Ready for Opening Day

By Matthew O’Connell

Botelle School is clean, refreshed and ready for the opening of school on Thursday, August 27. Thanks are due to our custodians and to our office staff. In addition, our new entryway and office remodeling project is quickly drawing to a close.

We have several new staff members this year. Our new 4th grade teacher is Rachael Juliano. She joins us most recently from having served as a long-term substitute in New Hartford. Our new special education resource room teacher, Darcie McIntyre, brings eight years of experience in the Naugatuck Public Schools. Our new PK teacher is Terry Moscaritolo. She is a retired educator with nine years’ experience teaching kindergarten and four years teaching first grade for the Winchester Public Schools. Our new tech support person, Dom Kolosky, operates his own IT support business. Our interim fiscal administrator continues to be Lisa Jones, who has served in a variety of financial services roles in both the Southington and Waterbury school districts.

Since the owners of Whalen Transportation retired at the end of the last school year, we have contracted with All-Star Transportation to provide bus services to our students. We are working closely with them to ensure a smooth first day. This year all school delays—for example, for bad weather—will be two-hour delays.

Superintendent Mary Beth Iacobelli will hold an informational session on the proposed Norfolk/Colebrook regionalization on Monday, September 14, at 7 p.m. at Botelle School in the Hall of Flags. Open House will be held on the evening of Wednesday, September 16.

Finally, the school will soon receive 20 new iPads to join the 20 we have been using to support our curriculum. The entire staff is looking forward to another great year of growth and learning!

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