West Hartford Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Administration Andy Morrow says that much of the work on the school buildings, security systems, and much more was completed over the summer.

By Ronni Newton

There’s a lot of newness associated with the start of the school year, but this fall there are a number of changes which will have a major impact on students, parents, and staff throughout West Hartford Public Schools.

Assistant Superintendent of Administration Andy Morrow, the former Bristow Middle School principal who stepped into his new role when Tom Moore took over as superintendent on July 1, said that while the capital expenditure was no more than usual this summer, the volume of work was greater and it impacted many more buildings and individuals in the district.

Two of the most noticeable changes are the new West Hartford Public Schools website and the new badge access security system.

Each staff member and all of the security officers have coded ID badges with magnetic sensors that are used to access buildings. “They not only open the doors, but they register who is entering or exiting,” said Morrow.

The badge access also benefits outside groups that use the buildings, making access easier but also providing additional security and control because the administration and security staff can track the card used to enter a facility and control the hours that access is granted.

“Our schools are community buildings, and we used to need to provide groups with keys. Now we can get them a badge which limits their time so they can’t get in unless it’s their time,” Morrow said.

Parents and other visitors are limited to one area of access, and all of the elementary schools and middle schools have buzzers.

There were also numerous IT upgrades over the summer, most notably a brand new website for the district that was launched in late August.

“We hope it will be seen as a more user friendly approach,” said Morrow. The website is constructed so that it adapts to the device being used (computer, phone, tablet), and he is hopeful that it will make the job of communicating with parents much easier.

Information about all of the schools can be accessed through whps.org, and the appearance is consistent from school to school which Morrow hopes will benefit to users.

Other IT upgrades include rollout of 1,500 new devices, including iPads, Chromebooks, and laptops. “It’s an exciting amount of resources, and these tools are going right into the students’ hands,” said Morrow. The high schools are also piloting a program where students and parents can sign out laptops that have 4G to allow them to access the internet.

Over the summer 12 of the 16 school buildings also received some type of upgrade, ranging from replacement of flooring or carpeting to painting classrooms. Bathrooms at both high schools were renovated, and at Conard all of the rooms used by students and staff were made ADA (American Disability Act) compliant.

“There was a lot of work done to upgrade the cabinets, wash stations, and more in the science classrooms,” Morrow said. He credits Director of Plant and Facilities Bob Palmer for the outstanding effort getting the buildings ready for school which began on August 27. None of the cabinets in the older school buildings are standard size, and many items require custom orders.

“The construction period is less than 2 months long and it’s an incredible amount of work to be done in a short time period,” said Morrow.

“We had a great opening to the school year,” said Morrow, and he encourages parents to continue to be patient and conscious of safety as walkers and drivers continue to get used to new routines.

Initial enrollment figures presented to the Board of Education indicate 9,545 students enrolled on the first day of school, slightly lower than the 9,577 projected. There are 220 elementary school classes, also slightly lower than the originally-budgeted 223, but all are within the class size guidelines, Morrow said.

Bugbee Elementary School remains the “tightest” with space, but is also within the size guidelines and the crunch was somewhat eased by the conversion of a former locker room to a beautiful new classroom space, said Morrow.

Future exciting construction is on the horizon, he said, with “shovels in the ground in January” when work begins on the new Charter Oak International Academy building.