School year kicks off with high excitement

CROMWELL — Cromwell schools opened for the new school year Wednesday, just 68 days since graduation day for the class of 2018.

“The energy was there,” said Superintendent of Schools John T. Maloney Jr. as he reviewed the day’s events late Wednesday. “I was really pleased. Really pleased.”

Maloney said he and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Krista Karch had worked over the summer “to have systems in place” for the opening of school.

That included working closely with Dattco School Bus Transportation Services, the school’s bus company.

It’s not uncommon for there to be confusion about buses on the first day of school. Not so on Wednesday.

“The buses ran smoothly — better than last year,” Maloney said.

Still, as they streamed off a line of buses, students received a doubly warm welcome: one from their teachers, the other from the weather gods.

Officials had been monitoring the weather, Maloney said near the end of what had been a long day.

“The middle school is the only building without airconditioning.”

Because it is an older building, once heat gets into the building, it stays and settles in.

In the three other buildings — Edna C. Stevens Elementary school, Woodside Intermediate School and the high school — “We ran the air conditioning (Tuesday) night to cool off the buildings.”

Maloney said he wanted the beginning of the school year to feel like a continuum, an extension of the progress the district made last year.

Consequently, he did a lot for work over the summer “to have systems in place so the kids could hit the ground running,” and so he and his administrative staff weren’t “running around putting out fires.”

In the company of Karch, “We were in every building and in almost every classroom.”

And in those classrooms, Maloney and Karch were met with “a high level of excitement.”

The week began with the convocation during which Maloney welcomed the approximately 16 new teachers who joined the system.

The number is high, Maloney acknowledged. But, he explained, it’s a reflection of the number of baby boomer teachers who have reached retirement age.

“It was a great convocation. There was a real feeling of ‘Let’s get going’ in a positive way.

“We’re well-staffed and we have got great people,” he said of the new teachers. “I’m thrilled about today. There was good energy and good excitement. We had a good year last year, and we’re building on that. We’re not changing course.

“We’ve put people in place to enable the kids to be successful,” Maloney said.

File photo A Cromwell kindergartner raises his paper to show his teacher his completed work as a fellow student colors a picture of his hand at Edna C. Stevens Elementary School.