Sandra Romero, the district Welcome Center coordinator, reported to the Waterbury Board of Education on Oct. 2 that the Welcome Center handled 1,372 in-person visits between July 1 and Sept. 30 and that visits can last from 10 minutes to an hour depending on family needs. She said August was the busiest month with 738 visits and September had about 400 visits as of the day before the meeting.

Romero told the board the center staffs English, Spanish and Portuguese speakers and that registration is the most frequent reason families visit; staff may discover additional needs during a visit and then refer families to other departments. Romero said some visits concern housing questions and helping families determine school assignment or bus transportation.

Romero provided application counts for early grades and programs: 237 kindergarten applications between July 1 and Sept. 30; 279 applications handled through the office of early childhood; and 226 high-school applications, which she summarized as a total of 505 for those categories during the reporting window. She reported district enrollment numbers of 12,218 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and a districtwide enrollment of 17,482 as of the day before the meeting.

The Welcome Center coordinator said the district currently has 29 parent liaisons and three vacancies at Bucksville, Anix, Kingsbury and Regan schools. Romero described planned family-engagement work including pop-up registration events at school sites, parent workshops (including social-emotional learning sessions and an eight-week Parenting Journey curriculum), volunteer opportunities for families, and closer coordination with parent liaisons so schools receive advance notice when families register at the center.

Board members asked about how the center handles families who bring IEPs during registration. Romero said staff register K–8 students at the center and refer high-school registration to the receiving high school; when parents bring IEPs staff connect the case to the district special education office, which guides placement and next steps and flags expired IEPs for action.

Commissioners raised questions about translation and access. Secretary Serrano Adorno noted language barriers and recommended translated materials and on-site interpretation for school governance and PTO meetings. Romero said the center provides resource packets and bilingual flyers and that staff make direct calls to clinics or providers when arranging on-site services. She said the district has coordinated with the school-based health center to provide summer connections and hopes to schedule clinic access on a regular basis at the center.

On staffing, Romero and district staff said the welcome center still had at least one vacancy and the district is exploring part-time or staggered staffing to handle morning and afternoon demand. Board members and staff described using overtime in the summer to handle the registration surge and said the district would pursue options to streamline the registration process and bolster translation and technology support for families.

The presentation was informational; no formal board action was taken.