August 22, 2010

Dear Students, Staff, Parents and Community Members,

Welcome back to our Shelton Public Schools. I hope that your summer was an enjoyable one and you were able to spend quality time with family, friends, and loved ones. Hopefully, you found ample opportunity for rest, relaxation, and some vacation time.

We are looking forward to the opening of school on August 30. Our administrators are all back at their respective schools and many of our wonderful teachers are already setting up their classrooms in eager anticipation of our students' return. Officially, our teachers report on Tuesday, August 24, at our opening meeting at Shelton Intermediate School before reporting back to their schools for their school-based meetings. On Wednesday and Thursday at their respective school sites, our teachers will receive professional training on district and school initiatives.

Perry Hill will be opening its doors to our grade five and six students for the first time. We are extremely excited about this wonderful facility and even more excited about the promise of the education programming we will be offering. Staff is already at Perry Hill preparing for the training next week and eagerly anticipating the opening, as well. We have tentatively scheduled a visiting “Open House” for students and parents on Friday, August 27.

The challenges of the past year were many: a budget deficit, the specter of mid-year layoffs, and cost overruns in special education.  In addition, a lengthy and difficult budget process has essentially left our district’s funding flat for three consecutive years while our staff contracts and service agreements continue to increase. Nonetheless, we as a school system will survive these difficult economic times with approximately one hundred less personnel and a decrease of forty instructional positions. We will be a “leaner” but not “meaner” organization as we continue to focus on creating and enhancing a student-centered learning environment in all of our schools.

We begin the school year on a very positive and promising note. Our Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) results were excellent. An increase in student achievement was realized at every grade and nearly every subject area. For the first time in five years, our district made significant increases in student achievement after four years of relatively flat progress. This increase in student achievement is attributable to the teaching and learning relationship between our students and teachers, which is paramount! Our students and their teachers deserve the accolades for their efforts in the face of challenging and difficult times. My visits to schools last spring with the shadow of layoffs looming confirmed and demonstrated the professional commitment to our students on the part of our staff. We all should be proud of this.

Obviously the leadership of our schools (our headmasters, principals, housemasters, assistant principals, and district level administrators) set the tone for this renewed commitment to student achievement and creating the school environment and supports for these achievement results to be realized. Despite our critics, Shelton Public Schools System is a good school system, and we have taken the first step to become great!

Last but not least, our parents deserve much credit for being willing partners in seeking a high quality education for their children. Parents are a critical constituency to the success of our schools. We need parents to not only be involved but to be engaged in the process of school and district improvement and high academic achievement for all of our students. I encourage all parents to remain involved and engaged in their children’s education through high school.

The research of Dr. Douglas Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center, in his Leadership and Learning Matrix describes successful schools, districts, businesses, non-profits and government agencies as “Lucky” or “Leading.” Simply defined, successful organizations are “Lucky” if they get high results without understanding “why” they are getting those results; thus, making replication efforts highly unlikely to yield continued success. On the other hand, Dr. Reeves defines successful organizations as “Leading” when they understand reasons “why” they achieve success and are highly likely to sustain that success through replication of efforts. One year of successful student achievement does not define us as “Leading” organization; however, I am extremely optimistic that what we have accomplished this year in spite of our challenges has established the foundation for us to be “Leading” organization in the future.

In closing, I invite you to join with us on our quest to become great. I am reaching out to all Shelton parents, businesses, community organizations, and residents to join with us as partners and to accompany us on our journey to become great. I ask all of our retirees to get involved and volunteer at your neighborhood schools so you can see what is really happening in our schools and the excellence which is evidenced by our school professionals.

I encourage everyone to embrace the realization that the education of the last generation or past generations of students may have been good enough for us, but is not good enough for our students today to successfully compete in the 21st century global economy. Please consider joining us to make the education of Shelton Public School students the best it can possibly be! I look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Freeman Burr

Superintendent of Schools