Community comes out for students
New London mayor, school board members, other city officials show support on first day
New London — Community spirit was on display Thursday outside Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School as city leaders and community members gathered at the front entrance to the school to welcome back students on the first day of school.
The mayor and members of the school board, NAACP, Coast Guard, City Council and police department, among other groups, arrived to share hugs and handshakes with the returning middle schoolers.
Bennie Dover Principal Alison Burdick said the idea was dreamed up by parent-educator coordinator Kevin
Booker Jr. last year and the initiative carried over into summer programs at the school, a way to connect the kids with the community.
“We want our kids to know they are appreciated,” Burdick said. “This was one of the best openings we’ve had in years because the whole community joined our hardworking teachers to welcome our families back,” she said.
Middle school families also received all-call messages this year with words of welcome from educators, the mayor, chief of police and a representative from Connecticut College, a longtime partner at the middle school.
New interim Superintendent Stephen Tracy also jumped on the welcoming bandwagon, or in this case a school bus, riding with overtired high schoolers and chatty elementary students across the city.
Tracy is getting acclimated to the district and the various schools and offerings, and he said the bus rides were a nice way to see a little piece of the city. He also attended an orientation at the middle school Wednesday night, mingling with parents and faculty, and crisscrossed the district introducing himself to teachers and students alike. He said he also
“We want our kids to know they are appreciated.” BENNIE DOVER JACKSON MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ALISON BURDICK
was able to sample some barbeque chicken offered by the chefs at Brigaid.
Tracy, who started on Monday and has a three-month contract with the district with the possibility of extensions, said he still is getting up speed on the magnet pathway offering but already can see its attractiveness and potential.
Change has come on a yearly basis as the district continues its transformation into the state’s first all-magnet school district. The district opened this year with new school leaders, new students and, in some cases, new school names.
C.B. Jennings Elementary School, under new principal Jose A. Ortiz, began its first year as the C.B. Jennings Dual Language and International Elementary Magnet. Thursday marked the first day for the district’s newest magnet offering and saw the welcome of out-ofdistrict kindergarteners.
The new students to the school come from places like Norwich, Groton, Montville, Essex and Waterford. Registration for new students still is underway and the number of new students is a moving target, school officials say.
More changes are in the works for Jennings, with the school in the candidacy phase of an International Baccalaureate World School program. Curriculum development and teacher training toward that goal are underway.
The district is forming a task force this month — a group composed of educators, family members, businesses and higher education partners — to solidify plans for the kindergarten through fifth grade leadership pathway at Harbor Elementary School. The school is now led by Principal Jason Foster and is expected to open the leadership pathway in 2019.
School administrators expect to open a leadership pathway to out-of-district students at the middle school campus next year, where it will join the arts and STEM magnet pathways.
The district is in the planning stages for construction of two grades 6-12 schools to start next year on the grounds of the current high school.