NFPS Update

Budget Referendum -Saturday, May 18

As an important reminder, there will be a budget referendum vote on the school and town budgets tomorrow from 10 am to 8 pm at the New Fairfield Senior Center located at 33 Route 37.

Board of Education Meeting Highlights

At last night's meeting, the BOE received a K-5 literacy update from Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Kris Woleck, and Principal Allyson Story. The presentation included the findings of our teachers' pilot of new literacy resources, which are intended to complement our literacy program. For your reference, the segment begins at the 29-minute mark of the meeting. Link to the meeting video

End of Year Events

The end of the school year is always an exciting time to reflect on the growth of our students and school communities and celebrate together. We have many music concerts, art shows, and performing arts events in our buildings scheduled over these upcoming days and weeks

We also have opportunities to celebrate the growth of our students in their journey across our schools, and we highlight a few of those dates below:

• Friday, June 7, 5th Grade Stepping Up
• Monday, June 17, Graduate Walk for Seniors
• Monday, June 17, Grade 8 Moving Up Ceremony (NFHS)
• Monday, June 17 - Early Dismissal
• Tuesday, June 18 - Early Dismissal
• Friday, June 21, New Fairfield High School Graduation

We hope you join us to honor and celebrate our students' learning and growth in all these ways as we close our 2023-2024 school year.

Sincerely,

Ken

Kenneth G. Craw, Ed.D.

On May 5th, the kindergarten students and teachers taught the rest of the school community the song, Love Grows One by One during the school-wide morning meeting. With lyrics learned and ASL signs mastered ahead of time, our youngest learners shared their hard work with the entire school, filling the room with joy and love. After a few practice rounds, the entire school joined in the fun, singing and signing. It was a beautiful moment for all! But the love did not stop there. As a follow-up activity, each student was asked how he/she could spread love. Responses were written on hearts and are on display in the kindergarten hallway. Our tree of love continues to grow one by one!!!

The Cons-MHHS ECO Club conducted a student food waste audit on Friday, May 3rd in the Cons/MHHS cafeteria. Tammy Thornton, the Regional Recycling Coordinator & Educator at the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority, along with student ECO Club volunteers from New Fairfield High School, and ECO Club advisors, Barbara Strashun and Hera Docetti, assisted with the fun and successful implementation of the waste audit during the third, fourth, and fifth lunch waves.

The food waste audit engaged students in data collection and data analysis. It raised awareness of what foods are being thrown away to help schools develop strategies to encourage students to eat their meals or plan differently. Raising awareness through a food audit also helps to reduce the amount of food waste in the future, reducing garbage collection costs and lessening the strain on natural resources. This was a wonderful real-world learning task for our school community!

A group of New Fairfield Middle School students in grades 6 and 7 came together this spring to launch the student leadership group there. At their first meeting, the group engaged in a series of experiences that prompted them to consider important characteristics of leadership, such as adaptability, effective communication, and dependability. They discussed the value of these characteristics in a leader, and their conversations demonstrated their reflection and keen insights. The group will continue to meet biweekly through the end of the year and then roll forward into next year. We are excited to continue to build leadership opportunities at all of our schools and have our students serve as mentors in our school communities.

In Mrs. Peterson’s 6th, 7th, and 8th grade REACH classes at the Middle School, students have been working all year on Independent Study projects. These projects are meant to encourage students to dive deep into an area of interest by engaging in authentic research to learn more about their topic and then creating an original product that demonstrates that learning. These last few weeks, students have been working diligently to wrap up their work and make it presentation-ready.

On May 29, 6:30-8:00PM in the G-Lobby at the Middle School, we will have our first Project Showcase where students will display the products they’ve worked so hard to create, as well as trifold boards that represent their process and their learning across the year.

Projects cover a wide range of topics from planets to leaveners, video games for the visually impaired to 3D printing, the history of Disney to recipes from around the world, and so many more!

It has been a long process, but students have stuck with it; we are so proud of what they have accomplished this year!

Every year, New Fairfield students participate in the HRRA Billboard Recycling Contest. On April 24th, the Regional Awards Ceremony was held and several New Fairfield students received Regional Placement. Congratulations to our Middle School award winners!

High School French students participated in the National French contest, Le Grand Concours. Tests are developed annually by the American Association of Teachers of French as a motivational, extracurricular activity/contest for students of French. The test is very challenging, so please congratulate the students for participating! More information can be found at the National French Contest Website.

French I: Chloe Adams (Mérite), French III: Keily Caraher (Mérite), Dennis Cascio (Lauréat National - médaille de bronze) , Christian Eklund (Lauréat National - médaille de bronze), Lucia Eklund (Mérite), Fernando Flores-Gonzalez (Lauréat National - médaille d’argent), Nidhi Kanakagiri (Mention honorable), Aleksandra Kotonska (Lauréat National - médaille de bronze), Taylor Proto (Mention honorable, not pictured), Peyton Roemer (Mention honorable), Sofiya Sondey ((Lauréat National - médaille d’argent); French IV: Luka Tonello (Mention honorable), Nora Kearney (Mérite), Ava Vonsteenburg (Mérite); French V: Katherine Contreras (Mérite, not pictured because she was taking the AP French exam!)

In April, members of the New Fairfield High School Academic Decathlon team traveled to Pittsburgh, PA, to compete in the 2024 National Academic Decathlon. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to meet other high school students from across the country who share their passion for this competition. Congratulations to Brady Cheneski and Jillian Ryan for their awards at the event and to the entire team for their commitment and perseverance not only at the competition but throughout the year.

This year, the NFHS Band Department was connected with The Sing Me a Story Foundation, an organization that creates music inspired by the creative stories of children in need. Sing Me a Story connected us with 10-year-old Amy and 12-year-old Brynne through the local non-profit, Ann’s Place. Ann’s Place provides comfort, support, and resources to people living with cancer and their loved ones. Amy and Brynne worked together to write and illustrate a story titled, “True Vision.” Sing Me a Story then handed that story off to Kenedea Lee, a composition student at the Manhattan School of Music, who turned it into a piece of music for our ensemble! The world premier of this piece plus many more were performed at our Spring Concert last Wednesday. Please follow the link below and hope you enjoy our concert!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kry4kC2vGtbnzVpOr0FHqMGC93JgoVYC/view?usp=share_link

Freshmen in Mrs Krompinger’s Fashion Design class complete construction of fleece pajama pants. They assembled a pattern, cut their fabric, stitched every piece and added a waistband. A complex project and a job well done!

Members of the NFHS Music Department took a trip to Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA to perform for adjudication and enjoy a day in the park. Both the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band played extremely well and scored Superior and Excellent ratings based on their performances. Afterwards, the students celebrated a successful year and outstanding performances with an afternoon riding rides and playing games.

As we head towards the end of the school year, we have numerous student-athletes to recognize for their accomplishments at New Fairfield High School, as well as, student-athletes who plan to continue their athletic endeavors at the collegiate level.

Bridget Mangan was recognized by the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors at their Annual Awards Banquet as a state finalist for her essay about how Athletics has impacted her life. As a result, she received a $500 scholarship. Congratulations, Bridget!

On May 2nd, the South-West Conference held their Annual Leadership Awards Event. New Fairfield High School was represented by Carrington Flynn and Kaitlyn Mangan as their Leadership Award Winners. These honorees are selected based on their leadership within athletics and the school community as a whole.

Reagan Cook was selected as the 2024 Norm Winnerman Sportsmanship Award winner. This honor is given to a student-athlete within the South-West Conference based on one act within an athletic contest that reflects the ideals of sportsmanship and fair play. There were multiple honorees and Reagan was selected by a committee of league administrators. While playing against New Milford on their Girls Basketball Senior Night, Reagan got a rebound during the final minute of the game and selflessly passed the ball to a player on their team who has an upper limb difference in order to give them another opportunity to score. This act was recognized by people in attendance as it demonstrated a great act of sportsmanship.

On May 8th, we recognized five student-athletes who will be playing their respective sports in college next year.

Chris Humphreys - Baseball - Eastern University (PA)

Greg Mable - Baseball - SUNY Cobleskill

Kaitlyn Mangan - Basketball - Manhattanville College

Ava O'Rourke - Lacrosse - Saint Lawrence University

Cooper Piesco - Lacrosse - Eastern Connecticut State University

On April 26th, DECA sponsored the Powder Puff Football Game, raising $1200 for the Nicole Vengalli Foundation. The Class of 2024 won the game for the 2nd year in a row.

The annual DECA Spring into Fashion Show, "Barbie Style at NFHS" was held in the theater on May 8th. It was a great night of students, parents, grandparents, staff, and flashbacks coming together to put on a spectacular show. Both Mr. Scherf and Dr. McDonnell, along with several alumni and long time community members, came to be part of our first show in the new theater.