Two classrooms of kids with autism and their teachers are transferring from Brennan/Rogers School to Strong School, and 36 new teachers got hired, amid last-minute shuffling before school starts.
The transfers and hires earned approval at a special school board meeting at Hill Regional Career High School.
Click here to see the full list of transfers, hires, resignations and retirements.
The board held the meeting Wednesday because that was the last day a teacher could be hired and make it onto the payroll for the start of school next Wednesday, according to schools Superintendent Garth Harries.
The decisions came as the district fights a surprise budget deficit that has been whittled down to $1.9 million through last-minute changes. Harries said all 36 hires represent “essential positions”; Harries held off on making other recommended hires due to budget concerns.
The school district Wednesday transferred two full-time special education teachers and six paraprofessionals from Brennan/Rogers School in West Rock to Strong School, an overflow K‑2 program now housed on Orchard Street. The teachers moved because the district is relocating two self-contained classrooms of children with autism from Brennan/Rogers to Strong, according to special ed chief Typhanie Jackson.
She said the move came not to save money, but to facilitate a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University. SCSU has a partnership with Strong School as well as a program in autism; the move aims to coordinate those efforts in the same building, she said.
In other news, two teachers from the talented and gifted (TAG) program got reassigned to regular teaching jobs in individual schools. Their reassignments came as part of a restructuring of the TAG program: Instead of riding the bus to do TAG activities in a central location, kids will now receive TAG instruction in their home schools. As part of the new initiative, all seven TAG teachers had to reapply for their jobs.
And two science teachers, Matthew Erickson of Edgewood School and Lana Rowan of Wilbur Cross High, got promoted to a new job called “science mentor” created as part of a new $53 million federally backed effort to improve the way the district grades, develops and rewards teachers.
What's conspicuous by its absence in this staff personnel roster is any change in instructional staff for Hillhouse High School. It was my hope that, due to Hillhouse's failure to make any significant progress in meeting it's turnaround goals, that there would be a plan for change, and that plan would include significant staff changes. Unfortunately, it appears that no plan for progress has been developed over the summer. Or if a plan for progress has been developed, I would like to know what it is. A lot of the Hillhouse community would like to know, as well.