moves beyond test scores and graduation rates and instead provides a more holistic, multifactor perspective of district and school performance and incorporates student growth over time.
Aces High, Team 176, our local team in the FIRST Robotics Competition, has been a great competitor ever since they were organized at Windsor Locks High School in 1995. Suffield joined in 1998, and the team won the National Championship in Florida the following year. Last year Aces High became Connecticut champion again and finished second in New England. In the 2019 world championship in Detroit, they performed well and reached the quarter-finals but lost the third match in that two-out-of-three elimination. These achievements are shared, because the carefully designed FIRST program has individual teams competing in three-team alliances, a teaching strategy that encourages cooperation and what FIRST likes to call “gracious professionalism.”
Every year a new game is announced, so each team has to design and build a new robot with capabilities matched to new challenges.
The Suffield Land Conservancy is excited to announce a new partnership between the SLC and Suffield Public Schools. The SLC has acquired land located on Sheldon Street across from the high school’s entrance. The land is a total of 23.22 acres.
The earth is our only chance to live. We have to stop climate change. It is not only us that will suffer, animals will too. People think that the earth is so big that we can’t do much harm to it. Wrong!
Hello Suffield residents! McAlister Student Council members are working on a project this month to help the animals in Australia. As you know, the koalas, wallabies and other animals are in danger from the wildfires spreading so fiercely. We decided that it would be helpful to collect money to assist the animals from the wildfires.
Please visit the Suffield Public Schools Facebook page for more information on how you can donate toward this cause. We need donations by March 27.
Suffield Public Schools Food Service is pleased to introduce our new concept of a Sharing Table.
The Sharing Table is a place where students can place unopened food and drinks that they choose not to eat or drink. This provides an opportunity for other students to take additional helpings of food or beverages from the Sharing Table at no cost to them. The Sharing Table is available to encourage sharing of unwanted items and prevents them from being thrown away. If a student is still hungry after finishing his or her meal, he or she may pick up items from the Sharing Table. Items from home may not be placed on the Sharing Table.
For more details, please email bgashi@suffield.org.
On December 3 and 4 the fifth-grade students got a visit from the staff at The Suffield Observer. The fifth-grade teachers asked the Observer to talk to the students as part of their journalism unit. Do you ever struggle to think of an idea to write about? Well, students also struggle sometimes, and the staff at the Observer opened up their presentation by explaining how they get ideas for articles. Another thing they talked to us about is that your facts need to be true because you don’t want people to get false information.
The Superintendent’s FY2021 Budget Recommendation was presented to the Suffield Board of Education at its December 5, 2019 meeting. The $36,509,475 proposal was a 2.71% increase over the 2019-2020 budget of $35,547,870. With fixed costs accounting for the largest percentage of the budget increase, significant efforts were made to put forth a modest proposal that was in alignment with the mission and goals of the Suffield Public Schools. The major initiatives for the 2020-2021 school year reflect our increasing demands for literacy instruction, Special Education programming, high school coursework, elementary STEM programming, high school guidance, and digital learning. In addition, funding has been requested to address the reoccurring maintenance needs of our school facilities.
Rotary Student of the Month for November
Congratulations to Eiren Klesczewski who was selected as the Rotary Student of the Month for November! Eiren is a senior at Suffield High School and has volunteered in several groups throughout her years here at the high school. Eiren is involved with Chick-Fil-A Leader Academy, where she helped organize a Trivia Night to raise money for the Dustin Doyon and Brianna Mailloux Scholarship Fund. This group also organized a movie night for elementary aged children, where they collected socks to donate to those in need for the winter. Eiren is also a member of our Wildcat Advisory Group.