The intercom blared out Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” mascot Spark the Eagle flapped his wings in welcome and Principal Lauren Valentino smiled broadly as she greeted students Monday, the first day of school at Botelle Elementary.
“I am so excited for this year,” Valentino said as the students disappeared into their classrooms.
Moments later, she was on the office intercom, asking the children how they felt—anxious, excited, happy, worried? “All emotions matter,” she told them, and invited them all to close their eyes, pause and take a deep breath.
“We do a lot of breathing around here,” she said, turning away from the microphone. “We use the RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing and Regulating emotions) approach to social/emotional learning.”
Social/emotional learning is a major emphasis in regional schools, helping children to understand themselves and to empathize with others.
Valentino said there are few changes this year. “We are very consistent in our student body and our staff,” she said, explaining that the school lost four students to graduation last spring and admitted a kindergarten with five members this fall. “We have 59 students, up from 56 last year,” she said. Three of the students recently moved to town.
The school solves the problem of small cohorts—this year’s fifth grade has only four—by combining grades into multi-age classrooms. As one group of students moves up to a higher grade, they are replaced by younger ones. “They have the same teacher for two years, but each year they have a new group of peers,” Valentino said.
Class sizes range from 13 to 17 students.
There are four classroom teachers, supplemented by paraprofessionals, specialists and teachers who come to the school on different days for programs such as art, music and physical education. There were no staffing changes this year.
Cellphones in the classroom are of increasing concern to educators and on August 21, Governor Ned Lamont offered new recommendations for school districts, suggesting that schools collect the phones at the beginning of the day and return them when school is over. The state Board of Education approved the guidelines last week. Valentino said Botelle is ahead of the curve on this issue and already has a strict school policy: use is not allowed in school or on the bus.
“They can have their phones in their backpacks, but if they are seen using them, they are confiscated and the parents have to come pick up the phones,” she said.
It is a rule not easy to enforce and some parents are not wholly in favor of it. “Some parents feel a certain sense of security in being able to reach their children,” she explained. “But they can always call the office.”
The kids are now back in the classroom, but the PTO will give them one last, lingering look at summer fun tonight (Friday) when it hosts its annual ice cream social on the Botelle playground from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
To keep abreast of happenings at Botelle, be sure to visit our dedicated webpage on norfolkct.org.