Back to School Package
KENT—While there aren’t too many changes that Kent Center School students and parents face with the new 2024-25 school year, there will be a new superintendent leading Region 1 and she is eager to meet students and parents. So much so that she will start her day Tuesday, Aug. 27, on the first day in town at KCS.
Melony Brady-Shanley began her new role July 1 and during an Aug. 13 interview she said she looks forward to meeting students and parents and having an ongoing open dialogue with parents.
“There’s so much excitement going on. We’ve got new projects going on. We’ve got new staff members coming on board. I’m anxious to finally get to meet everybody,” Brady-Shanley said. While she’s been able to meet many people over the summer, there are a number of staff members who weren’t working.
The first week of school will allow the new superintendent to spend time in each of the seven schools in Region 1. The first day she’ll spend at least 30 minutes in each school, she said. Any students and parents interested in talking with her, she’ll be at KCS from 8 to 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
“We’re focused on joy and welcoming everybody back. My plan is to be present out in the school buildings to be able to be assisting,” Brady-Shanley said.
KCS Principal Michelle Mott has had a series of meetings with Brady-Shanley this summer.
“I’m excited to work with her. We have a very good team,” Mott said during an Aug. 13 interview.
One of the changes facing KCS students this year will be a teacher shift. Elizabeth Bernard, who previously taught fourth grade, will be teaching third grade this year. There will be only one fourth grade class this year.
“We have some new families, which is great,” Mott said. Those students have the opportunity to visit the school Monday, Aug. 26, at 1:15 for a new student open house and at 2 p.m. that day will be the Kindergarten/Pre-Kindergarten orientation.
Laurabeth Davidson will be returning as the KCS Reading Interventionist and as the fourth grade math teacher. She will also serve as an assistant principal. Juliette Negron started this summer as a member of the KCS custodial staff.
Students in Pre-K through grade three will have a new reading program, Benchmark.
“We had a group of staff in Region 1 that explored the (reading) programs last year, visited different schools and met with the reps and this is the program they chose for Region 1,” Mott said. Teachers ended last year with some training with the program, they did some over the summer and are doing some this week, Mott explained. It follows the Science of Reading curriculum, which is centered around teaching critical reading skills like phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension in a systematic way.
KCS will continue with its Character Strong program that focuses on kindness and collaboration, which will be the theme for the year. The Building Communities program will also continue this year. This program mixes students from different grades into 12 different groups that meet once per month. They rotate through enrichment activities that are taught by different teachers throughout the year.
“Some kids learned how to juggle, others learned board games and some did a photography group,” said Mott. “The kids really enjoyed that so we’ll putting that back into place this year.”
Art classes for older students will be enhanced this year with the installation of four pottery wheels that were funded through an ARPA grant. Instruction will be offered as an elective class.
“In the past we brought our seventh or eighth grade class to the Village Center for the Arts in New Milford for pottery,” Mott said. Art teacher Ellen Tarabara has been training for over a year at the center to be able to teach pottery classes.
School meals return this year to a meal charge system. Students will be able to eat breakfast in school, instead of the food being distributed in breakfast bags and will be picked up in the cafeteria between 8:15-8:30 a.m. Children have to pay $2.50 per meal, unless they are part of the free and reduced lunch program. Mott was not able to share how many families are eligible for the program this year as applications are still being accepted. She referred to the school profile, which lists 48 children in the 2022-23 school year, which is the latest document on file online with the state of Connecticut. Meal information and the application is online.
One of the new initiatives this year will be a collaboration with Sharon Playhouse that will provide workshops for each grade level and eventually an after school program is being planned.
All of the teachers in Region 1 will be gathering together during the opening meeting and plan to take a group photograph in front of HVRHS.
“Our theme this year is “We are One,” Brady-Shanley said, explaining it plays off of Region 1 and unity. “As I met people during the summer, there is such a sense of the schools being the center and hub of their communities. That theme really resonated throughout all of the towns that I visited.”
More uniform policies have been developed. This was started by outgoing superintendent Lisa Carter and Brady-Shanley is looking forward to getting all seven Boards of Education to subscribe to the policies for their school. This is particularly helpful for the policies mandated by the state of Connecticut, she explained.
“The local level still has ultimate decision-making power,” she said. “For those policies that are mandated or legislatively driven, we have the opportunity to subscribe to one that has all the school districts listed. It narrows the work because it only has to be done one time, instead of seven times.”
She hopes to make it more transparent and enhance the ease of access to information on the schools’ websites. The superintendent encourages community members and parents to follow the Region 1 Facebook page, because there will be more posts on social media.
“We know that 95 percent of our families are readily accessing social media on a daily basis,” Brady-Shanley said.
