SPS Weekly Newsletter

This week's header photo features the cast and crew of the Stoughton High production of Pippin. More than 40 students in grades 8-12 have been working tirelessly for the past six weeks rehearsing for this show! Performances will take place in the SHS Auditorium: Friday, April 26 at 7pm; Saturday, April 27 at 7pm; and Sunday, April 28 at 4pm. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors and can be purchased in advance online. Click here to see more photos of the cast and crew.

The end of the school year is approaching and many families are starting to think about plans for summer. Our goal is to continue to provide the wide variety of high quality summer enrichment programs our students have enjoyed in previous years. However, due to the expiration of ESSER funding (federal relief aid provided during the pandemic), as well as other financial pressure points impacting the school budget for the next fiscal year, in order to be able to provide enrichment programming this summer, we need to move to a fee-based structure.

The Knights of Summer camp for SPS students entering grades 2-5 will continue to be free of charge thanks to prioritizing other grant funding that was available, as previously communicated. The other summer programs will be fee-based, including:

• Theater program for grades 2-6 and 7-12

• Transition programs for students entering grades K, 1, and 6

• OMS STEM & video production

• OMS & SHS intramurals

• SHS strength & conditioning

All of the programs will run Monday-Friday for four weeks, from July 8 - August 2, 2024. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Bus Transportation is not available unless your child is enrolled in Stoughton Extended Day, Kidsports, or Stoughton Recreation Department.

Online registration starts Monday, April 29, 2024 and the deadline to sign up is June 14, 2024. Payments will be due by June 14, 2024 in order to participate. Students eligible for free or reduced lunch will pay a reduced fee to participate in these programs.

Click on the button below for more information about these programs, including pricing, as well as how to register. Information about our fee-based summer programming is also available in the following languages: Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.

Sincerely,

Joseph F. Baeta, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Stoughton Public Schools

Join us for a public forum sharing the latest updates about the new elementary school building project on Monday, April 29, 2024 at 6:30pm at the current South Elementary School, 171 Ash St. In addition to project updates and a Q&A session, tours of the existing South School will be provided for those interested. All SPS families, Stoughton residents, and Town Meeting members are invited to attend.

Speaking of the new elementary school building project, we are excited to share that the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted to approve the project scope and budget at its meeting on April 24. Read more about this significant milestone by clicking on the button below:

Members of the Stoughton High Unified Track team are pictured here before the start of their first meet Monday afternoon at SHS! Unified sports give students of all abilities the chance to take part in the high school athletics experience. Stoughton has a home meet next week as well - Tuesday, April 30 at 3:45pm at the SHS track. Go Black Knights!

Last month, 23 Stoughton High DECA members proudly qualified and competed for two full days in Boston at the Massachusetts State Career Development Conference. This week, we send off freshman Max Arroyo to represent SHS at the DECA International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, California. Max qualified to compete in the Principles of Hospitality and Tourism category. Let's go Max!

SHS DECA members are pictured together at the State Conference. Max Arroyo is featured in the inset picture.

We held a Health and Wellness Fair on Wednesday at Stoughton High in partnership with the Stoughton OASIS Coalition. High school and middle school students and their families attended the fair, having the chance to interact with more than 20 organizations/vendors who shared important and helpful information about a variety of topics like mental health, substance misuse prevention, sleep health, brain health, bike safety, mediating conflict, self defense, and healthy physical activity. Comfort dogs were on hand for students (and families) to interact with and there were also food trucks set up outside the high school which were a popular attraction!

Wilkins School third grade students recently met with their kindergarten buddies. The third graders read stories to the kindergarteners and the kindergarten students practiced their retelling skills by summarizing what they heard on each page.

Students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade at the Hansen School recently displayed projects that show what they have learned about perimeter, area, and volume. 3rd and 4th graders designed a zoo and 5th graders designed a 3-dimensional city.

There will be a Multicultural Night at the Gibbons School (235 Morton St.) on Thursday, May 16 from 6-7:30pm. This event is open to all SPS families. To find out more, and how you can participate (we are looking for families to sign up and run a booth, run an activity, or volunteer), click here.

If you would like to plan ahead, May breakfast and lunch menus have been posted on the website. Click on the button below to look at menus for both April and May:

The annual Once A Knight Always A Knight 5K Walk/Run will be held Saturday, May 11 this year. The race starts at 9am at Halloran Park in Stoughton (right near the District office/Jones Early Childhood Center). For more information, including how to register, how to sponsor this event, and the race route, visit the Stoughton Recreation Department's website.

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: