Board committee reviews school and department improvement plans; preschool, special education and adult ed highlighted
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Summary
Administrators reviewed school- and department-level improvement plans. Cook Hill principal described wellness measures and mentor programs; preschool staff outlined IEP, lottery and class-size details; special-education leaders highlighted structured literacy training; adult education noted a 39.7% state target for measurable skills gains.
The Wallingford Instructional Committee devoted a large portion of its Jan. 21 meeting to school- and department-improvement plans, hearing presentations and fielding detailed questions from board members.
Cook Hill Principal Monroe described actions to "cultivate a safe, supportive and inclusive learning community," citing staff- and student-climate surveys, daily affirmations, the Second Step social-emotional curriculum and a team of support staff that includes a full-time social worker and two site psychologists. On measuring wellness outcomes, Monroe pointed to staff surveys, student sense-of-belonging questions for second graders and regular SRBI meetings to identify needs.
On early childhood, preschool coordinator Liz Gaffney reported eight half-day sections for 3‑year‑olds (taught by four teachers, starting about 10 children per class) and 10 full-day 4‑year‑old sections (about 16–17 per class). Gaffney said the lottery is "a pure lottery" run by a computerized program, but that grant requirements require about 60% of seats to be allocated to families below the state median income to preserve funding. She described the developmental inventory, standardized testing and observation process used to determine eligibility for IEP services at age 3 and said the district conducts transitional meetings with kindergarten staff to align goals.
Special-education coordinators Lisa Baker and Stacy Kozlowski outlined sustained emphasis on structured literacy and targeted professional development, including a recent five-day Orton-Gillingham training for 18 teachers, collaborative coaching with curriculum staff and the use of I-Ready and other assessments to monitor progress. They described grade-level meetings and SRBI cycles that pair teachers and support staff to design interventions.
Dr. Anthony Mangiafico summarized adult-education goals and the state performance metric that 39.7% of adult students (those with 12+ hours of instruction) should record measurable skills gains by June 30; he noted state reporting counts students who leave without a post-test as zeros and said the district exceeded last year’s target by about five percentage points.
Board members asked about evaluation measures, budget implications for implementing plan goals, recruitment for CTE and preschool demand; administrators requested that the board "fight for what we have budgeted" during the upcoming budget season to preserve program supports.
The committee used the presentations as an opportunity for follow-up questions and invited staff to provide additional documents or data to the board.