West Bridgewater turned 200 on February 16th! There was a wonderful ceremony at the First Church (first meeting house in West Bridgewater) on Howard Street on February 16th celebrating West Bridgewater Bicentennial. 200th Anniversary Committee Chair Mr. Jerry Lawrence (WB graduate, former School Committee Member, and former Selectman) did an outstanding job as the master of ceremony. It was great to hear from our Selectmen, Town Administrator, and many other distinguished guests. Thank you to the WB MSHS chorus for singing the National Anthem and the Posting of Colors by the WB PD Color Guard and the Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums. There will be many events planned in WB from now through the summer and the schools will be involved. Below is a mosaic in the MSHS lobby/cafeteria. Congratulations WB!

A reminder to all students and parents/guardians that there is no school from February 21-25th. Enjoy the time off from school and we hope you all have a safe and enjoyable break!

We are busy preparing the FY23 Budget. It is once again our goal to prepare and present a fiscally responsible budget that meets the needs of our students and staff in the district. Here are the upcoming meeting dates when we will be presenting budget information to the public

• March 1st at 7:00 pm - School Committee Budget Hearing
• March 7th at 6:30 pm - School Committee Meeting
• March 16th at 7:00 pm - Selectman's Meeting
• March 21st at 7:00 pm - Finance Committee Meeting

After the budget hearing, we will post the presentation that is shown at the School Committee meeting.

We appreciate the WB families' support of our budget. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

We want to thank School Resource Officer Tim Pope for all he does for our students, staff and the West Bridgewater community. We are very fortunate to have him in our schools every day. We are also very thankful for the wonderful working relationship with have with the WB Public Safety Departments.

There are a lot of hard-working people in WB that work behind the scenes to get the streets, sidewalks, and schools cleared for school. Thank you to Head of Maintenance Julie Hamblin and her crew as well as WB DPW Chris Iannitelli, Shawn Anderson, and their crew. It certainly takes a village!

On February 9th, Governor Baker and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced updated information in regards to the mask mandate https://www.doe.mass.edu/covid19/on-desktop/2022-0209mask-requirement-update.pdf. I have discussed this change to the mask mandate with our health and safety team which includes the West Bridgewater Board of Health, School Physician, Lead Nurse, and Building and District Administrators. We have also continued our collaborative relationship with the West Bridgewater Education Association (WBEA), as well as with our School Committee members. As of February 28, 2022, masks will no longer be required in the West Bridgewater Schools. There will be no changes to the masking expectations until February 28th. Masks are still required on school buses as this is a federal regulation. We want to make it very clear that we support our students and staff who choose to wear a mask at any time. If students/staff choose to wear a mask we completely support your decision. The school district will have zero tolerance for peer pressure and/or teasing based on the student and family choice to mask or not. If students or staff choose to wear masks we will have KN95 masks available in the offices of each school. We continue to be there to support one another as we have since March 2020. The symptomatic testing and at-home testing programs will remain in place. If you have any questions please let us know.

The At-Home test kits will go home with the students and staff who have signed up on Friday, February 18th. If you have not signed up but would like to receive the at-home test in the future please complete the google form below.

Thank you to WB Senior MacKenzie Reynolds who has been working hard painting this mural in the Superintendent's office. She was asked to create a picture of the War Memorial Park (Town Park) in West Bridgewater. This is a special place in town and so many people love to visit. It is also home to our graduation ceremony. Great job MacKenzie!

The Middle/Senior High School students are busy selecting courses for next year. We are excited to provide them with a great variety of courses for them to choose. We know this is a busy time of year for the students and families. We highly encourage families to review the Program of Studies as they make the online course selections

Middle School students are having some fun working together to keep the ball off the ground in Physical Education classes.

In collaboration with the PTO, the Howard School will be putting in a Gaga Pit for the spring. The students are looking forward to the addition. This will be a tremendous addition to the recess area at the Howard School. Once again a huge thank you to the West Bridgewater PTO for their continued support of the schools!

The students at the Rose L MacDonald School had a lot of fun enjoying the 100th day of school!

Students at the Spring Street School recently celebrated their 100th day of school. In all the classes they had fun while learning! They did fun things like dress up like they were 100 as well as doing 100 rigorous exercises and 100 good deeds for family and friends!

A reminder that ALL students eat free ALL Year! The schools offer delicious and nutritious foods at each school. Check out all important information about the Food Services by clicking on the link below.

• Each year the West Bridgewater boys basketball team does a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. They collect donations in advance and gather gift certificates from local businesses to be raffled off as prizes at the game. We have contests for fans of all ages during time outs and halftime that include dress like a player, 1/2 court shots, races to make a lay up, free throw and 3 pointer, putting contests and more. It is a lot of fun for everyone that attends the game and is very rewarding for the coaches and players to raise money for a worthwhile cause. The school even donates all of the gate proceeds! This year the team raised $854.00! Way to go!!

• A huge shout out to our MS Girls basketball coach, Jasmine Adams! She organized a kids vs parents basketball game! Parents with the win by 1! Thank you to two of our WB Varsity girls basketball players, Dorothea McGrath and Mia Harrington, for officiating the game! Great time had by all!!

MPY - As a district, we are excited to form a partnership with the Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth. This organization provides training, fosters collaboration, and develops programming to increase the health and safety of students. MPY is committed to bringing cutting-edge information and high-quality training to provide solution-oriented, community-based, multi-disciplinary approaches to foster mental and behavioral health, social and emotional learning, trauma-sensitive classrooms, and building a school culture that supports anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Summer Wildcat Academy - We are planning to once again host a summer program for our students in grades K-8 at the MSHS. Much more information will be provided at a later date.

Here are some updates from Inclusion Matters.

Sitting Down with Brennan Srisirkul - Thursday, March 10th from 7-8 pm. Join us for an hour-long conversation about the importance of diversity, equity and embracing adversity, and inclusion. Zoom ID is 973 6874 5608. More information will be sent out as it gets closer to the event.

Video from February Webinar - "Nothing about Us, Without Us: Designing On-Ramps for Our Kids Inclusion in IEP Meetings". Thank you for attending our webinar on including our children in their IEP meetings. If you missed it, you can view the video online at https://youtu.be/uPM5R2_LB9o

This event will be on Saturday, February 26th from 12:30 - 2:20 pm at the Bridgewater Ice Arena. Admission $10 donation and proceeds to benefit the Maddie Bain Scholarship Fund. If questions contact MaddieBainScholarship@gmail.com

We continue to promote the PCC Program which is a summer camp at Stonehill College for students in current grades 7-10. The program runs from June 26th to July 23rd! Students stay on campus Monday - Friday and take classes, live in the dorms, make friends with students from all over and have a blast! Scholarships are available from the PCC Alumni Organization. Follow us on social media @PCCASP. Questions please call the MSHS at 508-894-1220. I have personal knowledge about PCC as I had one of my daughters attend and I also have been to the program several times over the summers. Feel free to reach out to me (mbodwell@wbridgewater.com) or to our own WB teacher Ms. Jaimee Martin (jmartin@wbridgewater.com) who is one of the PCC Program Directors.

Thank you to those who attended the Coffee Hour on February 18th. Thank you to guest Debbie Llanes, Director of Curriculum and Instruction. The next Coffee Hour with Mr. Bodwell will be on Friday, March 11th starting at 9:15 am. The other building principals also continue to have Coffee Hours. We feel this is a great way to get information out to families and allow for people to ask questions and keep an open line of communication.

Mark Bodwell, Superintendent of Schools

Email: mbodwell@wbridgewater.com
Website: www.wbridgewaterschools.org
Location: 2 Spring Street, West Bridgewater, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 894-1230
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wbridgewaterschools
Twitter: @WBPSwildcats