Donna Hayward of Haddam Killingworth High School has been names National Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Emily Wicks with UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry noticed the pandemic-era disruptions to kids’ social-emotional learning and development, and reached out to Sandy Chafouleas at the university’s Neag School of Education. Together they developed Feel Your Best Self, a puppet-centered program aimed at helping “strengthen the emotional well-being of elementary-aged children.”

Samuel Galloway has been named the town’s new school superintendent and, pending successful contract negotiations, will officially take over the post on April 1. Galloway will replace Paul C. Gagliarducci, who has served as interim superintendent since Brian P. Czapla retired in June after five years.

When Dan Crispino took the job overseeing the curriculum for elementary schools in Meriden, Connecticut, it was 2019 and he had a big problem to solve. The low-income district, where nearly 75% of kids receive free or reduced lunch, was struggling with math.

“When I would go into classrooms all over the district, I could see that kids didn’t seem as excited about math,” Crispino said. “And it didn’t surprise me that our results were depressed in math.”

Crispino said math classes were 60 minutes then. They are now 90 minutes, beginning with a 30-minute lesson followed by an hour-long block where every minute counts. The class is made up of tightly timed segments, where students and the teacher rotate through small groups.

Haddam-Killingworth High School Principal Donna Hayward is noted locally for being “truly a courageous leader.” Now, she is known on a completely different level as the National Principal of the Year for 2023, so named by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Throughout the academic year, the Neag School is proud to share the latest achievements of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Explore their most recent promotions, awards, retirements, publications, and more.

The five-minute video Denoya’s students watch is part of a series produced through a new pilot program called Feel Your Best Self, or FYBS. Each video is built around a simple strategy to help kids recognize and manage their feelings – or to help friends who are struggling.

“It’s taking what we know works,” says Emily Iovino, a trained school psychologist who is part of the FYBS team.

In this forum, Feel Your Best Self creators Sandy Chafouleas and Emily Wicks and script writers Yanniv Frank, Emily Iovino, and Sarah Nolen talk about the development of this unique interdisciplinary collaboration between UConn’s Collaboratory on School and Child Health and Ballard Institute to use puppetry to promote emotional well-being in elementary-aged children.

Marjorie “Jean” Romano ’77 (MA) wanted to both honor her late husband and support graduate students conducting summer research. She decided to set up a bequest that will supplement a scholarship that she and her husband, Antonio, a UConn biology professor and CLAS dean, established several years ago. Her planned gift will support the Antonio H. & Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fund.

The tailgate, organized by CEA Communications staff and sponsored by California Casualty, included an all-you-can-eat hot breakfast for CEA members and guests, along with music, a fan photo booth, and games of cornhole, football toss, can jam, and ladder golf. Teachers were also treated to dozens of prizes that included CEA Member Benefits and UConn Neag School of Education swag, as well as raffle prizes donated by UConn, The Bushnell, and other CEA Member Benefits partners.