What a beautiful stretch of autumn weather we have been enjoying for the past month! The great weather has allowed for our many activities, field trips, events, and of course, outdoor recess, to occur without disruption, which is great for all of us! I hope that you are able to participate in our upcoming parent/teacher conferences, and if not, please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher via email if you would like an update or have any questions. We are preparing to start the budget development process for the district soon, and we will let families know when the Board of Education's budget presentations are taking place, and we will share budget information throughout the winter months, leading up to the town budget referendum in May. I have been able to visit all of our schools over the past two weeks, and our teachers and students are working hard and productively across all of our classrooms. Thank you, as always, for your continued support of our students and our schools; your support of the work of the schools helps us all grow and thrive each day, and for that, we are appreciative.

Sincerely yours,

Janet P. Parlato, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools

• November 3rd: Daylight Savings Time Ends

• November 5th: Election Day/Parent Conferences ~ SCHOOLS CLOSED

• November 8-9th: NMHS Theatre ~ The Crucible (see below for showtimes and tickets)

• November 11th: Veterans Day ~ SCHOOLS CLOSED

• November 13th: Parent Conferences ~ Early Dismissal

• November 19th: BOE Meeting, 7pm, SNIS LMC

• November 27th: Early Dismissal for Students/Staff

• November 28-29th: Thanksgiving ~ SCHOOLS CLOSED

Report Card Season in the Fall of 2024

Did you know that all report cards are housed in PowerSchool in the Parent and Student portals (newmillfordps.powerschool.com/public) the day we release grades for K-12?

If you don't currently have a Parent Portal, please call your school to get your child's Access ID and Access Password.

You will see many types of data including report cards for your child including:

* NMPS Pro Tip to Remember: Report Cards do not work on your cell phone app unless you are using a browser to access your parent portal.

Mr. Raymond Manka, Principal

Mr. Kevin Best, Assistant Principal

Dr. Megan Dwyer, Assistant Principal

Mr. Anthony Blake, Assistant Principal

The New Milford High School Class of 2025 football players presented their jersey to staff members of New Milford Public Schools who have impacted them the most and invited them to join the team on the field prior to kick off to honor them on October 18th. Awesome moments. Bravo, boys !

(try not to tear up watching the video!)

Congratulations to our September WAVE Award recipients! WAVE awards are given to students who go above and beyond expectations.

On October 15th, the Departmental Student of the Month Awards were given. Congratulations to the following students !

The Wind Ensemble and Advanced Chorus Concert performed On October 10th. It was a spectacular evening. Outstanding as always, NMHS Bands and Chorus! Thank you to Mr. Syzdek and Ms. Rosen.

NMHS Choral Director, Ms. Rebekka Rosen said "We had the absolute best day with Jim Papoulis visiting. It was truly a remarkable day with unbelievable levels of student engagement." She thanked Superintendent Parlato for making it happen.

Mr. Papoulis will return to his studio in the next couple weeks and finish producing the song. If all goes well, the goal is for him to publish the work and the dedication will be to the New Milford High School Chorus - so awesome!!

On October 19th, some of the NMHS Chorus basses and tenors performed at the Sing-On UCONN festival. Keep up the awesome work, ladies and gents !

Principal Manka said " NMHS Band and Color Guard...give their very best each and every day! I couldn't be more proud... they had their best uniforms, makeup, and performance yet! Congratulations!"

Take in one of these performances to see our students excel in this interesting and relevant play!

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Ms. Linda Scoralick, Principal
Mr. Michael Boucher, Assistant Principal

Ms. Shannon Surreira, Assistant Principal SMS/NES

Mrs. Jennifer Powers, Assistant Principal

The Board of Education honored Schaghticoke’s Ideal Students on October 15th. These students demonstrate our district ideals of Focus, Heart, Collaboration, and Creativity each day! We are so proud of:

Erin A.

Abigail B.

Savannah B.

Rowan C.

Igor D.

Stella D.

Nicholas L.

Douglas M.

Alexander M.

Robert M.

Grace S.

Olivia T.

Shiloh T.

Mrs. McGuinness is using vertical white boards in her 8th grade math classes to get students up out of seats and collaborating on a common problem. During one visit to her classroom, students were working to use the numbers 0 through 9 to write equations that resulted in the numbers 5, 8, 9, 20, and 24. The trick, each digit could be used only once and only one operation could be used twice! Mrs. McGuinness explained that she has students working in groups of three because this is the optimal group size to promote collaboration among all members of the group. While walking around the room, Mrs. McGuinness heard students saying things such as, “Multiplication has to be used twice. None of the numbers will add, subtract, or divide to be 20 or 24.” She also noticed that some groups saw that there were two sets of numbers that could be multiplied together to get 24… 8x3 and 6x4. As she paused to watch how the group would choose a path, Mrs. McGuinness noted that what helped students ultimately make their decision was realizing that they needed the 4 to multiply by 5 and get 20. As Mrs. McGuinness processed with her students this day, she drew a connection between the mathematical problem solving they had done in class and the game Wordle. Mrs. McGuinness highlighted the idea that each time students made a mistake, it provided them information that helped them get to the correct answer. At the end of the activity, students were begging Mrs. McGuinness to do more problem solving activities.

Internet Safety Assemblies

On Tuesday, October 8th SMS welcomed Detective Mark Conway of the Watertown Police Department for student assemblies on internet safety. Detective Conway’s message to students revolved around the principle that the internet and social media can be wonderful things, when they are used safely and appropriately. He talked about the importance of utilizing private settings on profiles, only communicating with people that you know in real life, and seeking help from a trusted adult when needed.

Author Visit for 8th Grade ELA

On October 2nd Susan Joy, author of Nantucket Cheese for Lafayette, spoke to Mrs. Ramdin’s 8th grade ELA students about how and why Marquis de Lafayette fought against injustice before, during, and after the American Revolution. Students will connect what they learned about Lafayette to characters from the dystopian novels they are reading.

On Wednesday, October 16th SMS students and staff at SMS participated in Unity Day 2024. Unity Day is part of Bullying Prevention Month. Students and staff wore orange, signed pledges against bullying during lunches, and participated in an activity during FLEX where they thought about what the word “unity” meant to them. Unity Day would not have been such a great success without the tremendous efforts of our wonderful School Counseling Department!

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Mrs. Anne Bilko, Principal
Mrs. Jennifer Chmielewski, Assistant Principal

Mrs. Jennifer Meyers, Assistant Principal

This past month, we celebrated Bee Weeks! In our 1st week, students learned all about honey bees and were able to view videos from Mr. Delia, our very own Beekeeper! The following week students were able to see the bees in an observation hive, beekeeping tools, and learn first hand from Mr. Delia and Mrs. Ziu-Pires, both beekeepers themselves! Students enjoyed learning about the honey bees and seeing them in action!

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Mrs. Gwen Gallagher, Principal

Ms. Shannon Surreira, Assistant Principal SMS/NES

Our students are enjoying the fall and learning so much as the year moves forward. We have been enjoying the crisp fall air (finally) and gearing up for the colder weather.

In Mrs. Belardinelli's music class, our grade 2 students are working on Dynamics as their musical element of the month, as well as preparing songs for Veterans Day. Grade 1 is working on high/low versus soft/quiet and the Carnival of the Animals. Kindergarten and Excel are exploring musical opposites. They are learning songs about Fall, Spooky themes, Spiders, Animals, School Expectations, and the USA.

In Mrs. Cherniske's Art classes, students have been working on their drawing, folding, painting, cutting and gluing skills while also focusing on “starting with a dot” and exploring lines! Some of our projects have been “Kandi” Apples & Papel Picado inspired by artist Wassily Kandinsky and Hispanic Heritage Month, Mexican style “blankets” and exploring different kinds of lines (kindergarten), and creating lined composition paper with with pencils and doodles(1st grade)! Excel students have also been busy painting and gluing, helping to create a beautiful mural, sunflowers and dot designs! We are off to a great start!!!

Townwide monochromatic color day was October 4 - students had fun dressing in their favorite colors! Mrs. Gallagher couldn't decide on one color, so she wore a tie dye sweatshirt and a matching multi-colored tutu!

The Kindergarten students enjoyed their very first field trip to Silverman's Farm in Easton, CT. They enjoyed picking out a pumpkin, a nice long hayride, and feeding all the many animals around the farm. It was a beautiful day and by all accounts, a truly terrific time! Our Kindergarteners practiced their C.A.R.E.S expectations which made their teachers proud!

The plant patch is almost buttoned up for the winter! Thank you to the plant patch volunteers for their hard work in the vegetable garden this year! It is a valuable tool for learning about life cycles, plant science, how weather affects our produce and how our food goes from the ground to our tables (and finally into our bellies). We really appreciate all you do. The Plant Patch is a valuable learning resource!

Mrs. Tuft's Class enjoyed a lesson on composting in the Plant Patch.

Fire Safety Day was Friday, October 11th. The Northville Fire Department came to the school and brought their trucks! Kids learned about fire safety and got to check out the trucks up close. They also received goodie bags from the fire department filled with more information, coloring books, and other fun activities!

Singer/Songwriter John Farrell visited NES on October 22nd. He performed interactive songs and stories about character education. Children in all grades enjoyed singing along and laughing while reflecting on the messages in the songs.

Students and staff are looking forward to The Annual Book Character Parade held on October 31st!

Bundle up everyone! Fall is finally here!🍁

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Mrs. Catherine Calabrese, Principal

Mrs. Kerri Adakonis, Assistant Principal

Our students celebrated with a DANCE HALLWAY because of all the funds that were raised from our 1st annual PTO-sponsored Color Run. Staff and students had fun and enjoyed dancing each time they went through the main hallway where the music was playing.

There was one last recognition for our AMAZING Teacher and Para-Educator of the year, Heliett Sanchez and Ann Marie Tozzi! We appreciate their tireless efforts and dedication to staff, families, and students.

HPS partnered with Litchfield Hills Transition Center to collect plastic wrapping/bags and have weekly weigh-ins trying to win our own Trex bench. We thank the young adults for their help with this endeavor.

Our whole-school monthly assembly brings us together as a school community. The kindergarten teachers planned skits to present to the entire school on what responsibility is and isn’t.

Water Witch Hose Co. No. 02 visited Hill and Plain and met with kindergarten and first-grade classes. They presented fire safety as well as reviewed that families practice safety drills at their houses.

The Scholastic Book Fair allowed students books in their hands! We love anything that encourages our students to be reading, practicing comprehension, and building vocabulary.

Finally, the HPS Garden Construction Project is complete! Watch to see the progress and finished area:

Ten of our sixteen girls competed in the Southwest Conference Cross Country Championship in Bethel and came in 1st place winning the SWC title for a 5th straight year! INCREDIBLE. Thanks to Coach Giles and Coach Michelle Freeman for all of your hard work with these athletes!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Our NMHS student-athletes received the Michaels Cup Class Act School award for the third straight year at the @ciacathletics Sportsmanship Conference on October 7th!

For the complete Fall Sports schedule, please click on the link below. Come out and support the teams!

https://ciac.fpsports.org/DashboardSchedule.aspx?SchoolID=105&QuickFilter=3

This month was a busy month in our kitchens and we were able to serve several dishes from local farms/orchards which included delicata squash, green beans, carrots, peppers, lettuce, apples and apple cider. All the produce we serve is packed full of vitamins, minerals and fiber.

October is a month to celebrate our farms in CT and the Northville Plant Patch is the star of the farms. It is run by a small group of passionate volunteers and the produce is as fresh as it gets. Some of the cafeterias were able to serve rainbow carrots and greens from the Patch. Caring for a vegetable garden is not an easy task and we would like to thank all the volunteers and especially Claire Runyan, Nancy Dahl, Tracie Bramhall and Gerri Kayfus. The department appreciates and is grateful for their time and commitment to expose children to the importance of growing local food.

Mindfulness is a superpower that your students can master with just five minutes practise a day. Check out these 18 mindfulness 5min activities for kids.