Newtown Public Schools
Weekly Update - August 12, 2024
Message from the Superintendent
Dear Newtown Families, Faculty, and Staff,
For those of us who work in schools, June is like Friday, July is like Saturday and August is, you guessed it, like Sunday. With just over a little more than two weeks to go, we are entering Sunday night territory! As I walked through the buildings during the past week, they are hubs of activity. There is a steady stream of teachers entering the doors of our buildings to prepare for the start of the new school year. And with many of our classrooms not air conditioned, they are braving the heat and humidity to get a head start.
Our office staff are busy finalizing schedules, preparing welcome back information to go out to families and verifying addresses and bus routes. Much preparation goes into ensuring a smooth opening and our administrative assistants are doing everything they can to help this year get off to a good start. Often not seen or recognized, a tremendous amount of work happens in our schools during the summer - custodial and maintenance projects, interviewing hiring, vetting of new staff and security protocol reviews and improvements.
As has been the tradition here in Newtown, bus routes will be published in The Newtown Bee on Friday, August 16th. It is important to understand that the routes must be delivered to the Bee about 10 days in advance of the printed edition and changes have often been made by the time the information goes to print. Please refer to the routes as general guides and confirm your child’s stop through the Parent Portal. It is not atypical for buses to be running behind as much as 30 minutes during the first two weeks of school. We will do our best to monitor extremely late buses and provide communication to you as soon as we are aware. Thank you for your patience and understanding in advance.
As a reminder, students will return to school on Thursday, August 29th. Both Thursday, the 29th, and Friday, the 30th will be 2-hour release days for students. When students return after the long Labor Day weekend, the days will be full days for the whole week.
Warm regards,
Anne Uberti
Summer Custodial and Mainenance Projects
Perhaps no one works harder in our schools during the summer than our custodial and maintenance staff. With most of our buildings full of staff and students throughout the year, summer provides an opportunity for deep cleaning and maintenance projects that keep our buildings in the pristine condition we are accustomed to. Our custodial and maintenance staff take great pride in providing a safe and clean environment for our school community and we thank them for it!
Some of the more notable projects taking place this summer include installing new stage lighting in the Reed Cafetorium, new flooring in some spaces at NHS and NMS, new stair treads at Reed, mulching of playgrounds across schools and improvements to the Middle Gate soccer field.
Reed Intermediate Courtyard Cleanup
One of the most dramatic improvements has been to the Reed Intermediate Courtyard. Reed opened in January of 2003 and in the past 20 years, the original plantings have become extremely overgrown, blocking out light in the lower level classrooms. Because there is no access to the courtyard large enough to bring in the equipment needed to remove the debris, it needed to be lifted out by crane. The result will be a cleaner, more usable outdoor space for our Reed students and staff.
Getting Ready For Back To School Days
Teachers, paras and office staff often head to school on rainy days to get ready for the start of the school year. Much care and attention is paid to planning and preparation, not to mention creating classroom environments that are warm and welcoming, especially important for our younger children
NPS Library Media Resource Restriction Option
A primary mission of Newtown Public Schools is to promote a love of reading and lifelong learning. To do so, each of our seven library media centers offers students a wide variety of materials for reading, viewing and listening. All materials are thoughtfully chosen by our trained library media specialists who take into account a variety of factors including age appropriateness, favorable reviews from a variety of standard reviewing resources, reader appeal and interest, and the representation of various viewpoints. In addition to housing resources that support the curriculum, additional materials are included that encourage reading for pleasure and recreation. Parents/guardians who want to restrict their child from checking out certain print materials can do so by request within the parameters established by the District. For more information, please refer to the email regarding this topic that was sent by the Superintendent earlier today.
Newtown, CT 06470
(203) 426-7600