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Schools

Board of Education Opens the Lines of Communication as Holidays Approach

Board of Ed talks early childhood education, 'Bullies to Buddies' and soliciting opinions from the community on the budget.

The November 17 meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education (BOE) touched on a host of agenda items, including a new feature on the school website for residents to ask questions about the budget, the rundown of a new preschool program to identify young students' strengths and deficiencies and an update on class sizes in the town's schools.

Center Elementary School (CES) Principal Carrie Killian made a PowerPoint presentation titled "Differentiation," which covered a variety of methods in which to discover and reinforce the skills children have and need to gain an advantage in their oncoming school careers. The presentation outlined how young students are taught to use small, coordinated muscle movements to develop their physical skills and to build and construct projects to develop their own ideas. The program touches upon their creativity in pretend play and participating in teacher-led activities to develop cognitive skills.

The program also aids in the development of their personal, social and decision-making skills by interacting cooperatively with other children. It lasts for two and a half hours each day with 22 children in each class. Killian explained that it is an excellent way to spot children's hidden talents.

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"Intervening at the earliest age is the most important thing," added Brookfield Superintendent Anthony Bivona, as members of the board tossed questions at Killian, who stressed the importance of developing learning skills of the young students to gain an advantage in years to come.

Superintendent Bivona gave an update on the "Bullies to Buddies" program recently presented along with a tour for parents at Whisconier Middle School (WMS). He was impressed with the tour and subsequent meeting and interaction between parents, students and teachers, and how important it is for students progressing from elementary to middle school that are often the most vulnerable to bullying. He also announced that a Bullying/Cyber Safety feature is being added to the Brookfield schools web site for easily accessible information for students and parents.

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Assistant Superintendent Dr. Genie Slone reported that the class sizes at Huckleberry Hill School (HHES), WMS and Brookfield High School (BHS) are between 19 and 20 students, on average, with the middle school higher by only a student or two on average. She explained that the class sizes vary depending on the subject and type of class, and that the target number is 20 students per class.

"All of these numbers are within our class size guidelines," Dr. Slone said, noting that there has been a great rise in the number of students, participating in the music program at the middle school, with 188 students now enrolled in chorus and band, much more than in years past.

Board of Education (BOE) Chairman Mike Fenton reported that the first "Budget Roundtable" took place this past week, which is an impromptu meeting of administrators, teachers, parents and residents. He stated that while there are frequent differences of opinion expressed, particularly with the way educational funds are spent, the input and questions received at the meeting are highly valuable.

Also concerning the 2011 budget, which will be presented to taxpayers in spring of next year, the BOE is instituting a "Budget Question of the Meeting" for each meeting, in which residents are invited to email a question to the board before, during or after each meeting as a way to invite participation.

For Wednesday's meeting, the board chose their own question to kick it off, using "" as a subject to discuss, regarding the need to pay to participate in school sports programs.

"It's a difficult practice for me to be comfortable with," replied BOE member Ray DiStephan, referring to the recent need to require students to bare the financial load to play competitive sports and join co-curricular activities. Board members did acknowledge that Brookfield has tried to make it as affordable as possible for students and their parents.

The "Budget Question of the Meeting" will be posted on the Brookfield Schools web site through the "Contact Us" page and a record of the questions and responses will be archived for future reference as the budget season approaches.

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