Christopher Peak Photo
Rosalind Garcia and Daniel Hunt welcome students back to Lincoln-Bassett on Thursday morning.
Jai-dyne and Quran.
Thousands of students woke up on Thursday morning for the start of another school year, encouraged to resume their studies even if their bus stops and teacher assignments weren’t quite finalized yet.
At Lincoln-Bassett School, yellow school buses pulled up around 8:30 a.m., where students were welcomed by with high fives from Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brothers and hugs from their favorite teachers. Walking into the building, kids said they couldn’t wait to get back to learning.
Onyx Campbell’s mom beamed, as she said she wanted to meet the new teachers in the talented and gifted program she starts this year.
Sydnee Boyd, a sixth-grader, said he wants to get back to solving math equations.
Troy Price, another sixth-grader, said he’s going to work on becoming a better writer, like the author of the funny stories in his favorite novel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
And Luis Rosa, a first-grader, said he wants to learn about healthy eating this year, especially what it would be like to make fresh-squeezed fruit juice.
Parents snapped away on their phones, as their kids flaunted new backpacks by the school’s front stairway. After the drop-off, they packed into the office to try to enroll or change their bus routes. One came back, too, after her daughter started bawling, to say another goodbye.
Superintendent Carol Birks.
Superintendent Carol Birks, who rode to Lincoln-Bassett on the school bus on Thursday morning, said this academic year will be about moving from “assessing” to “executing,” especially on the district’s school improvement plan.
She said that over the summer, all administrators read The Four Disciplines of Execution, a management how-to, and drew a “pictorial representation” of what its lessons look like to them.
Birks said that there had been a “few challenges” with the new bus routes, which lengthened the distance walk up to a half-mile, without notifying most parents until this week. She said she’ll continue riding the morning school bus “as much as I can” for the next couple weeks.
Birks also said that the district is not fully staffed up yet.
Four schools don’t have permanent principals. “I believe in shared governance,” she said, explaining that she wants parents to weigh in on the permanent hires.
In the meantime, Birks has appointed interim leaders while she said searches are ongoing.
She tapped Eugene Foreman, Beecher’s assistant principal, for Augusta Lewis Troup; Tina Mitchell, Fair Haven’s assistant principal, for John C. Daniels; Peggy Moore, a retired Wilbur Cross principal, for Roberto Clemente; and Bonnie Pachesa, a retired Edgewood principal, for Quinnipiac.
Birks added that, when she last checked in with human resources on Friday, the district had about 50 vacancies for teachers, which are being temporarily filled by dozens of substitutes.
“We’re making offers to teachers and teaching assistants,” she said.
Birks read a book about executions? I guess that explains the demise of Gil Traverso, Madeline Negron, Delores Garcia Blocker and the Deputy Superintendent Ivelise Velazquez, and the early retirement of Abbie Benitez. Will Clark took some money and left. Operations have not been smooth since. The readers should watch out. What or who is she executing?
Beware the Ides of March, or any month for that matter. That girl is on fire or starting them.