Superintendent and B.O.E.

U.S. Representative John Larsen(then a state legislator) was instrumentsl in passing the Family Resource Center legislation in the early 90's.  FRC's were modeled after Dr. Ed Ziglar's Schools of the 21st Century in which one of the components, parent education and support would be made available to parents with infants and toddlers.  Ruthann Horvay had been a parent educator for the Canton Parents as Teachers program and a PAT National Center Trainer (of parent educators) since 1989.  Dr. David Bristol, former superintendent in Winchester, had been including Ruthann in his discussions on a vision for family support.  Education Connection first applied for the Family Resource Center grant from the CT State Department of Education.  Winchester was awarded a "glue grant" to be shared with Torrington.  It was determined that our communities had the components of an FRC already in existence except for the infant/toddler component.  The grant would fund bringing all components under one umbrella.  In 1996 Ruthann was asked to start the PAT component in Winsted under the direction of the Batcheller principal, Kelly Lyman on a part time basis.  With additional funds from a Family Preservation Grant for two years, Ruthann became a full time parent educator and director of the Winsted Family Resource Center.  We became fully funded in 1997/98 school year.  Robin Bardino joined our staff in 1998 and Lisa Goulet in 2007.  Lisa was actually one of the first parents to enroll in our program!