Board Of Education Student Updates: January 22, 2026

At each meeting of the Board of Education, three student representatives from Southington High School update the Board and the public on school system news. This year’s representatives are Ethan Hoffman, Arshi Roy, and Samrath Singh. What follows is the report they delivered at the Board’s January 22 meeting.

District Update – Arshi Roy

Derynoski Elementary School

Derynoski Elementary School will kick off its annual One School, One Book initiative this Friday, promoting a shared reading experience and fostering a love of literacy across the school community.

Kennedy Middle School

Student Recognition: Southington eighth grader Owen Warner has been selected as the recipient of the First Baptist Church Martin Luther King Jr. Award. Owen was recently recognized at school and will be formally honored this Sunday during a ceremony at First Baptist Church.

Arts and Activities: The winter music concert series concluded last week with a choral concert. Additionally, Unified Sports practices are now underway, with competitions scheduled to begin soon.

DePaolo Middle School

DePaolo Middle School was featured on Channel 30 News last week for hosting a breakfast honoring approximately 40 first responders, including police officers, firefighters, and EMTs, in recognition of their service. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Madancy and Mrs. Aresco for attending the event.

Academically, DePaolo students continue to engage in hands-on, real-world learning experiences. Eighth grade science students applied engineering and budgeting skills by designing and redesigning egg-drop prototypes using limited materials. Successful designs were tested with a 6-foot drop, followed by an advanced 20-foot challenge.

Sixth grade DePaolo students are actively collaborating on a STEM project focused on solving the real-world problem of vaccine transportation.

A special thank you to Kevin Salmeri of the Southington Fire Department, who visited DePaolo last Friday to teach all sixth graders about heat transfer.

Additionally, Algebra students at DePaolo will be taking their midterm exams on Monday.

Southington High School – Ethan Hoffman

Midterm examinations at Southington High School have concluded as of January 22.

Athletics – Samrath Singh

The winter sports season is well past the halfway point as teams prepare for the postseason. Highlights include:

The girls gymnastics and boys hockey teams remain undefeated.

Goalie Owen Doty has been named a finalist for the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Athlete of the Week.

The Unified Sports basketball team is scheduled to play at halftime of the girls basketball game on January 29 and the boys basketball game on February 9.

The boys basketball team hosted a community fundraiser at their most recent home game, collecting numerous bags of food for donation to Southington Bread for Life.

Southington High School also celebrated outstanding athletic achievements in indoor track and field, with multiple school records broken:

Jason Kalwat – Shot Put

Katie Cavanaugh – 3000 meters

Chimdi Ogbuagu – 55-meter dash

Walker Mierzejewski – 200 meters

Cole Hinkley, Berenger Xavier, Walker Mierzejewski, and Chimdi Ogbuagu – 4 x 200 meter relay

Finally, congratulations to Southington High School alum Austin Florian for qualifying for Team USA in the Winter Olympics in the sport of skeleton!