August 26, 2005

Schools ready for first day
by Brian Woodman Jr. , Staff Writer

The grand opening of a new magnet school will help mark the opening of schools in Bloomfield on Aug. 31 at 44 Griffin Park Road South.

The town will present an official ribbon cutting at 8 a.m. that day for the Big Picture High School, which will serve students from Bloomfield, Canton, Granby, East Granby, Avon and Simsbury.

There will also be two new administrators to greet students during the opening of the school year, which will also feature changes to the student curriculum. Jill Naraine will open Laurel Elementary School as the new principal, replacing Diane Cloud. Patrick Milling, who used to be an assistant principal at Irving Robbins Middle School in Farmington, will begin as the vice principal of Carmen Arace Middle School.

"It used to be that people left Bloomfield to go somewhere else," said School Superintendent David Title, who added that projected total enrollment for the district would be slightly less than the 2,437 students reported last year.

Naraine, who served as an assistant principal at the Hartford Magnet School until accepting her current position, also worked at Carmen Arace Middle School as a vice principal in 2000. Cloud is now the director of elementary education for Bloomfield schools.

Title reported there were three new elective courses in social studies at Bloomfield High School with an updated curriculum and textbooks to meet new state standards. The courses address youth and the law, sociology and Caribbean studies, which Title said had been suggested following a survey of students.

The district will also offer a revised science curriculum at the elementary level, according to Title, that will emphasize practical application.

Cloud reported that the program, which is connected to national science standards, would offer students from grades kindergarten through four kits but not textbooks.

"We are purchasing supplemental non-fiction reading materials to complement the science program," she said.

She credited Karen Parks, the new director of secondary education, for her assistance.
"She was instrumental in writing the science curriculum," said Cloud regarding Parks, who was formerly the science coordinator at the high school.

"We have research-based development plans for teachers," she said. "We are kicking off the year with science and technology as the theme."

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