ABOUT BRISTOL

Timeless Traditions

From its industrial past to its modern technological leadership, Bristol, Connecticut, located 17 miles west of Hartford, is a diverse urban community rooted in a tradition of excellence. For generations, the community prospered through ingenuity and quality craftsmanship. Today, a strong sense of community and commitment to learning can still be found throughout the city.

Community pride shines each year with the fall Mum Festival. Cultural, historical and recreational attractions within the city help our youth connect with their heritage. Local businesses partner with area schools to provide opportunities for achievement. The values that we seek to instill in our youth are evident right here in the community of the Bristol Public Schools. These are the elements that foster an exceptional environment for learning.

Superior Environment

Six elementary schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Each school emphasizes basic skills while providing music, art, physical education and library instruction. All schools have been adopted by a business in town and each week over 300 mentors visit the Bristol schools.

Two new state of the art schools house both elementary and middle school students. The K-8 schools offer students the same instructional opportunities as their counterparts without the need for a transition from an elementary school to a middle school.

Two middle schools expose 6th, 7th and 8th graders to more challenging and diverse academic opportunities. Along with the traditional courses, students in these grades are given new learning opportunities in areas such as art, health, technology education, and in musical performance groups.

Bristol's two high schools offer a wide variety of courses that meet the interests and needs of the diverse student population in grades 9-12. The high schools are teamed in grades 9 and 10. Our high schools operate on a block schedule. A Governance Council guides decisions at the building level. Interscholastic sports and many extracurricular activities round out the high school experience. Comprehensive guidance services at the city's two high schools help students with course selection and career planning. Students may choose to enroll in one or more of the A. P. courses and other courses to earn college credit.

Exceptional Programs

The mission of the Bristol Board of Education is to educate all students to their full potential. In order to achieve this mission, the Board has incorporated a wide array of programs into the curriculum at all levels within the system.

Early Literacy - Through a planned K-5 district-wide curricular calendar, the Bristol Public Schools are committed to providing a strong foundation in reading and writing. Teachers work with students to build independence, comprehension, and strong content knowledge by responding to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline. Students advance through the grades and master the standards in reading, writing, listening and speaking, and language in order to lead literate lives.

Technology Education - The Bristol Public Schools provides teachers with technology and telecommunications resources as tools to enhance students' learning and to facilitate student and teacher creativity, collaboration, academies research and scientific investigation.

School-Business Partnership - The Bristol School-Business Partnership Program is a program-oriented relationship between a business or community agency and school based on the needs of each partner and a wise use of each other's resources. The partnerships focus on the school-based mentoring program and the sharing of time, talent and resources to support programs to develop critical skills and qualities needed for lifelong success. The partnership is a collaboration of the Board of Education and the Central CT Chambers of Commerce to support important educational, social and college and career readiness skills to create a strong community.

Special Education - This continuum ranges from self-contained classes for children with special education needs to full time placement in regular education with supports and services. Students with special education needs receive specially designed, high-quality instruction designed to enhance their social/emotional/behavioral and academic achievement in the least restrictive environment.

Gifted and Talented - This program is designed to maximize each student's potential through an enriched and accelerated environment. Several schools participate in the international Odyssey of the Mind program that challenges students to create, think and produce imaginative vignettes for competition.