TORRINGTON – This year, principal James Catlin of Torrington Middle School is focused on making sure no kids slip through the cracks. He is utilizing the new programs the county has introduced to do this. 

“Our vision is we want to be a top performing middle school with a focus on helping kids reach their full potential,” Catlin said. 

Catlin spoke a lot about the programs the county has enacted this year and what they mean to him. Between Public Learning Communities (PLC) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), he believes this will give the teaching staff a better opportunity to make sure the students have equal chances at learning the information. 

“I’m just excited about where the staff is, as far as, you know, instructional strategies, just the PLC process in general,” Catlin shared. “We’re also doing the MTSS.”

A large focus is on intervention. The MTSS is the guide for that. The idea is to get as many kids as possible to learn things the first time, but for the ones that do not, for them to have more opportunities and options to learn the materials. Catlin believes that all students are capable of great things if their needs are met academically. 

“Right now, were really focused on the tier one of MTSS. So, there’s tier one, tier two, tier three. So as a kid, tier one is every kid should get the same quality instruction, which melds very well with the PLC process. So, we need to get 80 percent of our kids responding to tier one so that the 10 to 15 percent that need more time, and more interventions can move to tier two where we can give them even more support. Those kids that do not respond to that, we move to tier three. 

One thing Catlin is making sure everyone has, is a protocol for everyone and everything. He believes if there are protocols in place, less time will be spent trying to figure things out, and more of that time can be focused on learning. 

He has arranged protocols for the lunchroom, the hallway, etc. He is currently working with the students to be more organized in the hallways to and from class. From observation, it looks like there is progress being made. 

The 2024-2025 school year looks different for staff, as well, this year in a few different ways. The staff are putting together their own protocols and thinking of their own ideas on how they can intervene in learning to better our students. 

Torrington Middle School has three new staff members. Many of the other staff members and shifting their schedules around in order to make more time to accommodate the students. 

The sixth-grade team made some changes to homeroom to make things more flexible and fluid to better benefit the students. Other staff members have also changed their schedules to put more work in for the kids. 

“Our seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers have ‘skinnied’ up some of their social studies classes, but they’ve also taken on some learning lab opportunities to help kids with their tier one interventions. Like making sure their homework’s turned in, and just kind of a homework, kind of a study hall, do some reading work, do some math intervention work. That’s been a big ask, and that has really helped us balance our schedule. I mean without their help we wouldn’t be able to balance the schedule the way it is,” Catlin stated. 

This has caused some of the classes to be shorter throughout the day, which is hard on the staff. 

Catlin speaks very highly of all his staff. He says they are incredible and not afraid to work hard. He highly respects his staff members. 

Another update Catlin had to share was that elective classes are very popular. The middle school just got their jazz band back thanks to Gary Glass. There are 70 to 80 kids in seventh and eighth grade choir. Other elective teachers at the high school have also given some of their time for the students to have more options. Another 20 kids in ag over at the high school.  14 or 15 in the woodshop as well. He is very happy he is able to utilize these opportunities for the students. 

All seems to be going well at Torrington Middle School and Catlin is very excited to see how the rest of the year goes. Most of all he believes his staff know exactly what to do, and all of his students are capable of learning at a high level as long they get the support they need.