New Superintendent Gives Board of Ed. First Report

While the Suffield school system prepares for the first day of classes on Aug. 30, new Superintendent Karen Baldwin assured the Suffield Board of Education that everything was on track during her report at Tuesday's board meeting.

In her first report, Baldwin said the school system's faculty continues to prepare for the first day of school, the special education study is continuing and the board still needs to address the future of the high school's Latin program.

Baldwin was approved by the board in June and said she has formally been on the job for "a little over a week."

"We are overall in good shape and ready to open the doors on Aug. 30," Baldwin said. "This is crunch time for public schools and we are all doing our best."

Baldwin said the middle school roof replacement is in the home stretch with only some fine tuning needed. Similarly, the new agriscience building is coming along according to schedule after small issues were addressed on the onset of construction.

While facilities staff continues to work in preparation for the beginning of the academic year, teachers and other faculty will attend professional development days over the coming week. They will address items ranging from improved leadership to new statewide bullying legislation, according to Baldwin.

She said the whole faculty will address the new anti-bullying legislation, passed by state legislature earlier this year, during the professional development day on Aug. 26.

The special education program study, an ongoing issue addressed by the board, will continue into the school year, according to Baldwin.

The Capital Region Education Council (CREC) is charged with completing the study. It has conducted reviews of 32 special needs students’ individual education programs and received response from the surveys they mailed out to parents.

"I would categorize broadly as an initial finding [that the parents'] sentiment was largely positive," Baldwin said.

She said the group plans to have a draft report to her office by early October and a final draft prepared for the board by the end of October.

The board also approved a 30 day review of several textbooks for the new architecture, business and ethics classes at Suffield High School.

While those subjects' futures moved forward, the future of the Latin program at the high school is still uncertain.

The search for alternatives including a new certified teacher, online and college programs and independent study continue but the results have not been what the school system is looking for, according to Baldwin.

She said the families of the 15 students enrolled in Latin I were instructed to look for alternative language programs, including French and Spanish.

But there are nine students in Latin III and IV who present a more complex problem.

Baldwin said the families of the students have been contacted and the school continues to work with them to find an alternative.

"We will work on this until August 29 before we make a decision," Baldwin said.