New Events, Services Offered To Middle School Students In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, CT – After hearing concerns, Beman Middle School Principal Raymond Byron said they’ve created new services and events to help support the middle school.

Principal Byron updated the Middletown Public Schools Board of Education on the new services at Beman Middle School during the BOE meeting on Tuesday, May 9.

Some of those new supports are a two-hour detention every Tuesday with busing and a Saturday four-hour detention with busing that picks and drops off students, implementation of behavioral contracts and a student leadership survey.

“Those are some of the implementation things we are trying to do to show that we are going to make some impact here at Beman and focus on what we can do to provide a great educational opportunity for our students, staff, families and the Beman communities.”

Other items include a Be Kind Day on May 17, PTO Teacher Appreciation Week, Daily Student Shout outs for students caught doing something good, and monthly raffle raffles for students being caught doing something good.

During the meeting, BOE Chair Deborah Cain asked why it took a long time to implement these new services at Bema Middle School.

“We have been putting support systems in place, but these are also included as additional added supports to be put in place,” Byron said. “It will continue to change as we meet with the principal advisory committee. It wasn’t like we waited till just now, these are some bonuses that we put in place, but we will continue to look for new initiatives to support our students and staff.”

BOE members said it is essential to keep talking to and engaging with students to see what keeps them disengaged.

“Collectively, I think we can start driving some of the solutions and coming up with answers together,” she said. “It’s not just your issue, it’s not just Dr. V’s (Vázquez Matos) issue or DEI’s issue, it’s all of our issues, and we have an opportunity to change the narrative for this newly created beautiful edifice.”