Hartford School District Newsletter

October 4, 2024

Dear Hartford School District Community,

It has been a tremendous honor and privilege to begin this school year as your Interim Superintendent. The beginning weeks of school have been an exciting flurry of relationship and team-building, introducing academic content, engaging students in field work, establishing strong community partnerships, implementing new and supportive systems and structures, experiencing dynamic professional development opportunities, and having some fun along the way!

All of this is to say that we have had a strong and meaningful start to the school year with our students, and we are looking forward to continuing to foster this positive momentum throughout the year.

I have seen weekly updates go out to respective school communities throughout these past weeks, but I wanted to begin to send you all some monthly districtwide updates so you will gain a good understanding of what is happening across the district in addition to the schools where your students attend. I am hoping you will all find this helpful, and that this will allow you to see the cohesion we are continuing to probe and establish to ensure that all of our students are enjoying a meaningful tenure as they embark on their path through the district's programming.

I am so grateful to all of you for your collaboration and partnership with us and on behalf of our students.

Please do not hesitate to be in touch with me if you have any questions or would like to learn more about the district and our work to provide all of our students with a dynamic and engaging learning experience throughout their time with us.

Warmly,

Caty Sutton

Interim Superintendent

Hartford School District

suttonc@hartfordschools.net

New Teacher Academy

In early August Hartford’s three elementary schools hosted the district's first new teacher academy. During this two week program, seven elementary school teachers in their first two years of service learned about the district’s program to prepare them for the upcoming school year. The first week included workshops that were lead by experienced teacher leaders. Forty-two elementary school students joined the program during the second week to provide the teachers with an opportunity to practice their craft. This program was a great experience for teachers and students alike.

DBS Mold

Late this summer the Dothan Brook School was faced with the challenge of finding mold in four classrooms and a handful of offices and intervention spaces. The district acted quickly to test the spaces and start the remediation process. Thanks to the flexibility of the DBS staff, the school quickly pivoted and created four alternate learning spaces for our students. This week all of the classroom spaces were cleared for occupancy. The kindergarteners will return to their rooms on Friday, October 4th and Mrs. Taylor’s class will return to their classroom next week.

On Friday, October 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 the community will gather in the gym to celebrate the residency of the DBS community and raise funds to replace some of the classroom materials that were lost.

The Ottauquechee School has launched the new "Wolf Way", an adaptation on EL Education's idea of Crew. Last spring, a group of teachers, along with the student leaders, led a several-month process to suggest, narrow down and finally select a group of character strengths to focus on as a school. Every student and staff member had the chance to participate, and we asked families to vote on their top choices from a final ballot of 13 character strengths.

This year, we started with a schoolwide assembly each Friday, during which our mascot Paws and our amazing teachers have taught us about a new character strength. We are hearing our students use this language everywhere! Listen for these strengths being lifted up out in the community. There is much more to come about the Wolf Way. Thanks for reading!

Respect: I can accept somebody for who they are, even when they’re different from me or have different ideas. I can take care of myself, others and my surroundings.

Perseverance: I can keep trying, even when things get hard.

Awareness: I can be aware of my actions and how they affect others. I can think before I speak or act. I can take responsibility for my actions.

Courage: I can be brave and make good choices in the face of fear (even if it might be scary). I can stand up for myself, others and what I believe in.

Kindness: I can say and do nice things. I am helpful to others and do good deeds.

Joy: I can find the positive in all situations.

• The number of students in band and chorus is greater than 1/3 of our student population! Yay, Performing Arts kids! Yay, HMMS, for celebrating the arts!

• The Atlas students have been getting right to work in math class, taking notes, getting homework done, and participating regularly in discussions! In Social Studies, Atlas 8th graders have been enthusiastic participants during our unit reading of Stamped by Jason Reynolds.

• Eclipse had an awesome hike day at Camp Coniston on 9/19! We had perfect weather, the hiking was great, and the team building through games, frog-catching, and fishing afterward was so much fun! Bringing our whole community together to build team-wide connections is one of the best parts of middle school and HMMS.

• Polaris has completed their identity projects- which were on display at open house. We have started our Civil Rights unit in humanities and We are getting ready for The seventh and eighth grade leadership conference this week.

• 6th grade Team Polaris presented their music decades projects with costumes and makeup and so much more!

• Nebula had a great trip to the Upper Valley Stewardship and can’t wait to go next year. Students were cooperative and many pushed themselves to do something that scared them! 8th Grade students have been rock stars in Social Studies reading Stamped and putting in the work.

Eclipse students hosted “Camp Eclipse” on 10/4/24, where they welcomed 60 first and second graders from White River School to come enjoy the activities that students created in their MAPS (Multi-Age Problem Solving) Groups

Hartford High School was recently recognized as a Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion School. We received a letter that read in part:

Congratulations to our Chamber Choir for being selected to perform at the prestigious All Eastern Music Conference in April. This honor identifies our Chamber Choir as one of the best from the 12 most Northeastern states. This is a first for Hartford.

Earlier this school year HHS welcomed 9 students and 2 teachers from Germany with a front-lawn dinner and get-to-know-you event. These students and their teachers are part of a school-to-school exchange we have participated in for many years.

Our Open House events were very well attended this year, and featured some of our community partners who were able to be there to share resources.

Thank you to those of you who were able to be there, and for those of you who weren't able to, we are always happy to schedule time with you; these opportunities to have you all on our campuses and meet with our educators are so crucial in our work to partner with you all!

Thank you also to our District Social Worker, Carrie Russell, for coordinating with our partners to arrange to have these resources available on these evenings!

Carrie also put together a document with some helpful information about some community resources that are available.

Please enjoy the Equity Newsletter for Aug/Sept.

A link is here for your convenience!

HSD Coordinator of Coaching and Mentoring, Julie Robinson, and WRS Instructional Coach, Jessica Christian, are offering a professional development series this year to HSD educators that is focused on continuing to strengthen our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for our students.

They will be sharing resources related to integrating Universal Design for Learning and the High Leverage Practices into lesson planning and providing opportunities for participants to share and implement best practices.

We are so fortunate to benefit from the vast knowledge and expertise we have in the district to provide meaningful learning opportunities for our educators!