Hello WB Students, Staff, and Families,

Spring is here!

We’ve made it to April break and are entering the final few months of the school year. This is always a very busy time for our students, staff, and families. There’s a lot happening in all of our schools, so please be on the lookout for news and updates from your child’s school. We hope you all have a wonderful and safe April vacation!

In this newsletter, we aim to provide you with key information about what’s happening in each of our schools and across the district. We hope you find it helpful and engaging. As always, if you have any comments or thoughts, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Enjoy the newsletter!

Mark Bodwell
Superintendent

WB Academic, Technology and Fine Arts Showcase -

Open to the public! Thursday, May 8th from 5:30-6:30 at the MSHS.

Celebrating Innovation, Expression and Excellence! Showcasing students in grades PreK-12. We hope to see you there!

The 6th-grade students are having a great time at Nature's Classroom this week. A huge thank you to the WB staff and parent volunteers for all their hard work and support of our students. This is an amazing experience for our students, and it is so great to see them embracing it and having a wonderful time!

Check out the newsletters for each of the 4 schools in WB! Lots of great information. If you have not yet had an opportunity to read these you will find lots of great information as well as many great pictures from each of the 4 schools!

Spring Street School https://secure.smore.com/n/w0p43

Rose L MacDonald School https://secure.smore.com/n/rytjqz

Howard School https://secure.smore.com/n/mjg2br

Middle/Senior High School https://secure.smore.com/n/8ube5

West Bridgewater MSHS staff and coaches participated in a training on April 9th. Thank you to the staff who participated in the training. A huge thank you to the trainers, the Plymouth County District Attorneys Office and District Attorney Tim Cruz. This training was a wonderful opportunity for our staff to gain valuable information and knowledge. They provided the MSHS with a much needed new AED. We are scheduling other trainings with the DAs office for our elementary schools as the information provided was excellent.

Since 2025, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office has facilitated trainings with first responders at local councils on aging and municipal buildings to teach bystanders how to recognize signs of an overdose, and administer Naloxone, CPR and AEDs in instances of opioid-induced cardiac arrest. To date, the DAs office has held ten training sessions reaching 167 people from the community at local senior centers, housing developments, town halls and schools. The DA's office is proud of this work, and efforts are ongoing to provide these vital resources and information to reduce the number of overdoses in Plymouth County.

Check out the Rose L MacDonald students who were recently recognized for the core value of Responsibility as part of our Wildcat PRIDE program. The students nominated also got a token to choose a book out of the book vending machine (thank you to the PTO for the book vending machine)

🌞 Summer Surround Care 2025 – Registration Now Open!
Come join the fun this summer!

Our Summer Surround Care program will run from June 23 through August 7, 2025, at the Middle Senior High School. The program is open to students entering grades 1–5 and operates Monday through Thursday, with daily and weekly rate options to suit your schedule.

Kids will enjoy a variety of activities, including:
🎨 Arts & Crafts
🎶 Music
⚽ Sports & Games
💦 Water Play
🏞️ Indoor & Outdoor Free Play
🚶‍♂️ Walking trips to Friendship Park, Town Park, and more!

Don’t miss out on a summer of creativity, play, and adventure!
👉 Learn more and register at: Summer Surround Care Registration or click on the Google Form below

Congratulations to the students recognized by our teachers and staff for exemplifying outstanding citizenship and embracing our Wildcat Pride Core Values. We are incredibly proud of each one of you and grateful to have you as part of our school community.

Keep up the great work—you are making a difference!

Join West Bridgewater Middle Senior High School’s Yoga Club advisors Julie Diedrichsen and Erin Brogna for a monthly evening of yoga! Community Yoga is open to everyone and will be held in the WB MSHS gymnasium on the last Tuesday of the month during the school year.

Next class: April 29, 2025 | WBMSHS Gym | 6:30-7:45pm

Investment: $10 cash or venmo Julie @jagaia

Register: Just come!!

FREE FOR STUDENTS

(no young children please - must be able to honor the quiet and stillness of savasana!)

Our Community Yoga classes will include a variety of yoga postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation with a focus on connecting the mind, body, and breath. You don’t need to be flexible to practice yoga; it’s about learning to use your body wisely and finding balance both physically and mentally! Open to all levels of yoga ability and adaptable to a wide range of movers, our yoga classes help to cultivate mindfulness, body awareness, confidence and connection in a supportive and encouraging environment.

For more information, reach out to Julie Diedrichsen at 508-894-1220 x1305 or jdiedrichsen@wbridgewater.com

On Tuesday, April 1st there was a 2nd Community Forum for the public to provide updates on the Elementary School Building Project that we are in partnership with the MSBA. Thank you to those who attended the meeting and/or watched it. If you did not see it you can access it from the district website or use the link below.

At the April 8th meeting the School Building Committee (SBC) discussed several things including reviewing the Howard School site as an option and the grade configuration option of K-6. Previously the grade configuration option were PreK-4 and PreK-6. At the April 8th meeting the SBC took votes on several grade configurations as well as whether or not to pursue an addition/renovation option or a new building option. The approved vote was for a K-6 new construction project at the Rose L MacDonald site. This site had been voted on at the November 2024 meeting. This does mean that PreK will remain at the Spring Street School. There will be many more discussions about PreK in the future as well as the potential plans for the Howard School.

The next School Building Committee meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13th at 5:30 pm in the Learning Commons at the MSHS.

It is our goal to keep you and the community updated as much as possible as we go through this process. As always if you have any questions please reach out mbodwell@wbridgewater.com .

In June, each school building will be sending out end-of-year surveys to all staff and families. This is an important opportunity for us, as an administrative team, to gather meaningful feedback from our school community.

The survey will include opportunities for you to share what you feel is going well—highlighting our strengths—as well as areas where we can grow and improve. Your input will help guide our planning at both the building and district levels.

We truly value your voice and encourage everyone to take a few minutes to complete the survey when it becomes available. Your feedback plays a critical role in shaping the future of our schools.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support!

This is only the third time in 19 years of engaging in this project that West Bridgewater will have a winner with the opportunity to represent our community at the National level of this competition. They competed against kids from all over the Commonwealth and came out on top!

Special Award: Dr. Christopher G Gillis award: Outstanding Project in 18th century History

Salem Witch Trials: Amelia Gunnison, Molly DeChristopher, and Trisha Bagepalli

This group received a cash prize for their entry! Great job 7th graders!

Junior Group Documentary: Medalists. 2nd place

Tinker V Des Moines: Setting a Standard in Free Speech

This group will have the opportunity to advance to the National Competition in June being held at the University of Maryland! Great job 8th graders!

"EiE® is the curricula division of the Museum of Science, Boston. Students all over the country are learning important problem-solving skills through our activities. In April 2020, through a generous grant from Overdeck Family Foundation, MOS was able to build fun, free activities to encourage families to enjoy engineering together."

"Working on these activities as a family will help your children develop creative problem-solving skills, collaboration skills, and resilience. You definitely do not need to be a professional engineer to share those skills with your family! You might just surprise each other with your creativity and skills."

"Museum of Science is hard at work adding new and exciting resources to their site. Keep checking the website to find more unplugged computer science activities, more interactive games, and more fun!"

Click on the link below to take a look at eight fun family activities.

https://families.eie.org/explore

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Public School Monitoring (PSM) conducted an Integrated Monitoring Review of West Bridgewater Public Schools during the week of December 16, 2024. They provided the district with feedback in the areas of Special Education and Civil Rights. Please see attached for further information

Official 2024 Integrated Monitoring Review Report

The School Committee has approved the 2025-2026 school calendar. It has been posted on the district website https://www.wbridgewaterschools.org/ . Below is the link

A heartfelt thank you to School Committee members Kerri Milton and Dave Schmeer for their years of dedicated service to the West Bridgewater School Committee. Your commitment to the students, staff, and entire West Bridgewater school community is truly appreciated. Your leadership has made a lasting impact.

We also extend a warm welcome to our new members, Perry Wiech and JP Waller. We look forward to having you join the committee at the May 5th meeting and are excited for you to start your tenure with the committee.

The FY26 school budget was approved by the School Committee in March. It was reviewed and supported by the West Bridgewater Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee and now will go to Town Meeting on May 12th.Thank you to all for your support!

Below are the budget presentations for the FY26 Budget. If you have any questions about the budget please don't hesitate to reach out mbodwell@wbridgewater.com

Message from the Athletic Boosters - We hope that you will be able to join us again this year on Monday, June 23rd, 2025. Below is the link to register. The first 5 teams to register will receive 5 free raffle tickets. WB Boosters Annual Golf Classic Registration Link

If you are also a business, or know of a business that would like to sponsor a tee, the same link can be used to purchase the advertising. We are also offering the option to advertise in our full color program that is distributed at our annual Athletic Awards Night in June. Lastly, we are always looking for raffle donations, please help us spread the word! As always, thank you so much for your support! Here is the email address for questions wbboostersclub@gmail.com
Jenn Gately and Erin O'Keefe

WB Boosters Annual Golf Classic Coordinators

West Bridgewater Middle Senior High school social studies teachers and their students engage in the annual VFW Patriot Pen (for middle school) and Voice of Democracy (for H.S.) essay contests. Our tri Bridgewater area VFW handles this National contest on our local level. I am happy to report that every year of our participation which is now going on for over a decade we have students winning cash prizes for placing 1st - 3rd. The coordinator of the program Mr. Paul Laporte hand delivers the checks to the students who are joined by their teachers and the principal of our schools. In the past at least one of our students went all the way up to the State level with their essay! A big thank you to Mr. Laporte, our local VFW representative who took time to award our school along with participating teachers and their students with a plack recognizing our patriotic support! Also, Congratulations and a shout out to this year's teachers Jaimee Martin and Anna Mills and to their student winners!

We would like to congratulate ESL Senior, Misckeycha Lazarre, on her acceptance into Curry College and UMass Dartmouth.

"Poetry is when an emotion has found thought, and the thought has found words."--Robert Frost.

After working on how to write a good cover letter last week, Ms. O'Loughlin's ESL 4 students have begun a unit on poetry, in honor of National Poetry Month. Students are reading poems on a host of themes and in a multitude of poetic forms. Each student is writing and illustrating one or more poems to share at a later date. ESL I students are also crafting and illustrating their own poems, in forms including acrostic, haiku, cinquain and free verse. Poems are sprouting like springtime blossoms!--

A message to all parents with students who have an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) A reminder to please sign and return the proposed IEP to the student services office at 2 Spring Street and if they require a new copy of the IEP to please reach out to the departments Administrative Assistant Jeanne Karcis at jkarcis@wbridgewater.com

On Thursday, April 10, 2025, thirty-seven students attended the 28th Annual Career Day Conference hosted by the Connecting Activities Partnership—a dynamic and enriching field trip focused on career readiness and professional growth.

Throughout the day, students participated in two interactive workshops: Branding and Networking. In the Branding session, they learned how to present themselves professionally—both in-person and online—while the Networking workshop emphasized the importance of building strong professional relationships and making meaningful connections in the working world.

Students also had the chance to explore a bustling vendor fair, where they engaged directly with employers, training programs, and post-secondary institutions. This hands-on experience offered valuable insight into a wide range of career paths and educational opportunities, allowing students to ask questions, gather resources, and begin planning for life after high school.

The experience empowered students to build confidence, develop essential life skills, and take meaningful steps toward their future goals.

Congratulations to all of our Spring Sports Athletes for their start to the season! We have had some great performances so far and are looking to continue to celebrate our athletes. Check out the link to Arbiter Sports for our Spring Sports teams and any potential date changes due to weather. Make sure to follow our coaches Twitter, as well as @WBMSHSAthletics, for schedule updates and the most recent game highlights. The Wildcat Athletic Apparel store is below. Make sure to check out all of the gear that we have available to personalize and order!

Wildcats Athletic Store:

Check out the West Bridgewater Athletics online apparel store where you are able to personalize and order gear. Check out the link below to create and order your Wildcats Apparel. Let’s Go WB!!

https://sideline.bsnsports.com/schools/massachusetts/westbridgewater/west-bridgewater-high-school

Upcoming Events:

WB Mental Health Basketball Game:

Come out on Thursday May 1, 2025 to bring awareness to Mental Health through Basketball. The doors open at 4:00 at the WBMSHS Gym and the event will go from 4:00-6:00. It is five dollars to get in the door. Please wear green to support Mental Health Awareness. There will be 5 on 5 games, a three point shooting contest, Slam Dunk contest, raffles, giveaways, NoSolo merchandise and more. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Past Events:

Youth Leadership Summit:

Some of our Unified athletes attended a Youth Leadership Summit at Special Olympics Headquarters in Marlboro! They learned about leadership, inclusion, and stepping out of their comfort zones — and even made new friends from other towns!

Spring Sports Schedules:

Arbiter Live Link - https://arbiterlive.com/Teams?entityId=25160

Check out our sports schedule using the link above.

Unified Sports Banner:

On Friday, March 21st, our school was honored with National Banner recognition from Special Olympics North America! This prestigious recognition celebrates our commitment to fostering an inclusive and respectful school climate where everyone feels valued. Way to go Wildcats! We "Choose To Include"!

Unified Basketball:

The Unified Basketball team closed out the season on Tuesday hosting Dartmouth and Westport for a tournament. They played two shortened games finishing with one win and one loss. Enzo Vieira, Graham Edgerly, Gio Vieira, and Geoffrey Simmons played amazing offense, helping get the ball to their teammates. Christian O’Connor and Adri Guardione were allstar defenders, stealing the ball from the Westport offense multiple times. Mekenna Clark, Kenzie Snell, Jacob Kenney, and Sal Guardione were top scorers each putting down at least two baskets. Brendan Hulme finished out his last season with the team hitting three 3-pointers from his sweet spot on the outside! The wildcats had a stellar season and will celebrate their accomplishments today at their banquet!

Varsity Baseball:

The Wildcats get a win on the road beating Bourne 10-1. Mallett, Garces, Dowdall and Legrice led the offense with 2 hits each. Mallett 6 innings pitched 3 hits 2 BB 1 ER with 6 punch outs.

Junior Varsity Baseball:

The Junior Varsity Baseball team lost their third game of the season in a close one 3-0 to a strong Seekonk JV team. The team is now 2-1 on the season. They have games lined up for the next few days. Come out and support the team! Great Job!

Lacrosse:

WEB Lax beat a well coached Hull team 8-7. Brayden Bates kept the boys in the game again with an outstanding performance in net. Brown 4G . Hickey 2G 1A. Westy and Feeney 2A. Mavilia 2G 1A including the go ahead goal with less than a minute left. Player of the game Benny King led the team in GB’s, had a 70% face off win rate, and tossed in an assist.

Varsity Softball:

The varsity softball team beat Bourne 5-4 on Thursday afternoon. The girls scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th to win the game. Regan Bryant struck out 20 batters. There are only 21 outs in the game and she struck out 20 of them. She also had the game winning hit in the 7th inning. Emma Croce was 3 for 3 at the plate and scored 2 runs including the tying run. Emma Maher reached on a walk and scored the winning run.

Junior Varsity Softball:

The JV softball team had a strong game yesterday earning a 12–9 win over Bourne. Kayla Moody had a great day on the mound, striking out 10 batters to help keep Bourne from catching up. At the plate, Sarah Perry hit a big triple, and Evie Weich added a double to keep the offense rolling. It was a solid team win with strong pitching, great hits, and smart plays all around!

Boy’s Tennis:

The Boys Tennis Team lost a tough match to Cardinal Spellman High School at West Bridgewater Middle Senior High School. They will play at Somerset Berkley on April 29th. Good Luck!

Girls Tennis:

The Girls Tennis Team lost to Seekonk in their home match. They followed up that match with matches against Apponequet, East Bridgewater and Somerset Berkley on April 29th.

Track and Field:

The WB track and field team went to battle against Bourne, a town known for 2 things: having really awful traffic on their bridge, and losing badly to the Wildcats in track.

The boys team cleaned up with a 100-16 victory. Dustin Panos, Ethan Lormil, and Dean Baker swept the 100 meter, hot dog! Not to be outdone, Cam Frates, Jason Gothage, and Thomas Monroe took all 3 places in the javelin. And then Jude Tait and Sam Stapleton decided to win a few events.

The girls had a hankering for a win too, and boy did they get it:

Alyssa Caldeira led the points winning the Long Jump, Triple Jump, and 100m. Kerri Gomes won the Javelin, Discus, and finished second in the 400m. Kate Austrino won the High Jump and finished second in the 800m and 200m. Jill Bouvier won the 400m and finished second in the Discus. Abigail Arel won the 400 hurdles, and finished second in the 100 Hurdles and High Jump. Emma Pope won the 1 Mile and 2 Mile

Way to go WB!!

The next Superintendent Coffee Hour with Mr. Bodwell will be on May 9th at 9:15 am at the Spring Street School. As always it is open to all and we hope to see you there! As in the past there will be a Google Meet option so if you are interested in joining virtually please email me at mbodwell@wbridgewater.com for the link.

April 7, 2025

The objective of the Policy Subcommittee is to regularly review the policies of the West Bridgewater School Committee to determine if they are current, consider the interests of stakeholders, and are in line with guidance from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. At the most recent school committee meeting on April 7, 2025, the following policies were reviewed and revised as indicated:

• IGC - Establishing New Courses and Programs of Studies

• IGC-R - Procedure for Implementing New Course

• JL - Student Welfare

Additionally, the following policies were opened or remain open and are scheduled for review at the next school committee meeting on May 5, 2025:

• AC - Non-Discrimination Policy Including Harassment And Retaliation

• AC-R - Non-Discrimination Policy Including Harassment And Retaliation

• ACA - Nondiscrimination On The Basis Of Sex

• ACA-R - Nondiscrimination On The Basis Of Sex Under Title Ix Including Sex-Based Harassment

• ACAB - Sexual & Sex-Based Harassment And Retaliation

• ACE - Nondiscrimination On The Basis Of Disability

• ACGA - Civil Rights Grievance Procedure

• ACGB - Title IX Sexual Discrimination Grievance Procedure

• JICFB - Bullying Prevention

• JIC - Student Discipline

• JKAA - Physical Restraint of Students

For any questions or to provide feedback, please contact the policy subcommittee at rdragonetti@wbridgewater.com. A complete listing of policies can be found in the WB Policy Index at https://www.wbridgewaterschools.org under the School Committee tab.

We are always looking for qualified persons to fill substitute teaching positions. If you are interested, please visit https://www.wbridgewaterschools.org/page/substitute-teaching for more information or contact one of the building principals for more information.

CHURCHILL ENRICHMENT SUMMER CAMP SIGNUPS ARE LIVE!

Come join in all your favorite enrichment activities! Brought to you by your favorite STEAM camp team, each enrichment week will allow students to participate in everything from visual arts to science experiments, from indoor scavenger hunts to outdoor relay races, from sewing to food creations! Whatever your children love, they’ll have the option to do it here. Come have a spectacular week—or two— with us!

Sign up now at https://churchillenrichment.com/

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