Summer Newsletter
June 16, 2023
Holliston Public Schools Summer Newsletter
Superintendent's Corner
June 16, 2023
Hello Parents, Guardians, Caregivers, & Staff:
As the school year comes to a close, we have so many reasons to celebrate and appreciate the Holliston Public Schools community. Over the past year, students and adults in all of our schools and central office have worked incredibly hard and accomplished a great deal.
Here are just a few of the highlights and reflections from the 2022-23 school year:
Students remain at the center of all that we do. Our community is deeply committed to providing students of all ages and backgrounds a vast array of opportunities and supports to thrive in and out of school.
As a community, we have explored ways to embrace and embody the theme of Building Bridges Together and need to expand upon this theme in order to continue to move our community forward in a positive direction.
That theme is the foundation for the new 2022-2027 HPS Strategic Plan launched this year, with the Vision, “Embark on Your Journey: Personal, Local, Global.” This five-year plan was the culmination of a year-long process that included ideas and feedback from an extensive group of students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders. Moving forward, the plan will help us align and measure all that we do, providing a roadmap to achieve the shared initiatives we have established.
After over ten years in the making, Full Day Kindergarten is now free and equitable for all students. This critical investment in early childhood education is now an annual appropriation in the school budget, thanks to a collaboration among the Holliston School Committee, Town Administrator, Fincom, Select Board, and the community.
We continue to align our curriculum from pre-kindergarten through Grade 12+, to ensure we are challenging our students to meet high standards at all levels.
We are ensuring safe and supportive environments for teaching and learning, including extensive work in social-emotional learning, equity, and a renewed focus on mental health, as further noted in our collaborative dicussion on the recent HCAT segment of Ask The TA: Mental Health Services.
Next year’s budget includes an additional special education teacher at HHS to expand our continuum of services and provide programs that keep students engaged and in-district with their peers, as well as additonal tutoring supports and an increase in teachers of English as a Second Language in PreK-8.
We were able to welcome students from France and send our students abroad this year through an exchange program, as well as add a new Global Citizenship Program at Holliston High School, both providing amazing opportunities for our students that we look forward to continuing.
This year’s Superintendent-Student Advisory meetings have provided a wealth of information and ideas, allowing for student voice at all levels, and will be expanded upon as Superintendent Roundtable meetings next year.
There are also countless success stories from each of our schools, classrooms, laboratories, performance spaces, athletic fields, and everywhere that great teaching and learning occurred this year. I am immensely grateful to everyone who contributes to the success of this school district:
First and foremost, we applaud our exceptional students – from the youngest learners to our recent graduates. You continue to inspire us with your talent, energy, curiosity, and resilience, and we are so proud of each and every one of you.
I want to take this opportunity to commend our extraordinary educators – teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, counselors, and others – who are the lifeblood of this school district. Our educators demonstrate immeasurable dedication, creativity, and innovation, working tirelessly every day to deliver outstanding instruction and ensure the success of every student.
We are also fortunate to have exemplary support staff – including secretaries, bus drivers, nurses, custodians, maintenance, and cafeteria workers. Your hard work makes it possible for teachers to teach and students to learn, and we excel because of your support.
I want to thank all of the partners who bring the valuable resources of time, expertise, funding, and support to our students and our schools. We benefit from countless organizations – including nonprofit providers, higher education, faith communities, businesses, labor unions, and more – along with our School Committee, Town leaders, elected officials, residents, taxpayers, and other individuals who are our passionate advocates, investors, champions, and friends.
Our most essential partners in this work are the parents and other caregivers. We are profoundly grateful that you have entrusted the Holliston Public Schools with the education of your children and young adults, and we take that privilege and responsibility very seriously. Thank you for all that you do to support your students, engage in school communities, and challenge us always to improve.
I consider it a great honor to serve as your Superintendent. I wish you a very safe, restful, joyous summer, and I look forward to welcoming you back to school, ready to work together to achieve even greater heights in the months and years ahead.
With regards,
Dr. Susan Kustka
Holliston Schools Good News
- June 2023 Retirements:
- Michele Argir, 18 years
- Kim Bedard, 18 years
- Joel Bernstein, 31 years
- Tricia Clark, 18 years
- Mary Gowan, 17 years
- Previous 2022-23 retirements:
- Patty Belforti, 13 years
- Joanne Garry, 13 years
- Doreen Parker, 21 years
- Janet Prizio, 30 years
- Carol White, 35 years
Together, these educators and educational support staff have a combined total of 214 years of service at Holliston Public Schools. We are so fortunate to have so many dedicated individuals supporting our students each and every day in our school community! Thank you very much!
Surprised Kim Bedard @RAMS 8th Grade Celebration!
Joel Bernstein, I know I will still see you at athletics @HHS
Mary Gowan finishing finals @HHS
Snuck up and surprised Tricia Clark @Placentino
Strategic Plan Arch 1 - Communication
From the Director of Technology & Digital Learning
Summer Devices/Online Safety Tools
As noted in an email to families earlier this week, students in grades 5-11 who will be attending Robert Adams Middle or Holliston High in the fall may keep their Chromebooks/devices over the summer. We strongly encourage families to renew or purchase device insurance ($40) to cover accidental damage to the devices. Coverage extends from July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024. We will accept insurance purchases for the 23-24 school year through September 30, 2023. Payment may be made on the Town of Holliston website by selecting the School Payments option from the menu.
Some of the more robust Chromebook and monitoring tools that we use during the school year are not available during the summer. The Chromebooks and HPS issued student accounts (@students.holliston.k12.ma.us) are still filtered for appropriate content but other tools such as screen monitoring and inappropriate search alerts are disabled for the summer.
As a result, parents and guardians may wish to monitor Chromebook sessions more closely or place the device in summer storage as mentioned above. Internet service providers such as Verizon FIOS and Comcast offer parental controls which can be helpful when managing both school and personal devices at home.
Verizon and Comcast parental control options
Generative AI
We continue to learn more about the abilities of generative AI and tools such as ChatGPT and Bard and the impacts on education. We will be developing further guidance for staff and families regarding generative AI as we open the 23-24 school year. Here is one resource that might be help navigate AI with your students over the summer.
Enhancing Communication
We look forward to launching an additional communication tool in the Fall which will hopefully streamline communication with families and students, and will meet requirements in both Arch 1 (Communication) and Arch 2 (Social & Emotional Well-Being) of the strategic plan.
Elementary Digital Resources
Although we are not sending elementary devices home during the summer, elementary students can still access their Clever dashboard for resources and apps that they accessed throughout the year.
Clever Log-in from Home Instructions
All the best!
Dan MacLeod
Director of Technology & Digital Learning
Strategic Plan Arch 2: Social Emotional Wellbeing & Student Service
From the Director of Student Services & the Director of SEL & Equity
Student Support Corner
Wow, it is amazing how quickly this school year has gone by. It feels like yesterday that we were just welcoming staff and students into the buildings, and now to see the growth and progress students have made as they make their way to summer has been amazing!! Here is some highlights of the wonderful strides we have made as a district within in Student Services & SEL.
School Safety
We are pleased to announce the advanacements in our school safety trainings and measures we are taking with our staff, under the guidance of our districtwide School Safety Committee this year. While it is important to not share publicly all safety measures, it is important to inform families that we have been able to implement trainings and drills with staff and students from Placentino up through High School.
We are so proud of our building leadership across all 4 buildings, as they have successfully completed to include all students for Fire Safety and Intruder Response. While these drills can produce anxiety and stress, we know the importance of being prepared and practicing in moments of calm in order to train our brains for emergency situations. We will continue the drills each school year. Great work Staff & Students, and thank you to HFD and HPD for all of their support and guidance.
Special Programs & the New IEP
As previously mentioned, we are in the process of shifting from ESPED to PowerSchool: Special Programs for the Fall 2023, which will house all of our IEPs, 504s, and ELL documentation. We have worked collectively as a distrtict to make this decision, and are excited to align all student information through the PowerSchool platform.
A BIG thank you to all of our special education staff, counselors, ELL teachers, data specialists, procedural assistants, and technology department for assisting with this project. It is a massive undertaking, and we look forward to a streamlined system to help house and communicate important student data.
Additionally, DESE has redeveloped the IEP document. It is their ewxpectation that all districts will implement this document by the 2024-2025 school year, but many surrounding districts including Holliston are launching in the Fall 2023. There will be no impact on families, and the new document is intended to be more user friendly and student-centered which we are all very excited about!! For more information, please refer to the slides and recorded presentation from Allan Blume.
Social Emotional Supports
We continue to make advancements in crisis supports for all students and staff. As we close out the year we continue to focus our district wide to align our MTSS structure so that each building is continue to create solid structures starting with our Tier 1 level of supports and growing strength and capacity through Tier 2 and 3.
As you have heard from us all year, part of our strategic plan under ARCH 2 Initiative 1 and 2 call for an articulated and purposeful plan of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) that builds a robust trajectory towards social emotional wellbeing for our students, staff, and greater HPS community. We are pleased to share that this year we had a passionate group of 11 educators come together to further develop our ongoing vision for SEL & Mental Health which includes culturally responsive SEL, utilizing data to improve our tiers of support, that looks to support the trajectory that is already happening at each of our schools.
Through the support of the Metrowest Health foundation, we began our journey in what is referred to as “Rapid Assessment and Action Planning” without newly developed Mental Health Crisis Team. The team met several times this year with Ms. Lauren Gilman of the Education Development Center(EDC), and Jariel Vergne the Director of SEL & Equity to brainstorm and begin planning the development of SEL practices, protocols, and interventions that will provide support throughout our district. It goes without saying that these sessions, and those that will continue into next year will have lasting impact in our ability to create and enhance our MTSS approach. We are incredibly proud of the initial work this group has begun, and it goes without sayin that they are motivated and hopeful towards our future trajectory here in Holliston around social-emotional supports and interventions.
Important Reminders
Notice of Destruction
This is a reminder to all families, that each year we are required to notify families of our “destrcution of files”. This notification allows families the opportunities to retrieve your graduated child’s special education cumulative file. By law we are required to maintain student’s special education records for 5-7 years beyond graduation. Please note that the next round of destruction of files is ONLY for students who have graduated during the 2014-2015 school year. Please see attached for more information.
Notice of Destruction of Records
Wishing you and your family a wonderful, and safe summer!!
Strategic Plan Arch 3: Teaching & Learning
Current Holliston Curriculum Reviews
Both a PreK-12 math and 6-12 ELA curriculum review were started this year and will continue into next year . Curriculum reviews are one of the teaching and learning strategic initiatives in Holliston's strategic plan - vertical and state alignment. The outcome of these reviews will be the creation of clear, rigorous, and consistent academic expectations for student success that align to the Massachusetts State Frameworks. Once this work has been completed, outcomes will be shared with the community. Please read Holliston's curriculum review process document for more information.
Below are lists of curriculum review committee members. Many thanks to all for sharing their expertise and collaborating with the other members on this process!
Subject Area: Mathematics
Review Committee Members:
Dr. Joanne Menard - Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction
Karen Archambault - HS Assistant Principal
Cassandra Kogut-Taylor - HS Math Teacher
Victoria Roy - HS Math Teacher
Jesse Conant RAMS Assistant Principal
Jen Dayton - 6th Grade Mathematics Teacher
Deb Mailing - 6th Grade Mathematics Teacher
David Keim - Miller Elementary School Principal
Kerry Perpall - 5th Grade Math/Science Teacher
Colleen Barnett - 4th Grade Teacher
Christi Phipps - 3rd Grade Teacher
Nicole Lovell - 6-8 Montessori Teacher
Lindsey St-Aubin - 1st Grade French Immersion Teacher
Meg Nolan - Kindergarten Teacher
Adrienne Beaver - Pre Kindergarten Teacher
Kristin Marino - 2nd Grade Teacher
James Levasseur - PreK - 12+ STEM Curriculum Coordinator
Anne Connoni - HS Math Department Head (joined in May)
Bob Tivnan - HS Math Teacher (joined in May)
Subject Area: Secondary ELA
Review Committee Members:
Dr. Joanne Menard - Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction
Joseph Hicks - preK-12+ Curriculum Coordinator for Humanities
Dr. David Jordan - RAMS Principal
Don Quindley - HHS ELA Department Head
Kasey Conahan - RAMS Curriculum Specialist
Kim Clifton - 6th Grade ELA Teacher
Jaime Murphy - High School ELA Teacher
Becky McLean - High School ELA Teacher
Teaching & Learning Newsletters
The district curriculum team has published three Teaching & Learning newsletters so far this year to document all of the amazing innovative teaching and learning that is happening in Holliston. We will be publishing one more for the school year. Please check out our past issues below:
Teaching & Learning Website Updates Presentation
On Monday, June 5th, the district curriculum team conducted a virtual presentation on our website updates. We appreciate all of the community members that attended. If you were unable to attend, please view the Video for the Teaching and Learning Information Night.
Dr. Joanne Menard
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction
Finance & Operations
Transportation
You should have received an email regarding bus transportation for next year. If you have not, please email: holliston-bus@holliston.k12.ma.us
Please remember to thank your drivers for another terrific year that had plenty of road challenges from the first to the last day.
Facilities
If you notice some work being done at the Placentino/Miller campus this summer, that is the roofing project going on for the shingled pitched roof over the PK-K wing of Placentino and the shingled roof over the cafetorium.
Keith Buday
Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations
Central Office Contacts
- Superintendent- Dr. Susan Kustka
- Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction- Dr. Joanne Menard
- Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Operations - Keith Buday
- Director of Student Services - Jess Beattie
- Director of SEL & Equity - Jariel Vergne
- Director of Technology & Digital Learning - Dan MacLeod
- Director of Food Services- Lynne Koenig
- Nurse Leader - Missy Jordan
370 Hollis Street
Holliston, MA 01746
(508) 429-0654