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08/17/2017 04:09 PMBranford's 2017-18 school year starts Monday, August 28, with a full day and a full week of school in store for the town's public school students. At the new school year's first full Board of Education (BOE) meeting on August 16, Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez said it's the second year in a row that the town starts school with a full day on a Monday and continues with full days all week. School will be closed on Monday, September 4 for Labor Day.
"I know that it could be difficult getting young children up, as well as high school students, on a Monday morning to go back to school after a very long summer; but it also provides a full week without interruption for us," said Hernandez.
To prepare for the new year, the district has staff development days set for August 23 and August 24.
Also, as the new school year gets underway, Branford police will be, "...out in force, to be sure traffic patterns are adhered to," said Hernandez.
Police traffic monitoring includes an emphasis in school speed limit zones.
Buses will be making practice runs through town next week, with a "three-tier" (all schools) dry run on August 24, said Hernandez. First Student Transportation's 2017-18 school bus route information, which provides assigned bus numbers and residential streets for each bus route, is available here
With all of the advance work underway, "I'm confident that we will have a very good opening," said Hernandez.
Branford High School (BHS, grades 9 - 12) bus route drivers will begin picking up students at 6:50 a.m. daily. BHS's full-day school session begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:25 p.m. daily. Branford students attending Walsh Intermediate School (WIS; grades 5 – 8) will begin boarding buses at 7:25 a.m., with school in session beginning at 8:05 a.m. and ending at 2:50 p.m. The town's three elementary schools (Tisko, Murphy and Sliney) will have bus route pick-ups starting at 8:10 a.m. The elementary schools are in session from 8:55 a.m. until 3:25 p.m. daily.
More district information including the school calendar, school delay times, and events such as Back to School Nights in September, can be found through the Branford Public Schools (BPS) portal here
In BPS facilities news, Hernandez shares the BHS outdoor running track, closed for resurfacing this summer, will be completed for the opening of the school year. The track is the final step in recent renovations to the James MacVeigh Athletic Complex's premiere, multi-use playing field, which had a new artificial turf field installed in 2016.
At WIS, the school's former Industrial Arts area will be closed for the 2017-18 school year, said Hernandez. The area will be the first to undergo alteration in June 2018, should the town continue on track with plans for the Next-Generation WIS building renovation project. At present, the entire school expansion/renovation project has a targeted 2020 completion.
WIS Next-Generation Project Update
During the first few weeks of the 2017-18 school year, parents and visitors to the town's three elementary schools, WIS and Branford's Blackstone Memorial Library will find display boards showing a "palette" representing nature-inspired colors and other elements for the WIS Next-Generation building's floor tiles, carpeting, and different furnishings, fixtures and lighting. The boards will reflect plans for each of the three floors of the planned school building, so that, "...people will start to get a feel for the layout of the building," said Hernandez.
On August 16, Hernandez also provided the BOE with the latest status update on awaited state funding for the $88.2 million project. The project, approved by Branford's Representative Town Meeting in 2016, is currently in the "construction document" stage and progressing through town planning approval channels; even as the state continues to wrestle with finalizing a state budget, he said. Without a new state budget, the State Bonding Commission won't convene to approve or deny Branford's June, 2016 request for about $30 million in state funding to help pay for the project.
"We are still waiting to hear from the state," said Hernandez, on August 16.
He added First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove remains optimistic Branford will receive state funding.
"Relative to the state, we are on the priority list," said Hernandez. "On [August 14] we had a very productive meeting with the [town] Building Commission; in which the First Selectman very clearly articulated that he is optimistic that we will get the funding; and if, for whatever reason, we don't get the funding, that there's reason for us to pause and to have a community discussion around the impact of that; and what the course of action would be. But certainly, there is no better time to build a school than today, because it will only become more and more expensive. But we remain optimistic with 'Plan A;' which is to get the funding."
To date, Branford Zoning Board of Appeals has granted a height variance allowing a three-story WIS school building on the school's current property at 185 Damascus Road. The project also has Inland Wetlands Commission approval and most recently, Planning and Zoning approval, received on July 27, for the town-submitted Special Exception-Intermediate School Application.