Winter Newsletter
February 16, 2023
Winter Updates @ HPS
February 17, 2023
Hello Parents, Guardians, Caregivers, & Staff:
We have arrived at our February Vacation break, and we are over halfway through the 2022-2023 school year. This is an opportunity for families, students, and staff to relax, have some fun, and rejuvenate again, as we gear up for the remainder of the school year.
We are also well underway with the 2023-2024 school year budget process. As a central leadership team, we began meeting with the school committee budget subcommittee beginning in October, and we also held multiple internal meetings with department heads and principals, to plan for our Priority Needs as a school district. Last night, I presented my Proposed FY 24 Budget at the school committee meeting. The number one priority need that I put forward is the need to appropriate a permanent funding source for Full Day Kindergarten. As some of you may recall, I put forward a multi-year proposal to fund full day kindergarten for all students, effective Fall 2021, using one-time funds such as ESSER, ARPA, and other other funding sources. The school committee and select board supported this proposal. Now, it is time for HPS to obtain permanent funding for Full Day K, by working collaboratively with the Town of Holliston Town Administrator, the Finance Committee, and the Select Board. We are committed to doing what is best for HPS Students and the Holliston Community at large.
All HPS students deserve to have an equitable, free full day educational opportunity to begin the journey in Kindergarten together, working toward our new mission, "To collaboratively create a safe, inclusive environment that empowers all learners, through innovative teaching and learning, to be lifelong, active, global citizens." (HPS 2022-2027 Strategic Plan) The journey, beginning with Full Day K, is so critical as we seek to provide the best education we can offer to all students within our "Vision of a Graduate."
As we continue the budget process, the Holliston School Committee is offering office hours throughout March to hear from parents, staff and other community members. Please join them to share feedback or ask questions about the budget, policy or superintendent evaluation at any of the following:
Wednesday, March 1, 8:30-10 a.m. @ Coffee Haven, 76 Railroad Street
Saturday, March 11, 9:30-11 a.m. @ Coffee Haven, 76 Railroad Street
Wednesday, March 29, 7-8:30 p.m. BY ZOOM
Also, in order to continue to improve upon ongoing, transparent communication, we will be releasing an HPS Bullying and Hate Speech Dashboard in upcoming weeks. This dashboard will be updated monthly, so that people can view this information on our website regularly. Please see the updates below regarding the work we are doing as a school district to both prevent and address incidents of bullying and hate speech and to promote social-emotional well-being for HPS Students.
Finally, I am excited to share that the HPS Leadership Team is ready to revisit and renew our HPS Learning Walkthroughs as a school district. If you hear from your children that the superintendent or central office leader, a principal or assistant principal, and/or a student services administrator visited their class one day soon, it is because we, as an administrative team are committed to:
Strengthen continuity between buildings and to build better transitions for students
Examine how best practices manifest at different levels
Strengthen our district lens as an administrative team
Build connections between teachers across buildings
Collaborate as a team; model collaboration for teachers
Help each other solve problems of practice
Increase visibility to faculty and students; develop greater trust
Provide positive and constructive feedback to each other
For those who have been asking, the HSC has approved the start and end date for our Draft 2023-2024 HPS District Calendar. Other half and full day professional days are subject to change as more information is gathered throughout the year, but the start and end date will be consistent barring any inclement weather days.
Thank you for sharing your children with us. They make all of this hard work rewarding. Have an awesome President's Day and February Vacation next week!
With regards,
Dr. Susan Kustka
P.S. Would you like to join this amazing team? We still have open positions at HPS. See our employment page. Also, if you would like to substitute while on break from college or part-time, we have just increased our daily substitute teacher rate to up to $100/ day. It's a great time to make some extra money for the holidays and beyond. See flier.
“Darkness cannot drive
out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
“History will judge
us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.”
- Nelson Mandela
Social Media
We are seeking input from families and staff on the preferred social media platforms for district-wide communications. Please know that we will continue to use our current mass communication system and website for critical communications. However, we would also like to leverage social media based on the preferences of our stakeholders. Please fill out this brief survey to help us in this process.
Data Governance (Cybersecurity and Data Privacy)
We are continually improving our efforts to protect student and staff data, as well as mitigating cyberthreats. All staff were trained at the beginning of the school year and reminders are sent periodically to be vigilant, especially with suspicious emails.
In addition, we require staff with access to critical student and financial data to undergo grant-funded yearlong training through a partnership with the Town of Holliston. So far, we have trained approximately 80 school staff members and are planning to train 20 additional staff members by the end of 2023.
In addition to training staff, we also are requiring our digital resource partners to sign student data privacy agreements. These agreements are available at this link. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns about digital resources or privacy agreements.
All the best!
Dan MacLeod
Director of Technology & Digital Learning
From the Office of Student Support Services & from the Director of SEL & Equity
It is hard to believe we are beyond the 100th day of school! As we look around our district we are continuing to see wonderful things happening with our students, not only from an academic point of view, but the ever important social-emotional lens as well.
Student Learning
We celebrated as a district reaching our 100th day of school!! In reaching this annual milestone, it is important that we take notice of the wonderful accomplishments our HPS students have made.
PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) is in full effect in grades PreK-8. Our staff are well on their way through the PBIS Academy through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Our staff and students have been working incredibly hard in supporting the foundations of PBIS. When implemented with fidelity, PBIS improves social emotional competence, academic success, and school climate. It also improves teacher health and wellbeing. It is a way to create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments where everyone thrives. Ask your child what PBIS means at their school, and how they demonstrate its belief everyday.
Literacy Initiative is going strong in HPS, from PreK-12+. Literacy is the core foundation for all learning, and it is imperative that we continue to work to build this skill in all of our learners. Through our districtwide partnerships with Orton Gillingham, along with our methodical embedding of best practices, we are creating confident and skill based readers. You will see through pictures below the growing love of reading that we are fostering, and supporting this through engaging visits from famous authors, that have presented to our students to further enhance their passion for reading.
Inclusion Matters; throughout the district we continue to work on the importance of acceptance, empathy, and kindness…it matters!! Our Safe & Supportive school lessons are in full effect, schools have brought in wonderful speakers to help engage students and see the importance and beauty of differences, and we have held school wide activities that allow for students to demonstrate their uniqueness and support of one another. Great work!!
Family Resources
In collaboration with our Holliston SEPAC, the Office of Student Services has published our first HPS Family Resource Guide. This guide is designed to assist families in better understanding the wonderful resources that HPS has available in district, along with user friendly resources to help families better understand processes and procedures, contacts, SEPAC, and linked resources for diving deeper into understanding how to help your child. The HPS Family Resource Guide can be found on our webpage under "Student Services" and is also linked below.
This month we have undergone the 2nd step in the Department of Education (DESE) Tiered Focused Monitoring process. This is a 3 year process that occurs consecutively in every district to ensure that we are in compliance with state regulations and procedures, and that our processes and procedures within Special Education are being followed. In January, DESE held an online presentation through the support of SEPAC to provide families information on this process. This month they are completing our records review, school site visits, and interviews of staff, administration, and families. Our staff work hard to ensure compliance and well provided service delivery.
MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey: Community Share out as part of the 22-23 Safe and Supportive Family Education Series. We had a successful family engagement event “Making Meaning of the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey”. Part 1 of our two-part series explored and compared Holliston Public School Adolescent Health (trend) data with current regional MetroWest survey results. By highlighting key, local MetroWest data findings that correlate with HPS district goals, we continue to build a sense of belonging for our students and equitable, safe, and supportive school environments. Our continued pursuit is to raise collective awareness through meaningful connection points for the Holliston community at large. Host participants included Holliston Public Schools (HPS) Administration, Holliston Youth & Family Services, and PTO Mindshare, and professional expertise provided by the Education Development Center (EDC), a national leader in mental health & social-emotional learning. Please Watch the Video of the event as it has implications and relevant information about our Holliston Youth, and areas that can influence our own personal conversations with our youth. https://youtu.be/Mzk1LgPDuyU
Arch 2 - Professional Development
Through the Office of Student Services, we have been working incredibly hard to offer, create, and support professional development for our staff. In these efforts, we hope to continue to assist them in supporting their own professional practices and growth, and provide them learning that they can bring directly into the classroom. Some of the continued learning we have been doing:
What Is Inclusion Anyway? A meaningful walk through of authentic and true inclusion opportunities for students, that look to improve student success, sense of belonging, and independent learners. -Provided by Jess Beattie
School Safety- A deeper Dive. An interactive presentation that provides staff a better understanding of our processes and procedures, and our constant examination of how to create a safer school environment from both a logistics and mental health perspective.- Provided by HPS School Safety Team
- Increase in Safety Drills and Training
Psychological First Aid
On 1/27/23 all of our student support service providers within the Holliston Public Schools participated in a training called Psychological First Aid (PFA) As part of our efforts to train for crises, our Holliston Public Schools Safety Committee along with our student Crisis Response Team wanted to take a proactive approach towards thinking of safe and supportive schools. We must also ensure that we develop the student support practices necessary to support in a moment of true crisis / tragedy. As a district we knew we would benefit from taking a proactive approach around crisis response and providing training for our staff who are often called on to handle from the micro to the larger crisis that can occur. We worked with Riverside Community Care “MindWise” https://www.mindwise.org/trainings/psychological-first-aid-post-traumatic-stress-management/ .“The goal of this comprehensive training is to prepare participants to deliver basic behavioral health disaster response skills following large-scale disasters or critical incidents”.
CARE SOLACE: As always please remember the important resource available for our Families & Staff:
Here in Holliston, we are extremely invested in providing mental health support for our students, families, and staff. Care Solace, is a mental health care coordination service, to help you and your family connect to quality care. This is a free resource for you and your family paid for and provided by Holliston Public Schools that is 24hrs/365 days of availability.
If you are looking for help with mental health or substance use, Care Solace will quickly and confidentially find available providers matched to your needs. Care Solace has launched its “self-referral” process, so if your child is in need of mental health support please use the link below to begin the process. Or reach our to your child’s school counselor and they can assist you with this process as well. Care Solace
- Upcoming Events Stay tuned for upcoming family events.
- Part II Mini Series to Metrowest Adolescent Health Survey Data; Community Resources, Supports & Engagement
Jessica Beattie, Director of Student Support Services
Jariel Vergne, Director of Social Emotional Learning & Equity
January 27, 2023 District Professional Devlopment Day
Sharing Professional, Authentic, Relevant Knowledge
Our annual district-led Professional Development Day focused on ways Holliston staff strive to engage our students as global citizens, innovative thinkers, effective communicators, and life-long learners who exemplify strong character and live balanced lives. We are proud to announce that we were able to provide 75 breakout presentations/workshops thanks to our colleagues who graciously offered their expertise to benefit students! Please see a list of our 63 professional day presenters below.
(logo design by Michelle Hastings- thank you!)
We would like to recognize and thank our planning committee (listed above right) for their countless hours spent to prepare for our January 27th professional development day.
The technology integration specialists expertly designed a platform to communicate with staff and print custom schedules based on each participant's individual choices.
The curriculum staff ensured that each presentation was directly aligned to our strategic plan initiatives and Massachusetts standards for professional development.
Our grant-funded keynote presenter, Todd Nesloney, delivered an inspirational message to the staff.
Todd is the Director of Culture and Strategic Leadership for the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA). He has also served as an award winning principal of a PreK-5th Grade campus of over 775 students in a rural town in Texas. He has been recognized by the White House, John C Maxwell, the Center for Digital Education, National School Board Association, the BAMMYS, and more for his work in education and with children. Todd's first book he co-authored, Kids Deserve It!, was a runaway smash. Since then he has authored Stories From Webb, Sparks in the Dark with Travis Crowder, and When Kids Lead with Adam Dovico. His children's book "Spruce and Lucy" was also released in March 2020. He hosts the podcast "Tell Your Story" and is very active on social media under the moniker Tech Ninja Todd. He is passionate about doing whatever it takes for our students and helping others tell their story.
Joanne Menard
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
Dan MacLeod
Director of Technology and Digital Learning
Holliston's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Office of Language Acquisition Tiered Focused Monitoring Review
On Monday, February 13, 2023, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE’s) Office of Language Acquisition (OLA) conducted a Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Holliston Public Schools. The Office of Language Acquisition reviews each district’s and charter school’s ELE program every six years to monitor compliance with federal and state English learner education laws and regulations. Areas of review included English learners’ student assessments, identification of English learners; what programs English learners are placed in, parent and community involvement, curriculum and instruction, student support services, licensure requirements for faculty, staff and administration, program plans, and evaluation and recordkeeping. In addition to staff interviews, parent outreach is an important part of the review process. The district sent a survey to the parents of students whose records the review team examined.
Within approximately 60 business days of the interviews, the review chairperson will provide Holliston Public Schools with a report with information about areas in which the Holliston meets or exceeds regulatory requirements and areas in which the district requires assistance to correct or improve practices. The report will be available to the public at https://www.doe.mass.edu/ele/cpr/.
Sincerely,
Joanne Menard
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
Transportation
We are having another interesting transportation event for this newsletter. The bridge/culvert across from the 8 Arch Bridge on Woodland Street has been shut down due to it's dangerous condition. This closes a road that we use on a daily basis for many of our buses. We have had to come up with new plans on the fly as we had to do for the road paving at the start of the year, . We have asked our families to be patient and know that we are working through the situation. The first few days have gone well with a limited number of buses arriving late.
Please thank your child's bus driver when you get the chance. They have been the heroes/stars of this latest challenge. Most buses have had at least one of their routes be impacted by this road closure and they have done their job with passion and grace. Thank you to our drivers... you are the best!!!
Facilities
Our electronic access (fob) project is in it's final stages. This will allow us to stop the practice of having people peg doors open to maintain access when students and staff go outside. This is the next step in improving the safety and security of our schools.
In addition, we are collaborating with the Town's Facility Director, James Keast, on a roof project at the elementary campus. We look forward to our new partnership with James.
Keith Buday
Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations
