Wallingford Goes Back to School Today

School starts today in Wallingford and the district has several new administrators in place in the district schools for 2012-2013.

At Moran Middle School Joseph Piacentini, a former assistant principal from Wolcott, is the new principal.

Meanwhile, Moran’s assistant principal, Richard Napoli, was named the new principal of Parker Farms Elementary School. Other new staff at that school this year fifth-grade teacher Ashly Hosmer and Brittany French will join the staff there as a special education teacher from Yalesville. The new student intern at Parker Farms will be Atalia Conroy, from Quinnipiac University.

At Cook Hill Elementary School, Carol Mikulski and Cyndi Fries will share the administrative duties there this year because the school’s principal, Jan Murphy, has stepped down for a one-year sabbatical to become a member of the 21st Century Innovation Team. The team is charged with researching and implementing an innovative idea that will allow the district to move forward with providing cutting edge skills to better prepare students to learn.

School Superintendent Dr. Salvatore F. Menzo said those administrative shifts mark the biggest changes this year

“We were very lucky that we had such quality staff to move into those positions,” Menzo said.

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District staff this year also will focus on new “common core” teaching standards set by the state in English, language arts and math.

Under that initiative the district has developed new curriculum units this summer that teachers will be implementing in the classroom.

“That’s been our most significant focus this year,” he said.

For a list of bus routes for Wallingford in 2012 you can click here.

To see the school calendar for 2012, click here.