Back to School: Horace Mann School

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The Horace Mann School is implementing four co-taught classrooms this year, two each at the third grade level and at the fourth grade level, according to Principal Jeff Strasnick.

"We did a lot of professional development (on co-teaching); we visited some schools in other districts to get ready for it," Strasnick said. "We don't have the staff members to do it in every single classroom."

In the other grades, there will be two grades sharing a special education teacher, which Strasnick said that compared to "years past is a huge step up, as far as being able to not just service students with special needs, but students at all ability levels.

"Really what we're trying to do is create smaller groups to instruct and have that happen more often, rather than the larger groups of one teacher," he said. "It will be more face time that students get with a teacher, which we're very excited about."

Staff turnover of past two years brings fresh faces

Within the past two years, four Horace Mann teachers have retired and the school psychologist retired, Strasnick said. The result is many fresh faces at the school—nine new teachers this year (see below)—and Strasnick said the district has brought in highly qualified staff for the Horace Mann.

"We have staff coming from South Carolina, California, Florida, so we've been looking all over and I think this year is a very exciting year to have these people on board," he said.

New SMARTBoards, flat screen TVs for classrooms

The Horace Mann will have three more SMARTBoard interactive whiteboards this year, bringing the school's total to five, Strasnick said. Also, classrooms that don't have SMARTBoards will have 32-inch mounted flat screen televisions that will be used to stream Discovery Education videos, which the school has a subscription to for now.

"We've also moved our library in a larger space, which means we now have a true library media center," he said. "We're getting five new computers for that space. There's a lot of changes, but I think all the changes are for the good and think the kids will be really excited to see all the things we'll be doing this year."

New Horace Mann Teachers

• Nicole Goodhue, Grade 5 Classroom Teacher
• Jaime Hickey School Psychologist (also for the Early Childhood Center)
• Kelsey Kirkpatrick, Special Education Teacher
• Jillian Meuse, Grade 3 Classroom Teacher
• Lisa Pellegrini, Grade 1 Classroom Teacher
• Gia Raia, Grade 1 Classroom Teacher
• Linsday Shanahan, Grade 2 Classroom Teacher
• Maureen Skehan, Special Education Teacher                                              
• Jennine Stevens, Special Education Teacher