Season Greetings to All!

There’s nothing more important than building strong and lasting relationships with families, students, staff and community members! The holidays seem like the perfect time to share our gratitude and warm wishes with each of you to let you know how very important you are to this District.

As the holiday season is upon us, we reflect on the year behind us., and look forward to the exciting new year ahead.

The end of the year brings no greater joy and happiness than the opportunity to wish each and every one of you a Happy and Safe Holi-day season.

We wish you joy and peace in 2019!

STRATFORD BOARD OF EDUCATION

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N E W S L E T T E R

I n s i d e t h i s i s s u e :

Season Greetings 1

Bunnell High School Pages 2-3

Stratford High School Pages 3-4

Flood Middle School Page 5

Wooster Middle School Page 5

Chapel Elementary School Page 6

Lordship Elemen-tary Page 6

Franklin Elementary School Page 7

Nichols Elementary School Page 8

Johnson House School Pages 9-10

Victoria Soto School Page 10 –11

Second Hill Lane Elementary Page 11

Whitney Elementary School Page 12

Wilcoxson Elementary School Page 12

ALPHA Page 13

District Calendar & Recipe Page 14

December 2018

B U N N E L L H I G H S C H O O L

Congratulations to BHS Tech-nology Teacher, Rachelle Peder-sen, for receiving $5000 from the AFCEA Rocky Mountain Chapter for her work promoting girls in STEM as part of the “Teachers for America’s Future” Foundation!

KUDOS Mrs. Pedersen!

BUNNELL HIGH SCHOOL CELEBRATES VETERANS DAY 2018

On Friday, November 9th, Bunnell High School hosted 95 Stratford Veterans for the 2nd Annual Veterans Luncheon and Assembly. Guests enjoyed a gourmet lunch prepared and served by the Bunnell Culinary students. BHS alumni, Colonel Patrick Bowe, USA, Ret. BHS ’67 and Chief Warrant Officer 4, Gregory Sperling, USMC , Ret. BHS ’78, addressed all guests and BHS sophomores and seniors at an assembly attended by our Honorable Mayor, Laura Hoydick, Dr. Linda Gejda (Assistant Superintendent), and several members of the Town Council.

B U N N E L L H I G H

S C H O O L

Bunnell High School / Stratford High School Band placed “First” in their division to be-come Connecticut State Championships at this year’s competition in New Britain with a score of 92.37, besting their rivals Lyman Hall High School and three other groups. They also garnered awards for Best Visual, Best Music, Best Overall Effect and Best. Percussion. This is the Third

Consecutive State Champion Title for the BHS / SHS Marching Band!

Congratulations, as well, to Band Director Jim Miller!

On November 26th, the doors opened to a new chapter for Strat-ford High School.

Students entered a new building and were in awe of the amazing changes.

SHS will host an OPEN HOUSE on January 9, 2019. The hours will be 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. SHS students will be on hand to act as Tour Guides for the new facility. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us!

S T R A T F O R D H I G H S C H O O L

THE NEW STRAFORD HIGH

MEDIA CENTER

CAFETERIA LIBRARY

Auto-Shop Classroom

CLASS ROOM

Flood Middle School

Wooster Middle

The Flood Middle School PTSA and National Jun-ior Honor Society collaborated on a Toy Drive to support Al’s Angels. This organization supports families battling

cancer, rare blood diseases, natural disasters and financial hardship. The students and staff collected 255 toys to

donate, with Ms. Saylor’s Homeroom collecting the most toys. The generosity of the Flood community is truly

awesome, and we greatly appreciate everyone who donated to this worthy cause.

Wooster Middle School is now a member of the League of Innovative Schools. Founded in 2011, the

League of Innovative Schools is a regional professional learning community for schools. Membership is open to

any New England secondary school-including charter schools, private schools, and career and technical institu-

tions—committed to educational equity, student-centered learning, and ongoing improvement. All partic-ipating schools will become part of a growing network of

learning institutions working to strengthen their pro-grams, exchange professional expertise and create better

learning opportunities for their students.

Chapel Elementary

Chapel Elementary an-nounces that Assistant Principal, Eric Conrad, has been selected as the Connecticut 2019 Elementary Assis-tant Principal of the Year for 2019! Mr. Conrad has demonstrated extraordi-nary leadership at the school and in the surrounding community.

Mr. Conrad will be honored by CAS at a recognition dinner in October of 2019. The reception will be held at Saint Clem-ents Castle in Portland.

Congratulations & Kudos Mr. Conrad!

Lordship Elementary School

Lordship Elementary School gath-ered together on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 for a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to celebrate the installation of a custom-ized “Be Kind” mural. Over the past two years, $6000 has been raised through the various initiatives of the Lordship Kindness Committee. In attendance at this event were Mayor Hoydick and Councilman Pia who assisted students and teachers in the Ribbon Cutting. The new mural is located in the school’s All Purpose Room where the message of “Be Kind” can be seen by the school commu-nity each day.

Franklin Elementary

McTeacher Night at a local McDonald’s. Franklin teach-ers volunteered their time at a local McDonald’s for a recent school fundraiser. Even Administration showed off their talents! Way to go Mr. McNeill and Mr. Horan.

Franklin Elementary School conducted some student led conferences at all grade levels K-6.

Keep up the good work Franklin!

Nichols Elementary

Mark Harrison-Retired NFL Player Speaks To Nichols Elementary Students

Retired Former NFL player, Mark Harrison, inspired stu-dents at Nichols Elementary School at an all-school assem-bly. Mr. Harrison grew up in Stratford and played football at Bunnell H.S. He went on to play college football at Rut-gers before being drafted by the Chicago Bears. He also played for the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. Harrison's son, Jordan, is a student at Nichols. His motivational presentation focused on setting high goals, working hard, and bullying prevention He also spoke about his new flag football league, FlagU starting in the Spring of 2019.

Nichols Elementary School Grade 3 Teacher, Janine Hennessey, captures the school wide focus on student in-dependent thinking, agency and growth mindwet for life-long learning, through a variety of strategies including stu-dent goal setting, student choice and accountable talk, to name just a few.

Johnson House Elementary School

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

Johnson House School celebrated the book and heartfelt message of the Miss Soto’s Literacy Legacy book, “Painting for Peace in Ferguson”. With their homeroom teachers, students read and discussed the power of community building and crating hope and healing through painting. Inspired by the beautiful art messages in the book, each student shared a “peaceful” message and decorated their own leaf displayed on the Johnson House tree mural.

Family Tradition Tree

For November and December, the Asset Ambassadors crated the family tradition leaves for stu-dents to complete at home to sup-port the asset of building family communication. The Asset Am-bassadors wrote the letter, copied the leaves and passed out materi-als to all 475 students in grades 2-6 at Johnson House School. Stu-dents then returned the tradition leaves and the Asset Ambassadors made the Falling into Traditions Tree and hung over 200 tradition leaves that were returned.

Mrs. Perillo’s 2nd Grade Class learned about the Pilgrims and the very first Thanksgiving. Students and their families created a square showing all the things they are thankful for to create a class “Thankful Quilt”.

Johnson House Elementary School

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Johnson House School students celebrated the “heartwarming” message of the classic story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Each student and staff member shared how they can show kindness and help the Grinch’s heart grow!

Victoria Soto Elementary School

Students at Victoria Soto School enjoying Dr. Seuss Day!

Victoria Soto School staff members and students celebrated the season of giving by collecting items for Veterans and placing hats, scarves, and gloves on our Giving Tree to donate to children who need them. Students also made ornaments to decorate the Christmas trees at the Vicki Soto Playground!

Second Hill Elementary School

Second Hill Lane Elementary School enjoyed a packed house at their Dad’s Club Breakfast held in November!

Victoria Soto Elementary School

Eli Whitney Elementary School

Wilcoxson Elementary School

Whitney conducted student led conferences, as well. The parents, students and teachers are so very proud of the hard work!

Wilcoxson students enjoying their chrome books!

ALPHA Program

Birdseye Complex

It’s hard to believe that the first quarter of school is behind us! We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break, and now we’re looking forward to the Winter break. As we look back on the last several months, there is much to celebrate at ALPHA. Our stu-dents, staff and parents have had several wonderful community building celebrations—our Pumpkin Decorating/Carving contest

and our Cultural Pot Luck were enjoyed by all who participated. Our Open House Breakfast was also a chance for staff and parents to get better acquainted!

An initiative we are taking this year at ALPHA is to increase student involvement in the community. We want to give our students every opportunity possible to develop their skills and become successful members of their community. In October, ten students from ALPHA attended a Job Fair at Bunnell High School from which several ALPHA students procured employment. Our Volunteer Fair gave students an opportunity to speak with eight local organizations about volunteer opportunities and many students signed up to volunteer.

As a staff, we have a renewed energy to start the second quarter of the year with a shared focus to move our students forward in their education and as members of the community. As we head into this holiday season, I know that it is challenging for all of us to keep our focus and drive, however with our superlative staff and great bunch of students we will forge new ground!

——Kate Mascia, ALPHA Administrator

Welcome to ALPHA! The 2018 - 2019 is off to a wonderful start. With New Staff and inces-sant drive towards excellence, Alpha is breaking new ground every month. A warm Welcome to Mr. Walsh (General Science), Mr. Manceriro (Math), Mr Smith (Business), Mr. Morelli (Art), and Victoria Stook (Social Worker, Intern)

Job Corps makes a good case...

Got Pumpkin anyone? One of the contenders for our pumpkin decorating event

Welcome to ALPHA! The 2018 - 2019 is off to a wonderful start. With New Staff and inces-sant drive towards excellence, Alpha is breaking new ground every month. A warm Welcome to Mr. Walsh (General Science), Mr. Manceriro (Math), Mr Smith (Business), Mr. Morelli (Art), and Victoria Stook (Social Worker, Intern)

Job Corps makes a good case...

Got Pumpkin anyone? One of the contenders for our pumpkin decorating event

Good Friends good food!!! Our

Potluck multicultural event,

A year long tribute to Veterans. Home of the free because of the brave!

Teresa Lycoudes— Executive Assistant to the Superintendent

Thank you to everyone submitting news stories!

If you have school kudos you wish to share next time, please contact me at:

lycoudest@stratk12.org

Eggnog Cheesecake Ingredients: 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 2 tbsp. white sugar 3 tbsp. melted butter 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese 1 cup white sugar 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour 3/4 cup eggnog 2 eggs 2 tbsp rum 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F In a medium bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, 2 tbsp. sug-

ar and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9” spring form pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Place on wire rack to

cool Preheat oven to 425 degrees F In a food processor combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and

eggnog; process until smooth. Blend in eggs, rum and nutmeg. Pour mixture into cooled crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 250 and back for 45 minutes or until center of

cake is barely firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and im-mediately loosen cake from rim. Let cake cook completely be-fore removing the rim.

Decorate with whipped cream.

Have a safe and Happy Holiday Season!

D I S T R I C T C A L E N D A R

Early Dismissal / All Schools—December 21, 2018

Holiday Recess—December 24th thru December 31st

Holiday—January 1st (New Year’s Day)

School Resumes—January 2nd

Holiday—January 21st (Martin Luther King Day)

WARM WISHES FOR THE HAPPIEST OF HOLIDAYS!

HEALTH & HAPPINESS FOR THE NEW YEAR TO COME!

In a world where you can be anything, choose to be kind!

Dr. Janet Robinson Superintendent of Schools Stratford Public Schools