Welcome
Dear Families,
Welcome back to Deans Mill School for the 2026-27 school year! We believe Deans Mill School is a place where all students can grow and thrive together.
The new school year will bring exciting opportunities for students to actively engage in learning, develop relationships, and have fun. As part of that excitement, we will be introducing our new Community Agreement, DMS SOARS at the beginning of the year to our students. We’ve spent a number of months planning this new agreement to make it meaningful and believe it will have a lasting positive impact on our school community. SOARS stands for: Stay Safe, Own Your Choices, Always Try, Ready to Learn, and Smile & Have Fun. Since we are the DMS Owls, we know our students will make wise choices and soar throughout the school year.
Your child will have a robust experience this year. We look to challenge our learners in academics and enrich them in the special areas. As part of their enrichment, we are excited to continue play based learning, STEM, Physical Education, the Arts, and reintroduce library to your children. Through these wonderful opportunities, we hope to foster passion, lifelong learning, and fun into your child’s day.
We are proud of our outstanding school community and strongly encourage you to participate in the PTO. Our PTO supports our students, staff, and community in a variety of ways and constantly seeks out ways to improve opportunities and partnerships for all stakeholders.
We encourage parents to regularly utilize ParentSquare, which serves as our primary communication tool for community events and activities throughout the year.
Thank you for sharing and entrusting us with your child. Our staff greatly values our partnership. We are looking forward to an amazing 2026-27 school year.
Go DMS OWLS!
Sincerely,
Thomas Bousquet – Principal
Kristen Oliverio – Assistant Principal
About
Deans Mill School is a Pre-K to 5 elementary school located in Stonington, CT. DMS is an inclusive school with approximately 420 students. It is named for the mill that was originally located at the site of the present water company nearby the school. In 2019, DMS completed a major renovation and expansion to our campus.
Deans Mill School’s mission is to provide quality instruction, which will challenge students’ abilities and provide them with the knowledge and skills to participate successfully in a democracy.
We, at DMS, believe that children are our greatest resource and that we need to uphold high expectations for all. We work hard to "learn, inspire and grow together" each and every day
We hold that:
● Students must be literate and demonstrate communication, computation, and problem-solving skills;
● Knowledge is best acquired when students function in a safe, orderly, and nurturing environment;
● Students should be held in high standards, and that they learn when instruction is commensurate with their ability and presented in an orderly and purposeful manner;
● Each student’s education leads to intellectual, aesthetic, physical and social development;
● Our ultimate goal is to foster a love for learning that will enable them to become life-long learners, and self-sufficient and productive members of society.