Board Update: Oct 17, 2025

Testing & Accountability 

Preparation is underway for the distribution of fall NWEA results to families via ParentSquare secure document delivery. The target date for distribution is October 28th. Students in grades 1-8 took NWEA math and students in grades 3-8 took reading. A reference guide that defines terms used in the report is included and available in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. In addition to current MAP results, the student report displays the student's MAP results for prior test years.

On October 7th and 8th, students in grades 8 through 11 took the digital PSAT 8/9 and PSAT/NMSQT. These tests provide personalized scores that help students and educators plan for future courses and college, explore career paths, and track progress throughout high school. Results will be available at the end of October.  

Research & Analytics  

Universal screening for Grade 3 students is currently underway, along with testing for all new students in Grades 4–7. Data from these assessments are being analyzed to support the eligibility process. On October 14, professional development was provided to gifted and talented educators regarding recent state requirements mandating that gifted and talented data be uploaded into the CT-SEDS platform by the end of the 2025–2026 school year. Educators also received hands-on training in using the CT-SEDS system. 

Last week, representatives from the Renzulli Institute in the Netherlands visited Norwalk Public Schools to observe the district’s gifted and talented program and learn more about how Norwalk implements equitable practices to support advanced learners. 

Additionally, educators from Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk High School, and district leadership are participating in the NEASC Vision of a Learner conference in Cheshire this week to collaborate with other Connecticut districts on assessing and implementing a Portrait of a Graduate. 

Principals' Meeting - October 9, 2025

On October 9, we held our first Principals' Meeting.  It was an opportunity for district and school administrators to come together and learn with and from each other.  The day focused on our district instructional priorities: Portrait of a Graduate and the NPS Literacy Vision.  Principals also had the opportunity to hear important and timely updates from different departments.  We look forward to meeting with our Assistant Principals on October 22!

Early Career Supports

We are committed to supporting our early career principals and assistant principals!  Next week, we will run a session for each group focused on leadership practices and cultivating a culture of belonging.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our new school leaders to learn from our experienced school leaders!  Shout out to Dr. Damon Lewis, Jane Wilkins, LaShante James, Jennifer Scanlan, and Evan Byron for their support and partnership!

Food Services 

All Students are eating for free!! Thank you, Dr. Estrella, Board of Education, and Jill Kress for all you do! 

This week's fresh fruit and vegetable program features figs and bell peppers, and next week, we are serving up kale and locally grown apples in celebration of CT Grown for CT Kids.  

It’s also National School Lunch Week!  We are highlighting some student favorites in the cafeterias, including Teriyaki Chicken meatballs on Thursday. 

Also, please check out our new NPS YouTube Series, Made Fresh Daily, where you can see the amazing work our cafeteria teams do every day. Our first two episodes are worth watching.   

School Safety 

NPS District Safety Committee invited all Building Leaders to join them on October 15, 2025, for a presentation led by Sgt. Hamm of the Norwalk Police Department. The presentation explained the 911 protocols for educators in detail, as well as our existing and newly added MOUs. This annual training not only helps keep our school communities safe, but it is also essential in maintaining the extremely effective working relationship between NPS and NPD. Safety infrastructure projects have been put in motion for Marvin and Rowayton schools. Building and District Safety plans are almost complete and will be submitted to the state by the end of the month.  

Transportation 

NPS Transportation Office, NPS Wellness Committee, City of Norwalk Health Department, Bike/Walk Commission, and CT DOT Safe Routes to School Division, teamed up again to promote Bike/Walk/Roll to School month. This week we visited Wolfpit Intergrated Arts and Fox Run Elementary Schools. We welcomed families who participated in the event with donated drawstring bags from the Bike/Walk Commission, which included fun educational materials and water bottles.  

Fox Run ES  Wolfpit ES 

Next week NPS will celebrate National School Bus Safety Week.  Bus Evacuation Drills will be conducted Thursday the 23rd at the secondary level (High & Middle Schools) and Parochial schools and on Friday the 24th, we will conduct drills at the elementary level. Rain dates will be the following week if necessary.

NPS will partner with Norwalk Police Department to conduct Operation Safe Stop (OSS).  During the week, patrol officers will be placed at several identified school bus stops to observe traffic.  Any car passing the school bus during pick up or drop off will be ticketed.  Illegally passing a stopped school bus is a violation of a $450 fine for a first offense, and a fine of $500 to $1,000, up to 30 days in jail, or both, for subsequent offenses.  NPS is actively working with the City of Norwalk and outside resources to upgrade school buses with outside cameras to monitor traffic and drivers who could potentially violate this law.   

During the last two weeks bus passes have been distributed at the middle school level. We will begin checking bus passes on Monday, October 20th. If you have any question, please contact your school's main office or the transportation office at 203-854-4074 or online using our new Transportation form, Questions or Concerns.

Health Services 

On October 8, School Health Services attended the Middle School Showcase. Nurses were present to discuss health requirements, special student health needs, and collaboration with school-based health center partners. Many families engaged with the nursing team. 

A professional day was held on October 14 for all school nurses. Norwalk Hospital/Nuvance Health Community Education presented Stop The Bleed: Bleeding Control for the Injured. Uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death from trauma, and nurses were educated on how to respond to a trauma, including hands-on simulation. Every nurse in every school is equipped with an emergency go-bag, which includes the necessary supplies needed to respond to a traumatic event. 

Additionally, a behavioral health provider from Norwalk Community Health Center delivered a presentation to the nurses on the collaboration between school nursing and behavioral health in the support of students. 

Out-of-state field trips may now require a registered nurse to attend based on student needs assessed by the school nurse. School Health Services has requested that the nurse be notified of all field trips as soon as possible and at least 2 weeks in advance so that safe plans may be created for all students, as the trip may need to be staffed with a registered nurse. 

Grants 

The Grants Team has advanced multiple federal and state funding applications this week. 

Grant in Progress: 

For the Title I, Title II, and Title IV Grants, we are in the process of compiling the necessary final data and documentation for submission. Required acceptance and data forms have been distributed to private schools. 

Grants Pending: 

The Title III EL Grant application has been successfully completed and submitted and is currently pending final approval from the CT State Department of Education (CSDE). 

The Competitive ESSA School Improvement Grant (SIG) application was revised to address required edits and has been officially resubmitted; we are now awaiting final authorization. 

Approval for the State Bilingual Grant remains pending. 

Grants Approved: 

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Grant was resubmitted following programmatic adjustments. This revision strategically reallocates funding from emergency housing to transportation, where the need is emphasized, to ensure enrollment continuity for displaced students. This updated grant has since been approved by the CSDE. 

Humanities 

K-5 Literacy

On October 9th, literacy coaches joined principals at the Principal’s meeting. TNTP shared trends across the 44 classrooms that were visited the prior week. Then, coaches transitioned to a small group meeting where they participated in a lesson internalization protocol. Finally, coaches and principals dug into the Wonders resource and to highlight and identify the highest leverage parts of the program for daily instruction.  

On October 10th, coaches gathered once again to work on curriculum adjustments and explicit guidance for the upcoming Unit 2.  Finally, coaches gave feedback and internalized the deck for the October 14th professional learning on small group instruction and internalization. This was the 1st time that coaches took on the role of facilitator at a district-wide cohesive learning experience.

Secondary Literacy

The Principals’ Meeting on October 9th was joined by the literacy coaches who participated in a review of accountability data and literacy learning walk trends, made connections to the effective communicator competency, and experienced a lesson internalization protocol. Middle school coaches met on October 10th to make adjustments to the end-of-unit assessments based on feedback from teachers and leaders. These adjustments were shared at the October 14th grade-level meetings during the district-led professional development session. We were also joined that day by our partners at TNTP and StudySync who offered sessions on text complexity, scaffolding, engagement strategies, and pacing recommendations. Our literacy coaches did a great job of facilitating planning sessions for staff. They participated in a professional learning session on October 15th with TNTP centered around grade-level thinking and Unit 2 internalization. 

On October 17th, we sent three representatives to the CT Council for Social Studies Annual Conference at Central Connecticut State University. Our middle school and high school teacher leaders will share their learning from this conference with the larger community during the November 4th professional development day. 

STEM  

Professional Learning has been the focus for the past two weeks!  Math coaches came together on October 4th with the focus of strengthening tier 1 implementation.  Coaches engaged in a unit internalization protocol and provided feedback on strengthening the planner.  Additionally, coaches identified a plan to support teacher progression with curricula implementation.  

Last week all elementary schools who are piloting new science resources came together for training.  K-3 teachers engaged in a half day training around Building Blocks of Science and 4th and 5th grade teachers engaged in two days of training around OpenSciEd.  Piloting schools will implement one unit in trimester 2.  To see more about the pilot, check the Board of Subcommittee presentation on October 14.  

Tuesday was a full day of professional learning.  A theme in each of the sessions was building the portrait of a graduate and engaging instruction.  

In addition to the professional learning already underway, science educators across all levels have continued deepening their instructional practice through targeted training opportunities. Elementary teachers participated in a training session focused on Gizmos from ExploreLearning.com, a digital platform that provides interactive simulations to enhance science instruction and promote student inquiry. This training supports teachers in effectively integrating digital tools into their lessons to boost engagement and conceptual understanding.

At the secondary level, high school science teachers engaged in a session centered on student data analysis, exploring strategies to foster deeper understanding through evidence-based reasoning and critical thinking. Middle school teachers continued their professional learning on the OpenSciEd curriculum, further developing their ability to implement phenomena-based units and facilitate student-driven inquiry.

Marine Science

This week, Brien McMahon’s Marine Studies students had a unique hands-on learning experience at SoundWaters, where they explored the local salt marsh and coastal ecosystems. Students collected and analyzed data on local organisms and plankton, using microscopes to examine specimens up close. This immersive fieldwork provided meaningful opportunities for students to connect classroom learning with real-world environmental science.

MLL Update

The Multilingual Learner department has several upcoming professional learning opportunities for our Multilingual Learner and Dual Language teachers.  The first includes training and professional development for our Dual Language teachers on Escalera, a literacy program based on the core structure of the Spanish language.  Escalera reinforces decoding skills, builds fluency, and develops basic comprehension. It offers a highly accelerated jumpstart into reading and provides a strong foundation for early literacy development. This program promises to equip our teachers with effective tools and strategies to support Spanish-language learners in becoming confident, successful readers.

Another professional learning opportunity coming up is WestEd's Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL).  This virtual professional development session from QTEL is the first in a series of four sessions that will take place during the 2025-2026 school year. These sessions are designed to help support and strengthen educators' expertise in creating high-challenge, high-support learning opportunities for multilingual learners. Participants will explore a variety of topics, including sociocultural theory, scaffolding, fostering quality interactions, and student engagement, while gaining practical insight into making rigorous content accessible to all learners, especially our multilingual learners. This first session provides an introduction to QTEL theory and practice as well as experiential opportunities for educators to engage in activities that exemplify quality teaching for multilingual learners. 

Specialized Learning 

The Department of Specialized Learning will hold its final Orton Gillingham Classroom Level Certification course on Thursday October 16, 2025.  20 special education teachers have gone through this training and will receive a certificate of completion.  

We also participated in the Middle School Showcase on October 8, 2025 at CMS.  We answered questions of upcoming 6th graders on special education services offered at the middle school. It was great meeting everyone! 

All special education staff also participated in professional learning on Tuesday October 15, 2025. Many different learning opportunities were offered to all staff including school psychologists, social workers, special education teachers, RBT’s, and special education paraeducators.  A wonderful day of learning was had by all.  

Early Childhood Update

Connecticut's Right to Read legislation mandates that all school districts must implement reading programs based on the Science of Reading, which is a body of research on how to best teach reading. Pre-kindergarten teachers from across the district took part in training for Fundations during the Norwalk Public Schools October 14th Professional Learning day. Fundations for pre-kindergarten is an introductory curriculum that teaches foundational skills in letter-sound associations and manuscript letter formation. It follows the same explicit, systematic, and multisensory principles as the rest of the program and is designed to be a "pre-dose" of the skills taught in the full Level K program. The curriculum is a targeted activity set that can be used alongside other literacy experiences. 

School Counseling and Workforce Development

School Counseling teams participated in the October Professional Development half-day sessions, during which the various grade band teams engaged in the following trainings: PowerSchool, Grief Counseling, LGBTQ+, RISE Graduation Tool, and Artificial Intelligence. For October, in Developmental Guidance Classroom Lessons, School Counselors are delivering Lesson #11 in Social-Emotional Learning for grades 6th-8th. Middle School Counselors are refining their 7th and 8th-grade Career Pathways for scholars, and 6th-grade school Counselors will be talking about Career Pathways selections, when meeting with their 6th-grade scholars. Our College & Career Specialists in October have been assisting scholars with CT State Norwalk courses, providing support on the Common Application, and will host a Barnum Financial Aid workshop, to name a few.

K-8th Grade School Counselors in PowerSchool

The Pathways to Construction Trades Workshop has been an excellent success for our scholars! This opportunity is for our scholars to 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. On October 9th, the Workforce Development Trade Series, "Becoming an Electrician" for our NPS Families Ages 18+, was hosted. Participants learned about the Electrical Trade Field, A Day in the Life of an Electrician, and How to Begin Application for an Electrician Apprenticeship. For October, in the Developmental Guidance Classroom Lessons, School Counselors are delivering Lesson #11 in Workforce Development for Grades K-3. 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!

Pathways to Construction Trades Workshop

Workforce Development Workshop: Becoming An Electrician

Network/Infrastructure

The network infrastructure upgrade at Brien McMahon High School has been successfully completed, providing enhanced connectivity and improved reliability to support instructional and operational needs.

Additionally, our technicians and specialists have closed over 800 support tickets in the past month, demonstrating their dedication and excellent service. Great job to the entire team!

Enterprise Software

Over the past two weeks, the team has completed several initiatives to enhance digital access, streamline systems, and support instructional platforms across the district:

ALEKS Access for SPED Staff: New accounts for Special Education (SPED) staff have been successfully created and imported into the newly implemented ALEKS platform. Staff are now accessing ALEKS through ClassLink, and supporting  their students more effectively.

Automated Rostering for Learning A-Z: We have implemented automated rostering for all schools using the Learning A-Z platform. This replaces the previous manual setup process, which often led to user errors. The new process ensures more reliable access for both staff and students.

CT State Kiosk Testing Browser Update: The CT State Kiosk browser has been updated across all student devices. Students can now launch the State testing browser directly from the Google Apps toolbar without needing to log in to their devices.

Digital Learning Coaches

MagicSchool AI provided professional development offerings for Elementary Level Library Media Specialists 

The Elementary Digital Learning Coaches attended the EdAdvance Fall Conference. Sessions focused on practical applications of AI in the classroom, ethical considerations, and ways to empower educators and students to use AI responsibly and effectively in the digital learning environment.

Amanda Kennedy and Stefanie Dean completed the MagicSchool Ai Ambassador cohort gaining advanced strategies for integrating AI responsibly into teaching and learning.  This achievement supports ongoing district efforts to enhance instructional innovation and empower educators with effective AI practices.

Payroll/Benefits

The NPS Benefits team is partnering with Wellness Concepts to introduce a new virtual engagement platform launching in January 2026. This wellness initiative will feature a monthly forum and interactive webinars designed to promote employee well-being. Topics will include stress management, heart health, virtual cooking classes, guided meditation, and more. The goal is to support staff in having their healthiest year yet.

Budget

The Budget Team has officially begun developing the 2026–2027 fiscal year budget projection. The current focus is on compiling key assumptions that will drive the budget increase. While there are no new initiatives planned for this cycle, several factors will influence the funding request to the City, including contractual salary increases, health insurance cost increases, other vendor-related contractual obligations (such as transportation), and the addition of 4th grade at the South Norwalk School.

To ensure accurate staffing projections, the team has collaborated with schools to verify employee rosters and confirm that all funded positions and stipends are correctly allocated. Stipends have been increased by 2% per contractual agreements.

In parallel, the Budget team is working with CLA, the district’s external auditors, on the 2024–2025 fiscal year-end financial review. This includes preparation of financial reports such as the State Single Audit and Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR), along with analysis of GASB compliance, deferred revenue, and special education excess cost filings.

The Board of Estimate and Taxation has also approved a $126,100 carryover related to accounting adjustments for open purchase orders and deferred retirement payments post-year-end. This carryover is not part of the non-lapsing fund.

Additionally, the team is developing a new public-facing financial transparency platform in partnership with ClearGov. This system will enhance community access to budget information and improve financial reporting across the district.

The team’s operational work continues as well: accounts, salaries, and Position Control Numbers (PCNs) are being updated in both the live and budget versions of Munis. New hires, terminations, transfers, salary changes, and benefits adjustments are also being processed. The team is reviewing all budget changes and recently held a meeting with HR and Benefits to discuss FMLA coordination.

General ledger summaries for 2025–2026 are being updated and distributed to both schools and central office departments. Meetings have been conducted to review these summaries, as well as rosters and preliminary planning for the 2026–2027 budget cycle. Special education invoices and districtwide budget transfers and journal entries, including SBB ESS entries, are in progress.

Grants

The Grants team has been actively supporting Title I initiatives, including site visits to schools in collaboration with Lynn Payton to review current programs and discuss planning for 2025–2026. Work is also underway with the MSAP team on fourth-quarter reporting and with the Early Childhood team on the detailed budgeting and compliance components of the Early Start Grant.

Additionally, the team has been working with city auditors on deferred revenue associated with Board of Education revenue accounts, ensuring alignment with financial reporting standards.

Purchasing & Accounts Payable

The Purchasing and Accounts Payable team continues supporting departments and schools with procurement and payment processing. Updates from this area will be provided as new tasks are completed.

Capital

The Capital team continues to make strong progress on several key initiatives. They are actively collaborating with the State to finalize audit reviews for Jefferson and Ponus, ensuring all matters are clearly documented and resolved. A reimbursement request for the South Norwalk project has been submitted and is currently under State review. Additionally, as of October 15, the team has submitted six new HVAC funding requests to the State to support ongoing facility improvements related to the HVAC Grant.