The students and staff of the Windsor Locks Public Schools experienced a fantastic start to the 2014-2015 school year! Lots of happy faces, ready for the challenges of this year.

Below is a link to an article from the Journal Inquirer (8.26.14) highlighting what's new and continuing in our public schools this year.

There’s no such thing as an ‘F’: WL school launch new initiatives
By Harlan Levy Journal Inquirer | Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 12:04 pm

WINDSOR LOCKS — The new school year began today with 1,688 students, or eight more than last year.
North Street has 438 students; South Elementary, 382; the middle school, 368, and the high school, 500.
The biggest change this year is that fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade report cards will no longer have letter grades. The new report cards, pioneered last year with the sixth grade, are a key aspect of the competency-based individualized education system, inaugurated most noticeably last year.
Students now will be marked ES, MS, PS, and LP — for “exceeding standards,” “meeting standards,” “progressing toward standards,” and “limited progress.” They will also get comments on their work habits and how much they’ve learned.
The new report cards will expand by a grade level each year with all grades using them in 2019-20. Starting with this year’s seventh-graders, the Class of 2020, seniors will be required to receive at least “MS” grades to graduate, no matter how many extra classes this takes. Now, students graduate when they’ve earned 24 credits, regardless of grade average.
Superintendent Susie Bell said that the competency-based system helped Windsor Locks move out of the group of the 30 lowest-performing school systems, identified from the 2011-12 school year. The schools will still receive the full five years of extra state funding to boost performance — which began two years ago. This year the district received $622,417 with two fiscal years to go.
New and expanded programs
Several new or expanded programs debut this year:
• Pine Meadow Academy, a new program for 30 high school students who have specific interests they want to pursue or who haven’t been successful in the traditional high school. They will receive a combination of online and classroom instruction from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“This is a brand-new space and a new structure and philosophy,” Bell said. The program is located at the middle school.
• Two new preschool classrooms. North Street received a $107,000 state grant for one classroom, and the Board of Education approved an additional teacher for the other classroom. Plans are for half-day preschool for 106 3- and 4-year-olds, the largest group the system has hosted, 38 more, or 56 percent, than last year.
• Realizing Individual Skills and Expertise: For five 18- to 21-year-old students requiring special services.
• Extended Day/Extended Year: Last year the program for after-school instruction and summer school provided support for a maximum of 30 students per building (extended day) for six-, eight-, and 10-week cycles and three teachers per building. Summer school was four weeks for 37 children from North Street, 27 from South, 33 from the middle school, and 28 high-schoolers. Some of the $622,417 in state funding will allow for more students in both programs. Also, in collaboration with the Windsor Locks Teachers Association, teachers may provide extended-day support.
• Saturday Academy: Last year there were 20 Saturday classes from 8 a.m. to noon. Some of the $622,417 will allow for 30 Saturday classes.
• New website and new student data system: The data system, Powerschool, includes an online grading system, Bell said, so teachers can do standards-based grade reporting.
“Eventually parents will be able to view their child’s progress and see that a student not only received, say, a B on a quiz, but also how well the student was progressing toward the required standard.”
• Running Start: This in-depth orientation program ran from Aug. 11-20 for 87 students entering transition grades — 38 entering kindergarten, 11 entering third grade, 26 entering sixth grade, and 12 entering ninth grade. “It gave them the opportunity to get to school early and improve their chances for success right off the bat,” Bell said.