It is Monday, February 11, 2013 and we just announced that Naugatuck Public Schools would remain closed tomorrow.  In all likelihood the schools will remain closed on Wednesday as well.  Closings of schools resulting from large winter storms are sources of frustration, not to mention, added expenses for many people and the Board of Education.  Uncertainty about when schools will resume makes planning difficult for everyone involved.  Many considerations...

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I was pleased to be able to attend recently a seminar conducted by Alan November, who is one of the leading experts on educational technology.  With me were high school students Siddhant Shah and Michael Martins, Assistant Superintendent Brigitte Crispino, and principals Jan Saam, Chris Montini, Brian Hendrickson, and Taran Gruber.  Alan November wanted high school students present to lend their perspectives.  Siddhant and Michael made excellent contributions and we appreciated...

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The letters on the front of the building at 111 8th Avenue read, “New York Port Authority.”  The building rises up 15 stories.  Inside is a typical maze of corridors, elevators, offices, meeting rooms, and three large cafeterias.  From the outside little gives away that 3000 Google employees work there.  They also work in the nondescript building across the street.  Altogether they amount to a small portion of what has become a massive global digital enterprise...

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Naugatuck High School was built in 1959.  An addition was completed in 1976.  Not coincidentally, the 1950’s was the greatest period of school construction in the history of America as the post-WWII baby boomers arrived.  The children of those boomers arrived about twenty years later in the 1970’s. Naugatuck High School is a massive series of buildings that add up to 301,150 square feet.  While the facility has held up well, with some of it being more than one-half...

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China has been called a sleeping giant - a rapidly urbanizing, industrial superpower with the world's largest population.  English, the language of the Internet, is a required subject in all schools.  Consequently, there are more English speaking people in China than in the United States.  There are so many students that for every American student in the top 10% of their graduating class, there are 10 in China.  China has 10 cities larger than the largest city in the U.S. ...

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Clayton Christensen is a Harvard researcher who has studied businesses for more than twenty years.  Specifically, he has analyzed how innovations have disrupted established industries, like automobile, steel, and computers, to name a few.  His research allows him to predict what might happen when an innovation threatens to disrupt an enterprise.  A few years ago he turned his lens on public education.  He looked at how the innovation of the Internet might disrupt schools. ...

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            As we approach the eleventh anniversary of September 11th, it is hard not to reflect on how our world changed that day.  I was in a school at the time.  I remember watching the horrifying images on television and then going to talk to the students about it.  Since then, we have made many changes in our school systems to ensure that they continue to be safe.             Naugatuck’s...

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Greetings,  It is with much anticipation and excitement that I write to tell you about preparations for this school year and improvements in our schools.  As with every summer, the custodians and maintenance staff have been working hard to give the schools a good cleaning, repair and upgrade items that need it, get the grounds looking nice, and get ready for a new school year.  While this is always a lot of work, it was especially challenging at Hillside Intermediate School where,...

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