Dear Windsor Locks Families,

It is hard to believe that we are heading back to school this week.  I know that you have received information from your children’s respective schools, but I wanted to reach out with a brief re-introduction and heartfelt “Welcome Back”!  As some of you may know I am serving as the Interim Superintendent of Schools for Windsor Locks until a permanent replacement is found for Dr. Bell.  Please know that during that time you should feel free to reach out with questions or concerns and that I will do my best to address them and/or make sure that the appropriate individual is in contact with you to take care of your needs. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank to our buildings and grounds crews who are working tirelessly to ready the schools for the return of teachers and students.  I would also like to commend our school office staff and leadership team who have been preparing everything for that all-important first day of school! We are fortunate to have an amazing maintenance and support staff who all work behind the scenes to create clean and orderly environments for optimal learning to take place.

The 2018-2019 school year continues our district motto of Making a Difference.  In Windsor Locks, we are working hard always to ensure that students will leave Windsor Locks prepared to make a difference.  This was a focus for our schools last year with administration, teachers and students reflecting on how they made a difference in their own world that day or week and what they want to do to make a difference in their futures.  We were gratified to see that our students found endless ways to make a difference every single day.  Students are able to make a difference in their own lives by setting goals for their academic success and developing action plans to achieve those goals.  They can make a difference in others’ lives by collaborating with their peers to learn and grow to new levels by co-creating safe, comfortable, and growth-oriented classroom communities. They can make a difference in their community by helping out neighbors and friends, and they can make a difference in their world by contributing their positive energy and deep learning towards solving a critical problem facing society.   They certainly make a difference in the lives of their teachers by coming to school every day and sharing their thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams and goals for the future.

With Dr. Bell’s departure there have been some shifts in the district to make sure there is continuity of program and experiences for our students.  Two of those shifts include Mr. Ferreira, serving as Interim Assistant Superintendent and Mrs. Heather Earley serving as Interim Principal of North Street School.  Mrs. Earley has been the Assistant Principal at both North and South Elementary Schools this past year and she has developed strong relationships at North Street School with parents, teachers and students.  Additionally, Kristen Weigand, the Family and Community Engagement Coordinator, left us this past month to take a position in her home state of Maine.  We wish her well and are in the process of hiring a replacement for that position. 

In efforts to continue to deepen partnerships with families and the community and we wanted to share an overview of partnership opportunities.  More details will be shared once a new Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement is on board.

• The Windsor Locks Community Partners Network, whose mission is to improve the Windsor Locks community through partnerships between the school district, families, and community representatives (businesses, non-profits, services, etc.) will hold five (5) meetings over the course of the school year.
• The Superintendent’s Advisory Group will meet four (4) times over the course of the school year as well.  These meetings will alternate with the Community Partners Meetings.
• Each of the Superintendent’s Advisory meetings, which will be two (2) hours in length, will include one hour for district-focused agenda items, and one hour for school-focused topics.  By merging the district and school-based advisories into one meeting, we hope to lessen the load of partnership on families, but also get the benefit of your ideas and input for different improvement strategies.
• The meeting dates are as follows, and will be published on the district website calendar, as well as on our Facebook page.  All meetings are held on Thursdays, and begin at 6:00 pm and end at 8:00 pm.
  • October 10:     District/School Advisory
  • November 7:   Tentative Community Partners Network
  • December 6:   District/School Advisory
  • January 3:        Tentative Community Partners
  • February 6:      District/School Advisory
  • March 7:          Tentative Community Partners
  • April 4:            District/School Advisory
  • May 2:             Tentative Community Partners
• These meetings will not take the place of PTO meetings at each of the schools with active PTO’s.

Family Information Nights are already scheduled this year as well!  Here are the dates and times:

• South Elementary School – Tuesday, 9/18    5-7pm
• North Street School – Thursday, 9/20      5-7pm
• Windsor Locks Middle School – Wednesday, 10/3   6-8 pm
• Windsor Locks High School – Thursday, 10/4   6-8 pm

We hope you can join us in any way that works for you.  Please go to our website and look at the district and school event calendars.  You can sync the website calendars with your own computer or mobile device.  Find the calendars at http://www.wlps.org/District/Events/.  You can also access school-specific calendars at each school’s website.

We look forward to another successful year in Windsor Locks – preparing our students to make a difference in their own lives and in the world, every day.  Looking forward to seeing all of our students on Thursday, August 30th!

With Deepest Respect,

Sharon Cournoyer

Interim Superintendent of Schools