Avon School Superintendent Shares Year's Milestones

The following letter is from Avon Superintendent Gary S. Mala.

Dear Parents, Staff and Concerned Citizens:

I hope this message finds you well and enjoying the last part of this school year. My hope is that the month of June is filled with much joy and happiness as we celebrate the accomplishments of your children. I am grateful to have witnessed such extraordinary student and staff efforts.

Let me begin by thanking you for your patience as we managed the myriad of challenges that are encountered in any school year. I believe wholeheartedly that we have not only met these challenges but did so in a way that has made us stronger and more productive as one community. In the midst of the work we embarked upon this year, we again bore witness to extraordinary accomplishments by students at each school.

Working together, we have accomplished much which will allow us to continue our efforts to be recognized as a district that fosters innovation, creativity, ingenuity and academic excellence in all students. We have rightly earned our fine reputation as a school district and will continue to advance ourselves to even higher levels of achievement and innovation.

As I begin to reflect upon the year’s work, I would like to point out some of the milestones we’ve accomplished because of the support of the entire community of Avon:

• We implemented full day kindergarten and are now serving as a model for area school districts that are considering adding this program in their schools.

• We implemented Spanish instruction in grades kindergarten through 6 and have plans to establish multi-lingual environments in our elementary schools by adding Chinese culture and language instruction during the 2014-2015 school year.

• We have successfully participated in a review of our high school by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and have been provided with recommendations to guide our work in the immediate future.

• We have continued with our established plan to incrementally secure the most current technologies to enhance excellent classroom instruction.

• We have fully implemented a sequential, comprehensive curriculum revision process that has gained national attention by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

• We have successfully navigated the change to a newly mandated form of state-wide standardized assessment.

• We have successfully implemented revised plans to evaluate all staff as mandated by State law.

• We have expanded the program of studies at Avon High School and provided student access to advanced, state of the art technology in the Applied Education and World Language departments.

• We have created and implemented multiple opportunities to engage teacher leaders.

• We have fully implemented our commitment to providing meaningful professional development for all staff groups.

• We have fully implemented a healthy foods initiative that reduces and/or eliminates the use of processed foods in our school lunch program and have offered a school breakfast program at both the middle school and high school.

• We have completed many capital projects to improve the condition of our schools with plans to further implement our incremental plan to improve our learning environments for students.

• We have increased the frequency of providing you with meaningful communication about your schools.

While this list is not meant to be inclusive of all that has been accomplished so far this year, it does provide a summary of major accomplishments that make our school district better. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the continued commitment and dedication of our district’s staff, students and parents working in cooperation with each other. For this, I thank you.

In keeping with what was implemented last year and in our commitment to better serve you and your children, we will continue to provide parents of secondary level students (AHS & AMS) access to their child’s schedule for the 2014-2015 school year beginning next week via the Power School portal. Parents of students enrolled in our elementary schools will receive information specifying class assignments for the next school year on or before the last day of school. As with any year, there may be vacancies existing at the time notifications are received. In these cases, the assignment will be noted as “to be determined.

”It goes without saying that meeting the challenge of such an aggressive agenda requires the participation of many and the support of a common purpose. Just as we continue to take every opportunity to thank those who serve in the armed forces and our first responders in our local law enforcement, fire and emergency management offices, I ask you to join me in extending a sincere “thank you” to those who serve our children in our schools.

As you well know, the staff who work directly with students each day are the single most important factor in achieving the mission we advance in our schools.

Thank you all for your continued support and thank you for the privilege of serving you and your children.

Enjoy a great week.

Very truly yours,

Gary S. Mala
Superintendent of SchoolsAvon Public Schools
gmala@avon.k12.ct.us