Board Update: Sept 19, 2025

Testing & Accountability 

2025 State testing results were presented to the Board of Education at their retreat on Sept. 13 and at the Sept. 16 Board of Education meeting. Proficiency, performance, and growth results were reviewed.  For the first time, Norwalk’s 2024-25 ELA and math growth exceeded the growth of the State for all students. The growth of Norwalk’s high needs students has exceeded their peers statewide in ELA and math for three consecutive years. Norwalk outperformed large Connecticut cities in all areas: proficiency, performance, and growth. 

On Sept. 11, the Testing Office joined the Schools Teams meeting to facilitate a review of 2025 testing demographics and proficiency trends by district and school. Schools' Teams had time to review results, engage with team members, and share their findings.   

Research & Analytics 

Digital Promise recently featured Norwalk Public Schools’ Portrait of a Graduate work for its strong rollout and commitment to providing meaningful critical thinking learning opportunities for students across the district. Training for the Naglieri General Ability Test, the district’s universal Gifted and Talented screener, is underway as the October testing window approaches. This week also marks the launch of the first RISE Postsecondary Collaborative with a focus on setting growth goals, identifying student support partners, and aligning strategies to improve student experiences throughout the year. 

Scientific research-based intervention training for math in elementary and middle school took place last week. New methods for establishing caseloads using dashboards are being developed. The state multi-tiered system of support training will take place over the next few weeks, and expectations are being iterated around when data is entered into that system. Data dashboard update redundancy is being developed within the department.  

Evaluation and Support Plan for Educators

This is the second implementation year of our new Evaluation and Support Plan for Educators and it is off to a great start! Our school leaders provided the required orientation training during the first few weeks of school and our now ready to begin having Goal Setting Meetings with their staff members. Through these meetings, educators identify goals, a professional learning plan, and evidence of impact on their teaching practice and student outcomes. 

Monthly Leadership Meetings

Each year, we host monthly leadership meetings for our principals and assistant principals.  This year, our first meetings will take place on Oct. 9 and 22.  The meetings will focus on advancing our district priority goals: Portrait of a Graduate and the PK-12 Literacy Vision.

Food Services 

As a reminder to all, school meal applications can be completed all year; however, after Oct. 8 students, who have not been approved for free meals will be charged for breakfast and lunch. 

We strongly encourage families to apply as soon as possible so eligibility can be determined before the Oct. 8 deadline. 

How to Apply: 

• Apply online at www.myschoolapps.com – the fastest and easiest option. 

• Paper applications are also available on the NPS Food Services website 

Please note: If you have already received a Direct Certification notice via email, you do not need to apply again. 

Families who are directly certified through SNAP, TFA, or free/reduced medical will continue to receive letters throughout the year. If you haven’t received a Direct Certification yet, please check your email weekly. Be sure your emails are up to date with schools and in PowerSchool. 

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program is off to a great start this year. Please see the benefits of Cherry tomatoes and Peaches, as well as Mrs. Kelley's learning and tasting videos for both tomatoes and peaches, for our students to watch and learn while they enjoy a little of nature's candy.  

Facilities 

The heating season is quickly approaching, and Facilities is preparing all boilers to ensure they are operational in time. 

The recent boiler conversion at Tracey Elementary School from oil to gas is being commissioned this week. 

In other news, the grounds are being prepared for the fall season with colorful plantings.   

Finally, the ongoing HVAC projects are in progress at 6 schools, and Brookside is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.    

School Safety 

46% of our safety drills for the month of September have been completed. Schools are currently updating their building safety plans for the 2025-26 school year.  

On Sept. 18, the School Preparedness and Safety Supervisor will participate in the Region 1 ESF-5 / Emergency Management & School Safety and Security Meeting, where school safety plans addressing immigration and new and emerging threats will be discussed.  

Our entire NPS Security guard staff completed CPR and CPI training prior to the first day of school. Safety upgrades and repairs are ongoing in our school buildings, including new playground safety fencing at Naramake, Kendall, and Tracy elementary schools and camera replacements at NHS and Naramake school.  

Transportation 

On Saturday, Sept. 13, Norwalk Public Schools Transportation Office and Durham School Services partnered to attend Stew Leonard’s annual Touch-A-Truck event. Families jumped on board and were able to ‘ride’ on the bus. They were also able to sit in the driver's seat and ‘drive’ the bus. Exiting the bus, kids were given coloring books and crayons.       

Durham School Services continues to provide ‘on time’ service to schools, with a 98% on time record for the first 3 weeks of school. 

The Transportation Office began using a new communication tool via our website.  If you have questions/concerns or requests, please visit the Transportation page at www.norwalkps.org under our resource or contact us page, you may also click here to access the form.  During the last few weeks, we have received over 290 inquiries.  Approximately 100 inquiries were bus stop requests.  If you have submitted a request and it is still pending, please reach out via email at transportation@norwalkps.org for an update. Your patience and cooperation during the first month of school is appreciated as our community adjusts to school opening.  

We are pleased to announce that, after a 5-year driver shortage, Norwalk Durham is fully staffed!  You may see new faces this year, as we had 7 drivers join the team. The training team worked diligently over the summer months to train and test 4 new drivers. In addition, we had 3 drivers come on board from other companies.  Durham continues to hire. Please click here for further information.    

Health Services 

On Sept. 9, a monthly nurse staff meeting was held to discuss and review important beginning of the year topics such as notification of staff of significant health alerts, mandated health screenings, and ensuring all emergency stock medication is current and not past its expiration date. Mandated vision and hearing screenings in elementary schools are currently underway. Stock medications due to expire soon were replenished in schools. 

On Sept. 10, school health services met with and led a meeting with over twenty school nurse supervisors from the Southern Connecticut Districts. Much information regarding policy, workflow, management of health offices, and nursing care was discussed and shared. 

On Sept. 15, school health services met with the director of Emergency Medical Services at Norwalk Hospital, as well as with the director of clinical operations and healthcare innovation at Norwalk Community Health Center, to discuss and review EMS response times and workflows in an effort to strengthen coordination across our systems. 

Finally, on Sept. 16, school health services, along with other community members, participated in the Norwalk Community Health Center Community Advisory Committee. This committee meets quarterly to review and discuss the school-based health center partnership. 

Humanities Update

Secondary Literacy teachers have been participating in grade-band professional learning. Each session has focused on collecting feedback on the new units of study and strengthening understanding of text complexity and how to plan best to support our students. 

STEM Update 

Marine Science has been off to a strong start with our pathway schools!

We are preparing for strong instruction and instructional support for this school year.  Math Improvement teachers met for a training on Sept. 9 with secondary in the morning and elementary  in the afternoon. The teachers participated in a few different collaborative protocols to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.  Improvement teachers will be adjusting their support to be in service of tier 1 curricula for students, with a comprehensive plan for adjustment of practices and refinement of materials.  

The STEM team visited a different district last week to see how the use of Building Thinking Classrooms has been rolled out in high school science classrooms. The team gathered ideas for planning and will be embedding practices into the Oct. 14 and Nov. 4 professional learning sessions.  

MLL Update

The Multilingual Learner department has been gearing up to support our schools with professional learning opportunities through the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) model of teaching and learning which includes engagement strategies for not only English Learners, but for all students.  The department has been supporting professional learning for coaches and in grade-level meetings to support teachers in implementing strategies to support students throughout different content areas and grade levels.  

The Family Center is offering the first family workshop of the school year.  Please join us on Thursday, Sept. 25 for the Workforce Development Workshop from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The workshop includes resources regarding apprenticeships, training opportunities, internship information, job positions and enrichment/volunteer opportunities.

Specialized Learning 

The Specialized Learning department is having its first New Teacher Academy Tuesday Sept. 16 at The Family Center.  The first topic will be a CT SEDS Onboarding for all new staff.  Special Education Administrator James Lee offered a deep dive into the workings of CT SEDS. 

We held our first Orton Gillingham Classroom Training on Thursday Sept.18, 2025 for 20 special education teachers. The Classroom Educator practitioner is certified by an Orton Gillingham Associate to provide and adapt literacy instruction for the whole class or for small groups needing supplemental support. The coursework provides educators with the basic content knowledge of research-based explicit language instruction as well as the delivery of instruction aligned with Orton Gillingham principles.

Early Childhood

Early Childhood classrooms are now fully engaged in their center-based learning activities. One area we are focusing  on is fostering student independence by teaching children how to select a learning center, return materials upon completion, and smoothly transition to a new area after a designated period of time.

An example of a center is the Apple Orchard. This center is designed to support development across multiple domains of the Connecticut Early Learning Development Standards (CT ELDS) English framework Connecticut Early Learning Development Standards (CT ELDS) Spanish.

Connection: This center directly addresses the "Use Logic and Reasoning" strand within the Cognition domain. The activity of sorting apples by color is a foundational skill in classification and seriation, which are key concepts in early mathematics and science. This practice helps children group objects based on shared attributes, thereby strengthening their ability to make sense of the world around them.
 

School Counseling and Workforce Development

School Counselors have been supporting school opening with our newest Kindergarten community members, middle school transitions, all the way to high school, with our scholars' schedules. The EdGenuity course catalog has been updated to better serve our scholars who are scheduled into an online class. The RISE work continues for our high schools for Grade 9 and Grades 10 - 12 for Post Secondary Planning. The RISE Senior Survey is now open, and scholars are sharing their post-secondary plan of choice, which enables our Faculty/Staff, Families, and School Counselors to have the information needed to best support their post-secondary plans for the Class of 2026. New School Counselors to the NPS K - 12 team attended a PowerSchool Training dedicated to their scholars' needs. School Counselors held their district School Counselor Meetings on September 16th, during which our partner from the Norwalk Community Resource Hub visited with them. This resource will now be available for use and sharing among our K-12 School Counselors. Our College & Career Specialists have started the new school year by coordinating and hosting college & university representative visits, supporting the college application process, and assisting with CT State Norwalk Advising and Registrations, to name a few.

The partnership program between CT State Norwalk and Norwalk Public Schools enables scholars to apply for a Workforce Development Course offered by CT State Norwalk; some courses lead to an industry-recognized credential. The application is now closed, and 26 scholars across our four high schools have been selected and registered for their Fall 2025 course. The Free Pathways to Construction Workshop Application is Now Live! This is an opportunity for our NPS Scholars Age 16+ to apply for and attend free trade exposure workshops in Norwalk. Scholars enrolled in these workshops will receive classroom training, hands-on demonstrations, and career networking in the trade field. Mark your calendars for Thursday, Sept. 25, at 5:30 p.m. for the Workforce Development Workshop for our NPS Families Ages 18+. Participants will learn about Apprenticeships, Trades and Training Opportunities, Internship Information, and Job Postings. Registration is required to attend, and it is easy to do; just see the flyer for the link or QR Code. Coming Soon, the NPS Internships Are Back for Scholars in Grades 10-12 who are 16+ years old and have earned a 2.0+ grade point average.

For all NPS Workforce Development Opportunities and more, visit www.norwalkps.org/careertraining. Please be sure to bookmark the site and check back regularly for new and exciting opportunities!

 Network/Infrastructure

This summer, the Technology Department completed several critical projects to prepare the district for the upcoming academic year. A primary focus was the extensive fleet of student devices. The team successfully repaired hundreds of Chromebooks, addressing issues from damaged screens to faulty keyboards. In addition to these large-scale projects, the team closed nearly 90 service tickets, efficiently resolving day-to-day technical issues. Concurrently, an extensive replacement program swapped out over 200 end-of-lifecycle devices. This proactive effort ensures students and teachers will have reliable, functional devices from day one, minimizing instructional time lost to technical issues.

In addition to device maintenance and replacement, the team heavily focused on the new South Norwalk Elementary School. A major undertaking was completing the entire network infrastructure for the new building. This involved the installation and configuration of all data drops, wireless access points, and the core switching and routing systems. The timely completion of this project was crucial, as it provides the foundation for all technology-based learning and administrative functions at the new school.

The collective efforts of the technology team over the summer represent a significant investment in our district's digital learning environment. The dual focus on maintaining our existing device fleet while building out the infrastructure for a new school was a challenging but successfully executed task. The team's dedication has ensured that our schools are technologically ready to welcome students back and provide a seamless, connected learning experience

Enterprise Software

We are pleased to report the successful completion of several key initiatives. Rostering and integration of AI tools have been successfully implemented across all grade levels (K–5, 6–8, and 9–12).

We have updated queries for existing software applications to ensure more accurate data is provided to vendors, effectively fine-tuning it to meet instructional needs and student data privacy requirements.

Finally, new applications have been set up and activated to support teaching and learning in Science, Music, and English Language Arts.

 

Digital Learning Coaches

Our digital learning coaches have been working diligently all summer to support the district's migration to Google. They have been key in providing a variety of opportunities to get staff on board, including:

• Leading workshops for staff.
• Creating a new Google resources website.
• Offering one-on-one assistance to staff.
• Assisting with onboarding sessions for new hires with HR.

The coaches have been taking advantage of every opportunity to support staff and ensure a smooth transition to our new platforms.

Library Media Specialists

Our library media specialists met this week for professional learning. During their sessions, they focused on several key initiatives:

• Updating their goals to align with the Portrait of a Graduate.
• Integrating AI literacy into their curriculum.
• Reviewing and updating the district's book selection policy.

Their work is crucial in ensuring our libraries and resources continue to meet the evolving needs of our students and staff. 

Payroll/Benefits

Reminders have been sent to all staff regarding enrollment in disability benefits, as well as the upcoming wellness fair, which is being hosted in partnership with Wellness Concepts. More reminders will be sent this week to encourage employees to take full advantage of these new offerings designed to support health and financial well-being.

Budget

The Budget team continues its work updating general ledger summaries and rosters for both schools and departments. A districtwide audit of payroll and Munis accounts is in progress to ensure data accuracy. Meetings have also begun with schools and departments to verify staffing rosters in preparation for the launch of the 2026–2027 budget development cycle.

In addition, the team is processing special education invoices, journal entries, and budget transfers to support financial accuracy as we move through the early months of the fiscal year.

Grants

The Grants team has been actively meeting with schools to review Title I funding allocations and discuss strategies for effective use. These sessions include guidance on allowable expenditures and alignment with school goals. The team is also reviewing staff rosters to ensure accurate application of grant funds in preparation for the 2026-2027 Budget cycle.