West Hartford Public Schools teachers begin the 2025-2026 academic year on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, and all students return to buildings on Aug. 27.

By Ronni Newton

The 2025-2026 school year is about to begin, and West Hartford Superintendent of Schools Paul Vicinus is eagerly anticipating what he believes is going to be a great year for the roughly 9,100 public school students in the district.

“It’s shaping up to be a very positive year,” he said in an interview Friday afternoon, with the momentum of great outcomes in student achievement, minimal changes in leadership, and a great new group of teachers joining the district. The academic year begins for teachers with convocation on Monday, Aug. 25, and students return to classrooms on Wednesday.

Administration, staffing, and enrollment 

While there was significant change in administration prior to the start of the last school year, including 11 new assistant principals named due to a restructuring that eliminated the curriculum specialist role, for 2025-2026, there are just two new principals and two new assistant principals among the district’s 16 schools.

Anthony Dávila was named principal of Webster Hill Elementary School in June, and at Aiken, Christine Mori is now the principal. Both of their predecessors – Melissa Behrens and Shannon Mldozinski – have moved to central office positions.

Mlodzinski is now the executive director of Human Resources, taking over that position from Julio Duarte who is now assistant superintendent for Administration following the retirement of Andy Morrow.

Webster Hill was led by Maureen Lantner on an interim basis during the past school year, after Behrens was named director of Elementary Education.

New assistant principals are Danielle Ewing at Norfeldt Elementary School and Brian Olsen at Charter Oak International Academy.

“We welcomed 50 at our new teacher orientation program,” Vicinus said, and a few more new teachers had officially been hired by the Friday afternoon. He said that he anticipates finalizing the hiring of about 60 new teachers overall by the time school begins – a mix of new career teachers as well as teachers coming from other districts, some of whom previously taught in West Hartford.

“We don’t have any significant shortages to start the year, so I am very happy,” he said. While it has often been challenging to hire paraprofessionals, especially in the special education discipline where there is a great need, West Hartford is in good shape to start the school year.

West Hartford’s Teacher in Residence program, which is a two-year alternate route to certification, currently has two people enrolled in the second year and two new participants in the first year of the program. “All four of those folks are in special ed. There were some great candidates among the paraprofessionals this year,” said Vicinus. One of the new teachers hired this year came from the Teacher in Residence program.

For the 2024-2025 school year there was a change in kindergarten eligibility, requiring students to be 5 years old by Sept. 1 in order to enroll. The resulting change was a smaller cohort entering as kindergartners last year. This year the number of kindergartners has returned to more “normal” levels, but the first grade class is smaller, and that cohort will continue to be smaller as they cycle through the schools.

Heading into the first day of school, the district’s total K-12 enrollment is 8,588, Vicinus said, with 3,855 in K-5, 2,008 in grades 6-8, and 2,694 in grades 9-12. There are also 300 Pre-K students, and roughly 250 more including students who are in the post-secondary program, REACH, STRIVE, and outplacements.

“We did see some enrollment increases that caused us to break sections across several schools in the district,” Vicinus said. More details about class sizes and enrollment will be provided at the Sept. 2 Board of Education meeting, and enrollment figures will be finalized in October.

Charter Oak will add a new classroom this year as part of the Intensive Academic (IA) educational program for special education students. IA programs already exist at Duffy, Norfeldt, Whiting Lane,and Wolcott.

Vicinus said a welcome celebration/meet-and-greet for Open Choice students was held recently at Parkville Market with about 35 families and 50 people in all participating, mostly those who are new to the district. The Open Choice students were given backpacks full of supplies.

Prior to the start of school, incoming high school students will complete orientation with the assistance of the student-led Link Crew teams, and middle school students will engage in orientation through WEB leaders.

Construction

The most significant construction project – the installation of a completely new HVAC system at Duffy Elementary School – has been completed and passed inspection last week. “We are very excited for that,” Vicinus said.

Work at Duffy, which opened in 1952, commenced in the summer of 2024, following years of planning and discussion about the long-awaited elementary school air quality improvement and air conditioning installation project. Duffy, which is two stories, was from the beginning deemed the “most critical” and first in line for the upgrade.

Webster Hill Elementary School, which opened in 1949, will be less complicated because the school has mechanical tunnels underneath the building and doesn’t have a second story. Work on the air quality improvement and air conditioning installation at Webster Hill can begin this fall, while students are in the building, but the majority of the work will take place next summer.

King Philip Middle School “got a facelift of the front entrance and has had security enhancements put in,” Vicinus said. That work is about 95% complete, he said.

An ongoing front entrance update and construction of a new bus loop at Wolcott Elementary School is still in progress, and while some work will be ongoing after school begins, the bulk of the work is complete.

Duarte said there will be greeters at both King Philip and Wolcott so families know where students are able to enter the buildings. These two projects are the culmination of a decade-long plan to upgrade security at the entrances of all of the district’s schools.

All schools have now been upgraded to the “Informacast” system which combines flashing lights as well as announcements in the event of a fire, lockdown, or other incident or drill.

At Hall, “the new cafeteria is in the final stages and looks beautiful,” Vicinus said. The final touches are being completed and the cafeteria will be ready for use by students next week.

Much of the other construction work that took place over the summer is standard updating like painting, and replacement of flooring and roofs.

Nutrition services

“Reduced lunch” returns for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when federal funding initially provided free breakfasts and lunch to all students, and last year provided free breakfast and lunch to those who qualified for “free or reduced lunch.”

For 2025-2026, breakfast remains free to all qualifiers, but some students will pay a reduced price – which is less than 50 cents  – for their lunch.

More information and guidelines can be found online as well as on the PDF below, and the application for free and reduced lunch is available online.

Transportation and safety

Drivers should be aware that school buses will be returning to the roads, and students will also be walking and being dropped off at school. Many crosswalks in school zones now have Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) as well as crossing guards, and there are also multiple new raised crosswalks to enhance safety.

Duarte is hopeful that things will run smoothly with the district’s buses as drivers become familiar with new routes. “I met with the transportation folks from First Student, and they were very optimistic,” Duarte said. First Student has recently adopted a new contract for drivers, with much more favorable terms, he added.

He also urged parents of students who take the bus to “sign up for the alert system.” The system, FirstView, uses GPS to track the exact location of the child’s bus.

Curriculum

“We’re very, very excited about a grant in support of student engagement and attendance,” Vicinus said. The “Effective School Solutions” grant will provide extra support for middle school students.

Hall High School has been invited by the College Board to participate in the pilot of a new cybersecurity course, Vicinus said. “The College Board is trying to uplift career and technical education pathways,” he said, including programs that allow students to earn national certifications. Rather than focusing completely on Advanced Placement courses, he said the College Board is supporting opportunities for all learners.

Last year, 266 West Hartford Public School students earned some sort of credential, he said.

West Hartford introduced the new AP Pre-Calculus course last year, and there were more than 300 students who enrolled. The participation was “so strong that the College Board has invited us to present on our success,” he said.

The district continues to increase the number of students participating in AP courses and the total number of exams taken, despite fewer students enrolled at Conard and Hall. West Hartford has achieved the highest equity and excellence rating ever for the AP program, with 90% of students who take exams at both high schools earning a score of 3 or above.

U.S. News & World Report released their annual rankings of high schools last week, and while Vicinus was pleased with the results for West Hartford, he noted that the data was based on the 2022-2023 school year.

“In terms of achievement, we’re very excited,” he said. Over the past two years, there have been strong gains in every area based on standardized testing, including a 5-point rise in literacy at the high school level just last year. Over the past two years, literacy scores have increased by 6 points over the average of the past three years. In math at the high school level, there has been a 3-point gain in the past year.

For the lower grades, there was been the highest growth rate ever in literacy on the Smarter Balanced Assessment exams last year, and last year mathematics edged up over the previous year, which had been the highest ever – more than making up for pandemic-era learning loss.

“The high needs subgroups had the second-highest growth rate every,” he added.

“It provides us with great momentum as we head into the 2025-2026 school year,” Vicinus said. While there are plenty of opportunities to learn and grow, it will be through student-centered learning. Teachers will continue to participate in the district’s highly-regarded professional development program.

“The achievement we are seeing and gains are a credits to all of the teachers, students support specialists, and leadership,” Vicinus said.

Hot-button topics

West Hartford Public Schools continues to adhere to its cellphone policy, which is in line with state guidelines.

The following specific policies for the middle and high school levels are included in student handbooks and are discussed extensively with students:

• Middle schools: “Students are not allowed to use a cell phone, smart watch, personal headphones, or other comparable device to send/receive phone calls, take pictures/videos, listen to music, or send/receive text messages during the day. Cell phones and other devices should be powered off and left in the locker throughout the course of the school day unless a teacher has specifically directed them to bring it to class. This will ensure the devices are safe. Any student in possession of a cell phone/personal electronic device will be asked to return it to their locker. Repeated offenses may result in confiscation of the phone where an adult must come to school to reclaim the device.”
• High schools: “Mobile learning devices (cell phones) and electronic music devices/earbuds may not be used in the learning environment except at the discretion of the teacher when deemed useful as an instructional tool. If the use of these devices is deemed disruptive or unsafe (i.e., not kept at a safe volume in the hallway), they may be confiscated, and other disciplinary actions may be taken.”

Earlier this summer, $6.8 billion in federal school funding for the 2025-2026 school year had been frozen by the Trump administration on a nationwide basis, including nearly $400,000 for West Hartford. That funding has since been unfrozen and there will not be a need to plug a large hole in the budget, at least for now.

“We are keeping our eye on funding issues, locally and nationally,” Vicinus said.

Convocation 

All teachers have been invited to attend the annual Convocation ceremony on Monday, Aug. 25, beginning at 9 a.m. at Conard High School.

A different school hosts the program each year and this year the honor falls to King Philip Middle School. The program will include a greeting from the Board of Education, remarks from Teacher of the Year Christina Fedolfi, a student speaker from King Philip, and musical performances.

There will not be a guest keynote speaker, but Vicinus will deliver his “Superintendent’s Message” to welcome the start of the academic year.

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