News&Notes from the Superintendent

"Nothing ever seems impossible in spring, you know?" — L.M. Montgomery

Please find below this week’s updates & events happening in our District ~

The Business Office is currently putting together the formal assessment letters to be sent to the towns so that the request to fund the schools for the 2024-2025 school year can be put on the town warrant in advance of their annual town meetings. These letters should be to the member towns by March 29th.

The Building & Grounds Subcommittee met last week and will recommend to the full School Committee the approval of four capital project requests totaling $165k including: microphone and speaker equipment for the TACPAC, Mt. Everett Library redesign, UME Playground Equipment, and Track/Field Work. The allocation will be made from the available monies in the Capital Project Fund.

Over the weekend, the last phase of our solar project installation happened which included the final wiring of the solar panels into our electrical system. The Sheffield campus was without power for 4 to 6 hours and had to be fully shutdown. The good news is that the system is now ready to go live, and the District will be able to start to see the benefits of this project in the near future.

To review the documentation presented at the hearing, please see the District website at https://www.sbrsd.org/documents/district/budgets/fy25-budget/567699 or click below.

The Superintendent’s Advisory Councils at the Middle and High School level had their meetings last week, and their focus was also meeting with the Director of Food Service, Jonathan Duerr. Again, there was a rich discussion and Mr. Duerr enjoyed hearing their suggestions and he spent time fielding questions that were on the students’ minds. He shared a brief survey for the group to pilot to get an overall sense of how students view the Food Service Program, with the hopes of rolling it out to have the entire student body take it in the future. Mr. Duerr is hoping to bring more engagement from students and families in improving and enhancing the program where possible.

A subcommittee of the Design Team is scheduled to meet next week to help plan and present at the upcoming Community Team meeting. Because this is a community-based research and design initiative, the Transcend Core Team is trying to create opportunities for members of the school community to use their expertise and skills to move this exciting work forward.

The Community Team is scheduled to meet on April 9, where they will be charged with moving to the next phase of the design work that will include the formation and population of subcommittees. As part of our next steps, I am really looking forward to meeting with the Transcend Team to see how our work with the organization can continue and grow next year as this partnership has been invaluable to our school community.

More information about this incredible community focused initiative is here at https://www.sbrsd.org/page/transcend-partnership.

This week there are so many great things happening in our schools, and you are always welcome to join us and check them out!

This week’s events include the start of spring sports, Vex Robotics, Elementary Robotics, Berkshire Art Center After School, Poetry Workshop Grades 4 & 5, UME Talent Show, Girl Scouts, UME Garden Club, Flying Cloud After School Program, NAHS American Mural Project trip, Grade 4 Field Trip to Clark Art Institute, and Grade 11 STEM Class trip to BCC just to name of few things!

From April 1 through April 12, we will be welcoming our Exchange Students from Hong Kong to SBRSD! There are lots of exciting activities planned and we look forward to welcoming our guests to our school community!

Please check the event calendar regularly as it will keep you up to date as will the weekly notes from the Principals.

Early College Assembly: On March 28th, we will host an Early College assembly where we will be recognizing our Early College students for their enrollment and participation in the program.

The Future Fair: On April 26th Mount Everett 10th-grade students are invited to attend a college field trip to Simon's Rock

Interested in learning more about our Early College program? Visit our website!

Mt. Everett's Innovation Pathway in Advanced Manufacturing focuses on building hands-on 21st-century skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Students work out of the school's Makerspace Lab to build robots, rockets, and more! Learn more through our website.

Information Technology is a growing field! The Information Technology pathway at Mount Everett will allow students to earn several industry-recognized certifications, as well as provide them with a hands-on internship experience tailored to their growing skills during their Senior year. Learn more through our website!

Please feel free to reach out with questions or concerns as I welcome the opportunity to hear from you.

Best,

~ Dr. Beth Regulbuto, Superintendent of Schools