Reorganization Brings Administrative Changes to Elementary Schools

Changes are afoot at Windsor's elementary schools — changes that will affect those from the bottom up, including administrators.

A significant shuffle will take place among the leaders of Windsor's elementary schools. Rhonda Lezberg, current principal of Roger Wolcott Early Childhood Center (which will be closed after the current school year) will become the principal at Oliver Ellsworth School, replacing Patricia Phelan, who will be heading over to take the helm at John F. Kennedy. 

Current JFK Principal Tangular Irby will take a position for the district working on the social studies curriculum.

R.J. Sullivan and Michelle Jones will remain principals of Poquonock and Clover Street, respectively.

What the school district will look like once the reorganization of elementary schools and implementation of full-day kindergarten has begun to take shape, as Windsor teachers have received their preliminary teaching assignments, but they will not have their final placements established for some time to come, according to Dr. Craig Cooke, director of human resources for Windsor Public Schools.

"We're giving teachers a tentative placement for next year," he said, adding that teachers have been given "an idea of the school and grade and level [at which they will teach]."

Basing assignments on information gathered in a survey of teachers, district needs, expertise, building familiarity and knowledge of subject area, human resources is attempting keep grade levels balanced while putting them in the best positions for success.

The district is, however, faced with some unique challenges come the 2012-13 school year, particularly with regards to staffing.

The number of kindergarten teachers in the district will increase, as school days are being lengthened and classes will be held in two schools instead of one next year.

"We anticipate having the need for 13 kindergarten teachers next year, so that means that seven teachers would be new to kindergarten in Windsor," said Cooke. "Full-day kindergarten is a much different scenario than half days."

But district estimates of teachers needed and placements are just that — estimates.

According to Cooke, "All this may change because we may have retirements and resignations. In fact, retirements and resignations, in addition to budget season, will reveal how the staff presentation ends up looking.

Lisa Bress, first vice president of the Windsor Education Association echoed Cooke's statement, noting that resignations and retirements that have yet to be filed will changed the ball game. "The tentativeness (of delivering assignments) is a result of that," she said. Nevertheless, teachers seem pleased, according to Bress. 

"We feel that we were really involved and heard in this process," she said. "We were in discussions with human resources and Dr. Perlini for a long time. Teachers felt that they had a really good say."

"The regular budget process will answer a lot of the questions, like every year," said Cooke, "but, we're ahead of the time we would typically be. We never let teachers know in October [what next year's assignments will be]," he said. Notably, with a loss of $600,000 in federal money, Windsor will be beginning its budget season short of funding.  "If we did nothing," said Cooke, "we would be $600,000 short."

Cooke and other Windsor leaders expect to find savings to close that gap through the closing of Roger Wolcott in the form of utility bills, but also the decreased need for certain clerical and custodial positions.

Savings associated with closing Wolcott are estimated to be at least $325,000 in the first year, and between $325,000 and $425,000 on an annual basis.
But while there is a significant amount of change to make up for next spring, teachers not having received their official assignments yet is no cause for concern, according to Bress. 

"There's no sense of uncertainty," she said, while admitting that teachers don't usually find out about possible position eliminations around this time of the year.
"From our point of view," she said, "the transition has been an inclusive process, and the next thing we will be looking out for is the budget process, how the positions fall out in each school, the distribution of materials and starting to form a learning community."