Dear Stratford Families,
I hope you each had a good, productive, adventurous and relaxing summer. The start of the school year is just a few weeks away and our faculty and staff are excited to welcome back our students. Our official start date for our students is September 1 (September 2 for our kindergarten children). I recently had a conversation with a parent, and she said, through a chuckle, “a few of us parents were discussing recently, and we all agreed, ‘Yes, it’s time to send the kids back.’”
Well, we are excited to take them off your hands and welcome them back!!
Through the summer, we have been working diligently to welcome back our school communities and position ourselves for a great academic year. As always, we lean on your valued partnership to make each year a success. This summer, we have been quite busy at the district offices. Some of the projects we have worked on have been centered on finalizing system wide strategic plans, doubling down on school safety by appointing a new Director of School Safety, and by adding and transforming how we leverage the capacity of our safety/climate teams in each building.
We also administered several summer programs for our students; and of course we have been quite busy screening and hiring certified and noncertified staff, and onboarding those individuals, including two brand new principals (both of whom are familiar faces to the Stratford Public Schools).
Led by each building principal, over the next couple of weeks, each school will be finalizing their instructional priorities that will drive their school improvement plans. Also, you can expect over the next couple of weeks increased communication that will inform you on the best way you can prepare your children to return, and the best ways to stay connected to each of your children’s school(s). We value communication and we recognize communication is a two way process. So, do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s school, teacher, counselor, or administrator.
While we are more knowledgeable and experienced on the health context of the pandemic, we know we are still within the grips of COVID-19. Consistent to the way we ended the 2021–22 academic year, we will open up this school year, across our schools as mask optional. If you have been following the news, last week, the State Department of Education released new guidelines for returning to school. While the new state plan does not appear to be a significant deviation from what we did on the back half of the last year, we have reviewed it and you can expect some communication to come from the SPS Health Office or SPS Head Nurse, Ms. Kimberly Velazquez, in the coming days to inform you on the best ways to prepare your child or children to return to school safely.
As you can see, we have been incredibly busy preparing for what I expect to be a great school year. We do have a few things left to do over the next two weeks, and each school building will continue to work fervently until our first day of school. However, we are ready.
This year, I am calling on everybody across each Stratford school community to ensure that all feel included in this work, engaged in this work, and although improvement and growth often move slow, we are inspired by our collective efforts and collaboration.
As always, we appreciate your understanding, collaboration and cooperation. If you have specific questions as we approach the 1st day of school, do not hesitate to reach out to the leadership team at your child’s school (principal/assistant principal/department chair/team or grade lead) with your questions.
Welcome back, and I look forward to seeing you over the next couple of weeks.
Sincerely,
Dr. Uyi E. Osunde
Superintendent of Schools
1000 East Broadway Stratford, Connecticut
Tel: 203.385.4210