The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New school year, big changes at St. Paul II
Initiatives under new principal: robotics, focus on special ed
MIDDLETOWN — Ten St. John Paul II School fifthgraders squeeze into the technology classroom that juts off the library on the second floor of the 90-yearold building.
The clicks and clacks of little machines constructed of little-Bits electronic building blocks combine with the students’ excited chatter as they show off their creations and explain how they work.
Students in the program taught by Technology Coordinator Karen Hoover at the Catholic school at St. Mary of Czestochowa on South Main Street make and move objects such as toilets, faucets, pumps, slingshots and firehouses by using robotics.
“The No. 1 thing I extremely like has to be the rain cloud here,” said Jack, a fifth-grader. “What happens is, you push it and the rain falls through the holes, and it looks like real rain.”
Another student demonstrated how the robot can move pipes, which are yellow
“As long as I enjoy it, I’ll keep doing it.” Larry Fitzgerald, principal at John Paul II School
to signify they’re broken, grab a new one and “switch them out,” said Jack, who refers to himself as a master builder. “And you’re not allowed to touch the robot at all,” he said.
This learning activity is part of many new changes — and faces — at the school, including a new principal, Larry Fitzgerald, and, in an entirely new position at the school, Assistant Principal Tiffany Ruvolo.
Fitzgerald joined the school July 1, taking over for Darryl Bullock, who retired in June.
Fitzgerald, a retired lieutenant colonel who served for the Army National Guard and the U.S. Army from 1971 to 2002, came to the school from Sacred Heart Catholic School in Groton. He retired from the military and decided to go back into education because it’s his passion, Fitzgerald said.
The 66-year-old, who lives in Prospect, has not even begun to think of retiring, he said. “I have at least four years in me.”
His wife runs a home day care.
“She doesn’t like me being around the day care because I bother her,” he joked.
“She usually kicks me out of the house, anyway,” said Fitzgerald, who plans to continue academic administrative work. “As long as I enjoy it, I’ll keep doing it.”
On a table in his office he keeps photographs of his two daughters, now grown, and grandson, who will soon turn 3. He also has a son. All three children attended public school in Prospect because they flourished there academically, he
said.
The principal keeps a busy schedule of community involvement: he’s a Prospect selectman up for election for a second term in November, the president of the Prospect Little League as well as a team coach, and attends school advisory board meetings.
One of the new initiatives Fitzgerald and his staff are especially proud of is the new resource intervention program run by teacher Pat Holmes, which provides extra support to special education children and those who may need extra academic tutoring.
There are also new international students this year, from China, South Korea and Latin American, who take English as a second language classes.
As part of the school’s community outreach, the older students have volunteered at the St. Vincent DePaul soup kitchen, serving food, cleaning tables and making sandwiches, Fitzgerald said.
The school has conducted numerous coat and food drives. In fact, they held a diaper and hygiene supplies drive for St. Francis Church in town, which was so successful that parishioners collected two carloads of items that will go to Mexico to help earthquake victims. Also, beginning Monday, the congregation will begin working on a similar drive for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, Fitzgerald said.
Enrollment is now at 190 students, with a school capacity of 250, the principal said.
Hoover said she’s incorporating more logical thinking beginning in kindergarten classes, where students took part in a small engineering challenge last week. They used mini marshmallows and toothpicks to build a structure that could support a small book, she said. The kindergartners won the challenge, beating out firstand second-graders.
The children had a certain number of marshmallows, which they couldn’t eat but at end of the activity, everybody got some to make the project fun, Holmes said.
“They didn’t get s’mores,” Fitzgerald joked.
“No, we didn’t do S’mores,” Holmes said with a laugh.
Back in the robotics room, Jack demonstrated a tripod, placing it over a manhole cover. The robot has to put the tripod exactly in the center of the manhole or slightly off-center, he said.
“The toilet is not working somehow,” Jack said.
“I declare officially that this is broken,” fifth-grader Emma said, holding up a fist-size object. “I have no idea what happened.”
“We use the computer to communicate with each other,” Hoover said.
“We use Microsoft OneNote so we can share the project with all the people in robotics and add notes. Everyone wrote ideas about how to solve these problems and I scanned them, well my mom did, into a document,” said Elizabeth, another fifth-grader.
“Actually some times we get silly and go on that chat thing and post emojis,” Emma said.
“They really have fun with these things,” Holmes said.
In the robotics classes, creativity is entirely up to the students, she said. “They are making robots and building any extensions they want, so if you want a claw for lifting or a bulldozer front for pushing, these are some of the ideas they are testing,” said Hoover.
Eileen Strom, administrative assistant, said that of the three Catholic churches in Middletown, “This was the Polish church, St. John was the Irish church and St. Seb was the Italian church.
“The bishop consolidated them, incorporating 10 churches within the deanery,” Strom said. “Each classroom is paired with area churches, and the children attend 8:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays periodically “to thank people for supporting us.”
New Assistant Principal Tiffany Rugolo teaches three social studies classes to the middle school grades.
There are more STEM classes being added to the curriculum, and eventually, Hoover said, staff would like to grow that into STEAM, incorporating more art lessons, and even STREAM, which would add religion classes.
“We’re going to see how far we can grow that acronym,” Hoover said.
For information, see www.jpii.org.