Consolidated School District Of New Britain Welcomes Back Staff
By Editor at August 25, 2023 | 6:00 pm | Print
With over 1,300 staff members in attendance in the Vincent Sala Auditorium at New Britain High School, Nancy Sarra took the stage for her first Convocation as Superintendent and kicked things off for the 2016-2017 school year.
Sarra, who talked about developing the whole child, stressed the importance of high standards and holding students accountable. However, she also talked about the need for social and emotional wellness in every classroom throughout New Britain.
“With the inception of No Child Left behind, our nation seems to have left behind the idea that educating the whole child was not the most expeditious route for academic excellence. Single metrics or standardized measures would define a teacher’s success, a school’s success, a district’s success. We have been living under that umbrella for the last ten years. We replaced teaching students how to share, how to respect others for how quickly we could get all students to access foundational reading skills, followed by rigorous comprehension where students need to be able to close read and analyze text.”
Sarra continued to say that everyone must pursue excellence for all students while understanding that the needs of all students in New Britain are diverse.
“Our challenge is to engage our students, to find a balance of explicitly teaching our students those habits of mind and aspects of character as a standard classroom practice so that our students will meet with academic excellence. This is our first step in our journey to excellence.”
Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, president of the New Britain Board of Education, quoted the philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who said that every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
“We have had a lot of new beginnings over the last four years. New leaders have both come and gone and during that time, staff have been asked to adjust to new people, new philosophies and new styles of doing business. It seems as though we were engaged in perpetual change. Not that change is bad – as long as we all understand why we are being asked to change and where we are heading in this journey. I believe we have finally discovered the calm after the storm.”
Paul Salina, Assistant Superintendent, recognized Daniel Flores as the 2015-2016 Paraeducator of the Year and Evelyn Hudyma, 2014-2015 Teacher of the Year, passed the torch to Jessica Leon, 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year.
“I am truly honored and humbled to be named the 2016 Teacher of the Year for New Britain,” Leon said in her speech to CSDNB staff. “While many at times discount us and look down on us, this district and the New Britain community is known as the city that is the best at getting better. 20 years ago, I had to make a choice between three different school districts and I chose New Britain because I always knew that there was something very special about this city.”
New Britain was recently named an All-America City by the National Civic League and staff were shown the award-winning presentation that was put on in Denver. Erin Stewart, Mayor of New Britain, spoke about the need to come together as a city to help make things possible.
Paula Gilberto, Vice-President of Community Services of United Way, spoke about how the power of collaboration and partnership is only made possible by the many organizations and individuals that come together to support positive and lasting community impact.
The keynote speaker was Nelba Marquez-Greene, the mother of Ana Grace, who passed away in the Sandy Hook tragedy. Marquez-Greene began the Ana Grace Project shortly after the tragedy and has since made it her mission to speak to others about love, compassion and how to understand the inner workings of a child. She spoke of how each child is different and it is the teacher’s job to find out how to best reach that child before it is too late.
Various student groups were represented throughout the program. The New Britain High School Marching Band performed for staff as they arrived. The Holmes School Select Choir along with the NBHS Madrigal Singers opened the program with the National Anthem. The NBHS JROTC presented the colors. Following that, the Vance Village Kindergarten Dancers performed a dance rendition of Uptown Funk. The brand new Student Ambassador Program, under the direction of Leona Clerkin, was prominently featured with student participation, including Dylan Washington, who was Master of Ceremonies.
Following Convocation, all staff headed back to their respective buildings to begin preparing for the first day of school on August 29.
