Bungay school volunteers honored by Connecticut Association of Schools

Principal, Mary Sue Feige and Vice Principal, Kris Boyle, of Bungay School are pictured here with the Bungay PTA Executive Board:  Aimee Cronin, Donna Tomas, Jessica Lepri, Sam Pollastro, Fran Marsala, Alice Cronin, Becky Coscia, Kim Farmer (Roxy Layton & Sherry Lia, not in picture) as they were honored at the Connecticut Association of Schools Volunteer Banquet at the Aqua Turf Club on March 4 2015.  CAS proudly celebrates this event annually to publicly acknowledge the work of parents and other volunteers for their contributions to schools across the state.  Over 450 participants from 68 elementary, middle and high schools were treated to a four course meal and were entertained by pianist Kim Quinn from Albert D. Griswold Middle School in Rocky Hill.

Honorees were presented with plaques and corsages to commemorate their service.
Karen List, Retired Superintendent from West Hartford was the Guest Speaker.  In her speech she explained:  “Whether it is box tops, or baskets, or classroom projects, the volunteers are the key to keeping our schools up and running.”  She shared that “Giving - of money, of time, of effort, empowers all of us. Yet I realize that most of you volunteer out of the goodness of your hearts, not because you think it will lower your blood pressure or make you feel more powerful in the world. You volunteer because you’re that kind of person - giving, altruistic, aware of life’s true priorities. There is an old Malayan proverb that says, One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind. I’m here today in gratitude - for your time, yes, and for your kindness.  From the bottom of my heart and from everyone you have ever helped over the years: a heartfelt thank you.”

Bungay Elementary School is proud to recognize our hardworking PTA Executive Board. Their motto is "Children First." They go over and beyond to support our school, our staff and most importantly our students.  They work tirelessly to raise funds to provide enriching choices of activities, after-school programs, cultural arts, book fairs, family events, staff appreciation days, and so much more. Their contributions to the success of our school are immeasurable and are an important part of our educational environment. Their dedication, their time, and their efforts help make Bungay School a great place to be! We are grateful for their dedication, their time and extraordinary efforts. We are pleased to share this special evening with them.

The Connecticut Association of Schools celebrate the contributions of volunteers who share their time, talents, and commitment to quality education in Connecticut schools.

CAS Elementary Celebration of the Arts

Congratulations to Gabriel Sand (Ms. Garofalo’s class) and Alexa Tamburrino (Mr. Milia’s class) for being chosen as this year’s CAS recipients. Gabriel received the Elementary Arts Award for art, and Alexa received the Elementary Arts Award for music. This program recognizes students with outstanding citizenship, cooperative skills, and artistic ability in performing or visual arts at the elementary level. Gabriel and Alexa, along with their parents, attended a dinner Feb. 24 at Aqua Turf in Southington. Bungay Elementary School would like to thank Gabriel and Alexa for representing our students and school.

Seymour students receive flag, enjoy programs

Contributed photo

SEYMOUR - Bungay Elementary School received a new flag last week from the Emil Senger Post 10, American Legion.  Post Commander Mike Kearney delivered the vibrant new flag, which is more durable than the old flag.

Contributed photo

Also last week students and staff at Bungay Elementary School were treated to a comedic, uplifting assembly, Domino the Great, made possible by a grant from the Valley Community Foundation through Seymour Culture and Arts.

Domino the Great performed “Read to Succeed” for grades K – 2 and “Buddies not Bullies” for grades 3 – 5.  Both shows balanced entertainment with learning.

The lessons were expressed in a fun and engaging way which kept the children laughing and amused.

The school staff would like to thank Kim Osgood, Seymour Culture and Arts, for working with the Valley Community Foundation to provide this program.



This is a press release from Bungay Elementary School.

Bus safety events held in Seymour schools

SEYMOUR - The week of Oct. 21 was National School Bus Safety Week.
During this week staff at Bungay and Chatfield-LoPresti elementary schools planned events aimed at improving bus safety and school bus awareness throughout the district.  

All-Star Transportation sent five teams of safety personnel along with four buses to each of the elementary schools.  
Safety personnel gave a presentation on bus safety to students outside each bus creating an awareness of traffic safety and pointed out the dangers of not being alert when boarding and exiting the bus. 

Inside each bus, other students participated in reviewing proper behavior while riding on the bus, safely crossing the street, and emergency bus evacuation, and other safety rules.  

Students from Bungay and Chatfield-Lopresti elementary schools participated in this event.

This post is taken from a press release from Seymour Public Schools.

Seymour students learn safety, storytelling, cancer awareness

Bungay School shares October events

SEYMOUR - Members of Great Hill Hose Company visited students in kindergarten through Grade 3 earlier this month at Bungay Elementary School.
The children learned valuable facts about smoke detectors, dialing 9-1-1, and stop, drop, and roll.  
The firemen also showed the children their “gear” that they wear while working at a fire, and explained that they should not be alarmed by the firefighters’ appearance in the event of a fire.  
The favorite part of the presentation was going outdoors and seeing a real fire truck.

Thank you to the Great Hill Hose Company and all the volunteer firemen for bringing this helpful program to our students.

Author Eshu Bumpus, pictured above, joined third graders to share entertaining folktales with them.
After his storytelling, he visited each of the four classrooms to help the students plan their very own interdiction stories. 
In the stories, they are the main characters with a special talent that will get them out of their problem. They received stickers that will help them map out their settings in future sessions.

Students and staff celebrated Seymour Pink, Inc. in support of breast cancer awareness.  It was a wonderful sight to see everyone dressed in pink, (there even was some pink hair), while endorsing this very special event. 
Even the school was decorated to match the upbeat mood to help eradicate this disease. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Bungay School staff would like to send a sincere thank you to everyone who donated and/or purchased this year’s T-shirt.


This information is taken from a press release from Bungay School. All photos are contributed.

Parents visit classrooms at Bungay School in Seymour

Contributed photo

SEYMOUR - Bungay Elementary School held a parent visitation on Friday.

There were two sessions available to parents, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. and 2-3 p.m.

It was impressive to see the large turnout of parents, guardians, and grandparents eager to see their students hard at work.

Teachers followed their normal day schedules, while encouraging children to interact with classroom questions.

There were a total of 267 visitors in all, with 156 attendees in the morning, and 111 in the afternoon session.

Bungay Elementary School is pleased to be able to offer this special day for individuals to observe our school and get a front-row view of the happenings in their child’s classroom.

This is a press release from Bungay Elementary School.

Seymour second graders get lesson in making 911 calls

Seymour High School Junior Gabi Brassell shows Bungay School second grader Evan Yatri, holding phone, and his classmates how to call 911 during a safety program hosted last week by Seymour Public Schools Security Director Rich Kearns and Seymour Police Officer Michael Jasmin. / Contributed photo

Seymour Public Schools Security Director Rich Kearns teaches second graders about using 911 to report emergencies. / Contributed photo

SEYMOUR - Recently second grade students at Chatfield-LoPresti Elementary School and Bungay Elementary School participated in the annual “911 Safety Program” presented by Seymour Public Schools Security Director Rich Kearns and Seymour Police Department Officer Michael Jasmin.  

All of the district’s second grade students learned how to safely report emergencies making a 911 call. 
The students learned that 911 is not for fun or to report non-emergencies.  The second graders learned about different emergency situations that would merit a 911 call.     

Floyd Moir, President, Retina Systems Inc. of Seymour donated the  “911 Interactive Simulators” to Seymour schools which allowed students to make a simulated 911 call to a police dispatcher. 

This was an invaluable experience for students. It gave them the opportunity to interact with emergency services in a simulated situation which will better prepare them if they ever have to report an emergency using 911.  

Seymour High School students Courtney Hassenfeldt, Gabi Brassell, Kristina Biblekaj, Sara Samsonauk and Rebekah Stafford assisted Kearns and Jasmin by helping the second graders to make the 911 calls.

The second graders received coloring pictures, crayons, prevention rulers and certificates for participating in the important safety program.  

This post is taken from a press release from Rich Kearns, Seymour Public Schools Security Director.

Seymour Middle School ambassadors meet with 5th graders

Visit Bungay, Chatfield-LoPresti schools

Bungay School Principal Mary Sue Feige, far left, speaks to middle school ambassadors. 

SEYMOUR - On Tuesday 15 Student Ambassadors from Seymour Middle School traveled to Bungay and Chatfield-Lopresti Elementary Schools to speak to fifth graders about transitioning to the middle school next year.  

Seymour Middle School students applied and were selected to represent their school for this yearly program.

Students spoke about different aspects of middle school life from classes to enrichment activities.  

Ambassadors also took questions from the fifth graders to help prepare them for the transition.  

This information and photo were taken from a press release from Bungay School.  

Seymour 2nd graders meet 'e-pals' in Texas

Video conference brings students together at Bungay School

Second grader Brandon Burns, standing, talks to second graders in Hewitt, Texas during a video conference in Jaclyn Freddino's classroom at Bungay School in Seymour. 

SEYMOUR - I happened upon a "virtual field trip" at Bungay Elementary School last week and the students seemed to be having a great time.

Not only was it clearly fun, it was educational for them to meet the students with whom they have been corresponding via e-mail for the past few months.

I never dreamed of talking to and seeing my faraway pen pals when I was a child, or even when my own children were in elementary school.
What a difference a "few" years makes.

Technology has changed everything. But is it for the better?

Hard to say.

Seymour senior mentors honored at statewide banquet

Senior mentors from Bungay Elementary School in Seymour were recognized last week at an awards banquet held by the Connecticut Association of Schools. 
The banquet was held at Aqua Turf in Southington.

Pictured standing from left are: Mary Lavoie, assistant principal, James Freund, guest, Kathy Freund, senior mentor co-coordinator, Pat Coughlin, senior mentor, John McGinn, senior mentor, Lucille McGinn, senior mentor co-coordinator, Mary Finkle, senior mentor, Barbara Turley, senior mentor, Fred Stanek, guest, Mary Sue Feige, principal.

Seated from left are: Sue Bendler, senior mentor, Carolyn Rykowski, senior mentor, Shirley Bowen, senior mentor, Beverly Bomba, senior mentor, Beryl Capewell-Valerio, senior mentor, Karen Stanek, senior mentor, Diane Berritto, senior mentor, Rae Abbey, senior mentor.


CAS proudly celebrates this event annually to publicly acknowledge the work of parents and other volunteers for their contributions to schools across the state. 
More than 600 participants from 100 elementary, middle, and high schools were treated to a four-course meal and were entertained by pianist Kim Quinn from Rocky Hill.

Honorees were presented with certificates and corsages to commemorate their service. Additionally each school has a plaque with the volunteers’ names for display in their building. 

Jeremy Race, Vice President for Junior Achievement of Southwest New England, was the keynote speaker. 

He said, “My challenge to all of you here tonight is simple. If our collective goal is to provide students with an all-encompassing, well-rounded education they need to be competitive in today’s society, then I say seek out volunteer partnerships as often as possible. Because you never know what those partnerships can lead to for your school and your students.”

He applauded the honorees for their service and ended his remarks stating, “I truly believe that volunteers can be the key difference maker in young peoples’ lives and to all of the volunteers here with us tonight, never underestimate the power and influence you can have on young people by giving of your time and talents.”

The Senior Mentor Program at Bungay Elementary School has been in existence for almost 20 years. This program allows select students in grades kindergarten through two additional help with reading.

Mentors meet once a week with their assigned students for a 20-minute session.  During this time reading and discussion take place. 

Not only do the mentor and student take turns reading to each other, but a bond is also formed that benefits both of them. 

The mentors are nurturing and attentive to the student. They take great pride in knowing their contribution will make a difference in the life of the child.

The Senior Mentor Program is a win-win situation for everyone.

This information is taken from a press release from Bungay Elementary School.  

Seymour students present winter concert

Bungay Elementary School chorus performs in a winter concert at Seymour Middle School. / Contributed photo

SEYMOUR - Bungay Elementary students in third, fourth, and fifth grade performed wonderfully in the winter concert Jan. 29 at Seymour Middle School. 
The beginning band and concert band played beautifully from Hot Cross Buns to Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture.
The third, fourth, and fifth-grade choruses delighted the audience with amazing melodies and stunning harmonies. 
The audience was delighted during the finale as all students sang "America." 
Music teacher Joanna Dunne and the students certainly impressed the families. A wonderful night was had by all.

This information is taken from a press release from Bungay Elementary School.