School Committee Meeting Summary

Patricia (Patty) Tarbell passed away on January 11, 2023. Patty was a graduate of Walpole High School and began working for Walpole Public Schools in 1989, retiring in 2005. Heartfelt condolences are conveyed to Patty's family from the Walpole School Committee and Administration.

Colin M., Walpole High School student representative to the School Committee was present along with new student representative mentee Victoria B. Colin reported as follows:

• Monday marked the end of the first semester. Last week, many classes took unit and term assessments.

• Report cards will be sent out Tuesday, January 31st.

• Many students taking a foreign language (specifically seniors) are currently taking the bi-literacy test after school to demonstrate their bilingual skills in Spanish, French, or Latin.

• Student section turnout has been strong amidst some of the most highly anticipated games of the winter sports season. The Track and Field teams are finishing up their regular season and have their final league meet tonight. Other winter teams continue to build on their success in the second half of their seasons with girls’ basketball and boys’ hockey both notably in the top 3 of Division 2.

• Next week, the winter sports teams are hosting an ALS Awareness Week to support 4 You I Will Fight.

• Clubs continue to keep busy and plan activities. The Speech and Debate team competed last weekend and the UNICEF Club is continuing a clothing drive.

Media/STEM K-5 Program Update: A Media/STEM K-5 program update was provided by Director of Digital Learning Tom Reeve and K-5 Digital Learning teachers Kelsey Flanagan (Elm), Timothy Preston (Fisher), Kristin Moses (Boyden) and Lindsey Morris (Old Post Road). The group explained the current coding programs including ScratchJr for grades 1 and 2, Scratch for grades 3-5 and various Robotics tools. LEGO projects are also a large part of the STEM program. Recent media center furniture updates at Elm and Boyden offer flexible seating options and collaborative spaces. They also shared Elementary Media Center statistics indicating that all Walpole elementary students visit the media center approximately every 4 days and, schedule providing, sometimes more. Each elementary media center averages over 1,000 checkouts per month. There is a new self-checkout option available this year in each media center. Lastly, the group discussed connecting STEM to literacy using the four C's of Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication and Creativity.

Vote on Tentative FY '24 Budget: The School Committee voted on an FY '24 tentative budget in the amount of $53,506,500.

Dr. Gough reported:

• Tonight is the WHS 8th grade curriculum night @ 7:00 p.m. Staff explain the scheduling process, review curriculum, and answer any individual questions. Additionally, specific special education information was presented at 6:30 in the Library/Media Center.
• WPS had a successful EdCamp on January 13th. As mentioned at the last SC meeting, the day was designed to provide participant-driven professional development for educators. There were also outside presenters. SC members were provided with examples of workshop sessions. Thank you to Tom Reeve, Jesenia Burke, Jill Kimball, and Sarah Scales for spearheading this work.
• Due to the upcoming Legislative Breakfast on the February 9th, there is a different Strategic Plan format. A link was sent to all Strategic Planning members in order to get feedback on objectives and action steps. This will enable the chairs to review and prioritize our action steps. Feedback is due by 2/9. In the meantime, the chairs will share goal progress updates that correspond to the highlighted priorities from 2022. This will be done in a screencast format. Dr. Gough will also meet with our participating high school students to get their feedback as well.

• Walpole was accepted to take part in the Trauma-Responsive Practices Learning Cohort (through Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium) This cohort will enable individuals to deepen their own understanding of trauma-responsive practices in order to lay the groundwork for future implementation.

• Reminder: Title I Night will be held on January 30th from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at Boyden Elementary School.

• Reminder: The Extended Day Program is offering a February Vacation Camp for the upcoming school break on February 21 - February 23. The Vacation Camp is open to all Walpole Schools students in grades K - 5. To register, please complete the online registration form. For more information, please see the attached flyer. Please also feel free to reach out directly to dclifford@walpole.k12.ma.us with any questions.

• Reminder: Kindergarten Registration for the 2023-2024 school year is now open. To pre-register a kindergarten age-qualified* child, a parent or legal guardian must complete the online pre-registration form and bring the required registration documents to the neighborhood school. If you are unable to drop off documents at your neighborhood school during the day, families may bring them to the Superintendents’ Office (135 School Street) on Mondays and Wednesdays until 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday evenings until 8:00 p.m. *Kindergarten age-qualified children are those that have turned five (5) years old before September 1 of the school year for which they are pre-registering. To find out more about registration, click here.

• Don’t forget to check out our Virtual Backpack which is a good place to look for postings about community events and programs.

Mr. Breen provided an update to the middle school building project. He indicated that the foundation footings for the new building are still being poured. A project timeline and three-week look ahead schedule can be located on the middle school webpage. The community is encouraged to visit the webpage and reach out to the Middle School Project team with any questions or comments via email at middleschoolproject@walpole.k12.ma.us.

Mr. Ahern provided an update with regard to the high school renovation project. Updates will continue to be provided to the public.