The Board of Education (BOE) held two Celebrations of Excellence at its Tuesday, April 7 meeting.

The first Celebration of Excellence honored Sandy Hook Elementary School's (SHS) Scripps Spelling Bee winners. SHS Assistant Principal Laura Esposito noted that this marks the third year in a row SHS has participated in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, an annual spelling bee competition held in the United States that was formed in 1925. She said the school's spelling bee committee thoughtfully organized classroom, grade-level, and school-wide competitions. Students in grades two through four prepared by using grade-level word lists, and each classroom had up to four winners advance to the grade level-bees. As they progressed, Esposito said students were faced with increasingly challenging words and the top spellers moved on to the school-wide bee.

The students then advanced through 48 rounds, working through the eighth-grade level Scripps Bee list words before tackling the Merriam-Webster unabridged list — words they had not studied in advance. Esposito said all preparation was done by students independently outside of school.

"We are so proud of every Sandy Hook student who studied, took a risk, and participated in this process," Esposito said. The finalists are as follows: in second grade, Muhammad "Maaz" Alam, Luke Kang, and Anaya Jarrar; in grade three, Jack Buell, Nicholas Muckell, Chloe Yang, and Matthew Partcelli; and in fourth grade, Andy Insdorf, Bennett Harriman, Olivia Romanino, and this year's champion, Alexander Romanino.

Then came the second Celebration of Excellence, which celebrated Hawley Elementary School's inaugural Cultural Night. Hawley Principal Christopher Moretti said he appreciates the opportunity to share with everyone the resurgence of an event that had been at Hawley for a very long time but was "kind of losing its zest."

In the past, he said Hawley used to do an event called International Dessert Night, where they would put out desserts representing various cultures from around the world, and people would come and enjoy a treat in the afternoon. Moretti said they ran this event for a while until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, when they did not hold the event for one year. When they eventually tried to bring it back, Moretti said it turned from wonderful and homemade cultural desserts to "store-bought cultural desserts."

"It kind of lost its oomph, and so we put a plug in it and held it off for a little bit and tried to reimagine what a better night could be," Moretti explained. Hawley's Safe School Climate Committee, headed by the school's assistant principal Alison Carmody and Hawley parent Carina Adler, got together and wanted to turn it into something bigger than snacking on desserts. Moretti said they realized one day that Hawley's lobby area, which there are signs that say "welcome" in various different languages, welcomes families from China, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and other places all over the world. This welcoming of different families and cultures, he said, is what they wanted to tap into.

Carmody and Adler, who were also in attendance that night, gave a short presentation on the event. They called Hawley's inaugural Cultural Night a collaboration between the PTA and school staff. Carmody said Hawley second grade teacher Anne Fries and library media specialist Erika Carlson, who are also members of the school's Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Committee, also played a big role in setting up the event with Adler.

Families hosted booths in the gym that represented their heritage. Everyone got a passport when they came into the lobby, so every time they went to a new station, they got to add it to their passport.

These stations featured cuisines from all around the world. Many attendees, whether they worked the stations or not, dressed in their cultural attire. There were even arts and crafts for people to enjoy as well, along with other activities such as dancing.

"It was just such a nice ... night of learning," Carmody said. "A ton of pride throughout the gym as well, and just to see the kids beaming was wonderful."

Adler said they did not really give people direction on how to decorate their space, and that they only gave basic directions to bring a craft and cuisine. However, she added that families took that space and "really made it their own," with many of them featuring different artifacts, posters, and facts about their country at their stations. Two Hawley students, Mary Opidee and Kian Adler, shared their experiences from the event. Opidee, along with her mother and sister, performed a dance from Greece at the event. Kian said what he really liked about Cultural Night is that everyone got to share their culture and where their ancestors came from.

"Everybody brought a food, craft, or something that was fun to eat or do," he explained. "And we made flags to represent more cultures."

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.