Civil Municipal - Feb 2024

extra services like speech therapy, or occupational therapy.” In partnership with the New Providence Education Foundation, the District also offers an event known as the Kindergarten Mixer. Misiukiewicz describes, “It’s a great community event for the first-time parents here in our school district. It’s an opportunity for the parents to get to know one another and to hear a little bit about our schools. We also partner with the Superintendent of Schools, so the new parents can hear about our programs for the young learners.” INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO LEARNING On the subject of literacy, Lauren Zirpoli, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, says, “We have a balanced literacy approach here in New Providence. In our early education years, we used the workshop model, and we have been doing that for quite some time.” She adds that the District also supplements literacy education for students in grades K to 4 with the 202 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 02