By Cherry Dumaual

NEW FAIRFIELD – At the New Fairfield Board of Education (BOE) regular meeting on June 6, the BOE resolved the issue of the NF elementary schools having two names, Consolidated School and Meeting House Hill School, both housed in one building. Board members agreed to rebrand the elementary schools under one name: New Fairfield Elementary School. They came to this decision based on the focus group findings.

Focus groups were conducted to ask staff, parents, and students for their thoughts on the rebranding. BOE Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Craw said they looked to stakeholders for their input to come to a decision. The start of the coming school year will mark the consolidation of Pre-K to 5 as New Fairfield Elementary School.

Consolidated/Meeting House Campus Principal, Mrs. Allyson Story, presented the main takeaways from her focus group discussions with staff, parents, and students. Providing perspective on how she conducted the focus groups, she said they were held on several different days and in multiple sessions for each group. While the questions were basically the same, those for the students were asked in a kid-friendly language. The basic questions covered: How do you see the elementary campus continuing to move forward? How does a name support who we are as a community? What should we take into consideration?

The focus group findings reflected agreement that one name for the elementary schools would help. Parents said that it would be easier to identify if there’s one name. Several parents did share their concern that combining the schools may lead to the loss of staff members and administrators. Principal Story emphasized that while there will be a name change, New Fairfield Elementary School will continue to be “a community where kids want to be and where teachers want to come to teach. We will make sure that we continue to look at all the opportu nities for different social, emotional, and academic skills.”

The BOE regular meeting also devoted time to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kristine Woleck’s presentation highlighting the NF school district’s accomplishments and previewing the strategic plan for the coming school year. The multi-faceted plan includes a goal of engaging students to apply their learnings beyond the classroom and wellness action steps that integrate opportunities for students’ physical movement. Dr. Woleck also touched upon how they’ll measure progress, including having systems in place for monitoring.

When it came to the discussion of Action Items, BOE Vice Chair Samantha Mannion informed the Board about the state of Connecticut’s requirement for school districts to submit an education diversity plan. In providing background, Dr. Craw said that the state mandates establishing a broader candidate pool for recruitment, hiring, and retention. This topic led to the Board members’ discussion of the importance of hiring teachers who represent the diversity of their students, the need to make sure that the district hires people of merit, and the shortage of candidates, thus the need to go to job fairs to increase the pool of high-quality candidates and hire the best teachers.

Other agenda items during the meeting included a presentation of an independent study by high school student Grace Kelly. The song which she produced, with the guidance of her music technology teacher, was played. Additionally, during their Student’s Report, the student representatives announced the nominations and awards theater students received for the Halo Award, the equivalent of the Tony Awards for CT High School Theater. For the school’s productions this year, the fall play “Much Ado about Nothing” and the spring musical “Matilda,”  theater students received a total of 16 nominations, and took home three awards. They are Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Contemporary Musical: Nicholas Eklund as Mr. Wormwood in “Matilda”; Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Classical Play: Sarah Bollacke as Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing”; Best Specialty Ensemble: Andrew Nittolo-Novotny, Lilah Bender, Ishiera Ellington & Skye Rodriguez as Sergei and the Henchmen in “Matilda.”

The next regular meeting of the New Fairfield Board of Education is scheduled for Thursday, August 15 at 7 p.m.