Dear FPS Community,

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the warm weather of early October.  I have had far more opportunities to be in schools these past few weeks than I had all of last year.  It is truly a joy to see our students and teachers engaged in learning.  It is a valuable reminder of our mission as a school system.

The goal of this monthly newsletter is to provide you with a view into the many good things happening throughout Fairfield Public Schools.  We will shine a spotlight on the contributions and successes of our students and staff.  And we will provide updates on district news.  We will continue to use the district website and emails for information that is more time-sensitive.

Highlighting the great work of our students, schools, and the district will help all of us stay focused on the mission of our school system.  Over the past 20 months, we have been caught up in the necessary attention to the pandemic.  While this remains an issue, our ability to return to school full time, supported by our students, their families, and our staff, enable us to now look forward and engage in the work of continual improvement.

As an example, we are in the process of developing our next five year District Improvement Plan (DIP - yes, an unfortunate acronym).  This work originally began in 2019 but was halted due to the pandemic.  We re-engaged in our planning last spring.  A steering committee of parents and staff is currently crafting a draft plan to be shared with the entire Fairfield community for feedback. That feedback will inform the final draft DIP presented to the Board of Education for consideration and adoption in late spring, 2022.  

As the work continues, we will seek additional volunteers for input and ideas.  We will look beyond those of us immediately connected to the schools and engage other members of the community.  For the plan to be successful all stakeholders must be engaged in the process.

We also know that the plan’s success rests on a realistic set of goals and action steps.  In reviewing past DIPs the committee identified taking on too many goals and supporting actions, while not identifying the required resources.  This is a misstep we want to avoid.  There are many things we would like to do but there are only a few things we can do well.  We are eager to engage with you and hear your thoughts.

I will continue to update you on our progress.

Take care and be well,
Mike