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At the elementary level, there will be brand new classrooms in two annexes that were built over the summer, one at Roger Sherman and one at Osborn Hill Elementary Schools. At the high school level, there will be a new Headmaster and a new Housemaster.
Students returning to Fairfield Ludlowe High School will find a new face in interim headmaster, David Ebling. He will temporarily fill the shoes left empty by Nancy Larsen's retirement.
Ebling is not new to Fairfield, having been Housemaster, since the 1995-1996 school year, of Fitts House in Fairfield Warde High School across town. Prior to that, Ebling was Chair of the History Department at private Notre Dame High School in Fairfield as well as a social studies teacher there.
Bruce Lippman will take over Ebling's job, becoming interim House Master of Fitts.
Lippman is coming out of a retirement that followed a 34-year career in education.
He was previously House Principal and Chair of the English Department at Trumbull High School.
New Annexes
Students and teachers are excited about the new annexes at both Roger Sherman and Osborn Hill Elementary Schools.
"I feel just so lucky. I walked into my classroom and everything was brand new. My kids are going to be very excited. They've gone by on their skateboards and their bikes, but they haven't been inside yet," said fifth-grade teacher Karen Morse as she was getting her classroom ready a week ago.
Morse said that last year she taught in a portable at the end of a row of portables and when the weather was really cold, her class had to move into the library until midday, while the portable heated up to a livable temperature.
Morse was impressed with how quickly the new annex was built - just two and a half months.
It started last Memorial Day when materials used for the classes in the portables, were moved into the main building over the holiday weekend. For the month of June, classes were held in the library at both schools, also in the gym at Sherman, and in the music and art rooms at Osborn Hill. Music and art were taught from a cart for the remainder of the school year at Osborn. Music was already taught from a cart at Sherman.
Osborn Principal Alan Lipman said the portables had to be moved before the end of the school year so that the foundation could be dug.
Both annexes arrived pre-built. One came in twelve sections, the other in 14 (Sherman). They were brought in from Indiana with walls, ceiling, floors, sinks, cabinets, wiring, ducts for air conditioning and heating already in place, according to Sal Morabito, Manager of Construction, Safety and Security for Fairfield Public Schools. Every room is fully sprinklered and is also connected to the sound and security systems for the main school. Each annex has one tiled bathroom for girls, one for boys, and one for faculty, as well as a janitor's closet with a sink.
That's a huge improvement over having to go out into the rain or snow to go to the bathroom in the main building, as children and teachers did before.
The new annexes are not connected to the main buildings - doing so would have meant costly upgrades to bring the main buildings up to current building codes - but there are overhangs at both schools so that children and teachers won't be rained or snowed on when going from one building to another, as they go to lunch, gym, art, music, library, and the like.
The outsides of the annexes are brick, but under that, there are metal studs and fiberboard with a moisture barrier. There is a crawl space underneath, Morabito said.
Since each annex replaces portables that were used as classrooms, there is only one extra classroom gained at each school. At Sherman, the six new classrooms mean that the school will finally have a music room, instead of having music on a cart. At Osborn Hill, the five new classrooms give the school one more classroom than previously. Principal Alan Lipman said the population this school this year is about twenty over projection at 549, so the school has also gained a class of students who will immediately fill that extra room.
At Osborn Hill, 4 fifth-grades and 1 fourth-grade will occupy the new classrooms; at Sherman, the new classrooms will be used by 4 fifth-grades and 2 fourth- grades; Principal Lipman said that at Osborn Hill one of the fifth-grade classrooms would be a science room, because, unlike other schools, the fifth grades there move between four different teachers, the others being social studies, math and language arts, just as middle school students do.
Principal of Sherman, Eileen Roxbee pointed out that each child will have his or her own locker located in the hallway. "The parents were adamant about that," said Roxbee, noting that this is, after all, New England, where coats and foul weather gear are standard.
"I'm sure the children will be excited," said Lipman noting that they were excited last year just knowing that they were getting new classrooms.
Appropriations for the annexes were $1.65 million for Osborn Hill and $1.8 million for Sherman, according to Bonnie McWain, Director of Finance for the school system, who added that she doesn't have the final costs yet. Bonding was previously approved by the Boards of Selectmen, Finance and the Representative Town Meeting.
A nearly flat budget this year means that there are no big new programs for 2009- 2010. However, there are, as always, some new initiatives in curriculum.
Sixth grade social studies teachers worked together last year to write a new curriculum on ancient civilizations, according to Gary Rosato, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. Sixth-graders will have a new textbook to go along with it.
The new curriculum went through a thorough vetting process, getting approval from a parent focus group, a board of education sub-committee, and administrators, as all substantially revised curriculums do, Rosato said.
World Language students will continue to make greater use of language labs, Rosato said. Students will use laptops on a cart that can be wheeled into each classroom. Each cart has 25 to 30 computers and each high school has three of these carts; each middle school has one. Students can also log on from their home computer and can talk to someone on the Internet who speaks the language they are studying. "Kids love it," Rosato said.
