By MATT LINDSEY

NORWOOD — Students will begin their school year with a clean slate academically and fresh coat of paint when they return to Norwood-Norfolk Central next week.

“We're very excited about starting a new school year,” Norwood-Norfolk Central Superintendent Jamie Cruikshank said. “Our district has finally completed all aspects of the capital project, so the kids will be coming in to a fresh coat of paint.”

Halls and stairwells have all been painted. “It's amazing what that can do for a place,” he said.

The school will explore bringing back and tending to its sports hall of fame and continue to provide a safe setting for its students to learn in.

Norwood-Norfolk Central has hired a slew of new teachers and other staff members.

Bill Lint has been hired on as the middle school principal. New fifth grade teachers include Matoaka Riedl, Brittany Godreau and Tessa Fields. Megan Lane will teach 8th grade science and Katie McNulty has been hired as a chemistry teacher.

Joe Bullock was hired to teach technology and agriculture. The new physical education teacher is Gino Bisceglia. Nichole Hartigan has been hired to teach 8th grade math. Jonathan Pabis will teach instrumental music. Emily Cambridge will be a social studies teacher at NNCS. Dillon Chichester will fill a shared BOCES position for physical education. Joanna Frego will assume the position of a shared BOCES Math AIS teacher.

Hall of Fame

One aspiration Cruikshank has for this fall is to revisit the idea of a sports hall of fame.

“We had a hall of fame and throughout the last 15 years it's not been tended well,” Cruikshank said. “We had several changes in athletic director and this was dropped.”

The school will discuss forming a committee to celebrate its former standout athletes and teams.

“It's been on my radar for the past few years but we haven't been able to jumpstart the process,” Cruikshank said.

There are plans to remake the sports banners that are more inclusive of all sports and accomplishments. The banners would then likely be displayed in the varsity gymnasium.

“These goals are aspirational,” he said. “It's our desire to begin a process for revitalizing it this fall.”

No SRO, Enrollment Down

Even though many schools are hiring armed officers to work full-time in their district, NNCS has not yet had discussions about hiring one.

“We haven't had must discussion on a SRO at this point,” Cruikshank said. “We have the local Norfolk PD in our buildings daily and they are usually here when kids are entering.”

All doors are locked until the kids leave at the end of the day, he added.

“Enrollment is very much in flux right now, but we seem to have lost a few students,” Cruikshank said. As of last week the school had 964 Flyers enrolled.

“We typically have around 1,000,” he said.

There are no major transportation changes anticipated.

School Board Goals

The NNCS Board of Education laid out its goals for the upcoming year. They are:

• Goal 1 The Norwood-Norfolk School Board of Education will promote the continual improvement of instructional programs to raise the quality of educational services and student achievement.

• Goal 2 The Norwood-Norfolk School Board of Education will provide a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment.

• Goal 3 The Norwood-Norfolk School Board of Education will support the continued development of professionalism and evolution of the governing policies and procedures.

“As always, it's an aggressive set of goals, but I'm confident that our professionals, paraprofessionals, students, and families will all positively respond to this challenge,” Cruikshank said.