SPS Weekly Newsletter

This week's header photo features Hansen School 4th graders on their field trip to Blue Hills Trailside Museum earlier this week. The students had a great time learning about animal variations and adaptation!

I also want to provide an update on the new elementary school building project. Last week I shared a short video that detailed the scope of this important project (you can watch that video here). One of the aspects of this project is to build a school that can accommodate a larger enrollment, allowing us to go from the current number of five elementary schools to four elementary schools (the new building along with the Dawe, Gibbons, and Hansen). Please watch this short video to learn more about the consolidation plan, including how and why we decided to pursue this option, how it will benefit all elementary school students (not just those attending the new building), and the educational and financial benefits of this option. It is less than seven minutes long and is well worth your time.

Finally, save the date for the next public forum about the building project - Monday, April 29 at 6:30pm at the South Elementary School. More details will be provided closer to the 29th.

Be safe and have a great April vacation.

Joseph F. Baeta, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Stoughton Public Schools

It is officially April vacation! We hope all of our SPS students, families, and staff have a safe and relaxing week off!

School will be closed for vacation from April 15-19, 2024. All school offices will be closed on Monday, April 15 for Patriots Day. The District Office & school offices will be open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8am-3pm during the school vacation week. Some individual school offices may be closed due to vacation schedules. If your school’s office is closed and you need immediate attention, please call 781-344-4000 x70100.

Students return to school on Monday, April 22, 2024.

At the April 9 School Committee meeting, current chair Katherine Weiss was unanimously reelected to that position and Lindsey Kreckler was unanimously voted vice chair. Congratulations!

We also want to welcome new member Karen Powers, who won a seat on the School Committee in the April 2 Town Election. Weiss, Kreckler, and Powers are joined on the five-member School Committee by Armando Barbosa and Chris Shannon.

Finally, we want to thank Fabienne Francois-Morisset for serving on the School Committee for the past three years, including the past year as vice chair. Francois-Morisset did not seek reelection to the School Committee.

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Dennis Rego has been named the next Director of Facilities and Grounds for the Stoughton Public Schools, effective April 22, 2024. Mr. Rego, a graduate of Stoughton High School, has served as a custodian at SHS since July of 2013 and has been the Senior Custodian at SHS since August of 2020.

Mr. Rego succeeds Mrs. Joyce Husseini, who retired from her full-time role at the end of January. He was formally introduced at the School Committee meeting Tuesday night.

"I'm excited about having Mr. Rego join the administrative team, especially as a hire from within after serving SHS as a custodian for more than 10 years. Dennis is committed to the Stoughton Public Schools and I look forward to working with him in this role," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Baeta said.

Join us in congratulating Mr. Rego!

This week, Stoughton High hosted representatives from NEASC, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, for its decennial visit. The NEASC representatives met with SHS and district administration as well as SHS faculty, parents, and students over the course of the visit. NEASC determines the accreditation status of SHS. The accreditation process began two years ago when a self assessment was completed by the school to measure the school’s alignment with the five NEASC standards. Priority areas were then determined for the school district in conjunction with NEASC during a collaborative conference in 2022. This decennial visit was the completion of this two year process. By speaking with students, parents, teachers, and administration as well as observing classrooms and documents provided by the school during the decennial visit, NEASC assesses the school’s progress towards their priority areas and alignment with the standards.

One highlight from this visit was the session where students had the opportunity to present projects they had worked on to the NEASC team. These projects represented many different subjects, reflective of the many courses offered at SHS. It is always nice to see our students’ hard work on display. Take a look at some pictures from this portion of the visit below.

Special thanks to SHS Principal Julie Miller and the SHS NEASC Steering Committee (Chris Evans, Lauren Fidler, Janean Ruschioni, Mike Armour, Amy Wiebe, Meg Kennedy, Jaime Regan, Jim Babb, John Mange, Liz Londergan, Hilary Filkins, Mike O’Neil) for all of their hard work preparing for this visit.

NEASC will provide SHS with a formal report within the next few months. The report will provide NEASC’s findings and the high school's progress towards the standards. It will contain commendations and recommendations. This report will be reviewed and shared with the community. SHS will consider NEASC’s findings and feedback and develop a plan for continuing the important work required to steadily grow and improve as an educational institution.

Tana Bernard, an 8th grader at the O’Donnell Middle School and the Project 351 ambassador this school year from OMS, organized a clothing drive at the OMS and also at the Dawe School, where she went to elementary school. Tana is pictured below dropping off the donations (40 bags!).

Each year 8th grade students are nominated for consideration to be the OMS ambassador for Project 351. Project 351 is a statewide youth-led service program that convenes a new class of 8th grade ambassadors, representing the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, who “embrace the responsibility to lead with a determination to make a difference.” The ambassadors attend a launch day in Boston and then embark on a year of community service.

Tana is already making a difference! Great work!

Congratulations to Stoughton High’s winter guard teams! Both the Amber and Onyx teams won first place in their respective divisions last weekend at the NESBA finals!

The SHS varsity girls lacrosse team recorded its first ever win at the varsity level! Stoughton beat Taunton 19-8 Thursday on the turf field at SHS. The varsity team is pictured below celebrating the victory. Congratulations on what will be the first of many varsity wins! This is the SHS girls lacrosse program's second season competing at varsity level.

It was a busy week for Stoughton High spring sports, with many teams picking up victories. Click on the button below for more coverage of SHS athletics:

There was lots of excitement about the solar eclipse in our schools on Monday! Even though Stoughton wasn't in the path of totality, 91.7% of the sun was still covered in Stoughton, making for quite the sight! Here are some pictures of students around the district observing the start of the eclipse. Check out the Stoughton Public Schools Facebook page for many more pictures.

The next visit in our SPS Spring Author Series takes place after vacation on Monday, April 22, 2024 from 5-6pm when Sy Montgomery comes to the Wilkins School (1322 Central St.). For more information and to see a complete schedule for the Spring Author Series, click here.

Attention families with students entering preschool next year: Save the date! The Jones Early Childhood Center will be holding an open house for new students on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 from 5-6pm at the Jones ECC (137 Walnut St. in Stoughton). Parents, guardians, and children are welcome. This is a great opportunity to learn more about our preschool program.

Please note that for the 2024-2025 school year, preschool students must be 3 or 4 years of age by August 31, 2024 and be toilet trained.

Save the date for the 2nd Annual Health & Wellness Fair for Stoughton High and O'Donnell Middle School students and families! It will take place Wednesday, April 24, 2024 from 3-7pm at Stoughton High. At 7pm there is a special event at the high school for SPS parents and guardians with Dr. Randi Schuster about approaching teen substance use from a frame of compassion and curiosity. Check out the flyers above for more information.

Speaking of wellness, the spring edition of the SPS RN Newsletter is out. Click on the button below to read this newsletter:

Save the date! The Stoughton High School Theatre Program will be presenting its spring musical, Pippin, April 26-28, 2024 in the SHS Auditorium.

• Friday, April 26 at 7pm
• Saturday, April 27 at 7pm
• Sunday, April 28 at 4pm

Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors and can be purchased in advance online.

Another friendly reminder that with the school year underway, we want to make sure we have accurate and updated emergency contact information and health information for your child. Please log into your PowerSchool Parent Portal account, click on the forms link in the left navigation menu and update any information that is not accurate in the two forms - Current Student Information/Emergency Form and Current Student Health Information. When you have updated the information, please click on submit at the bottom of each of the forms. If your child's information is accurate, please click on submit at the bottom of each form to indicate that you have reviewed the data and it is accurate.

For updates throughout the week, be sure to follow Stoughton Public Schools on social media: