“The good news is that joy, collected over time, fuels resilience – ensuring we’ll have reservoirs of emotional strength when hard things do happen.” – Brené Brown.

In schools, cultivating joy is key to building resilience in students, equipping them to navigate challenges both in and out of the classroom. Joy arises not only from moments of success but also from environments where students feel valued, heard, and empowered. By prioritizing student choice and voice, teachers create opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning, pursue their passions, and engage in meaningful activities. This sense of agency contributes to a deeper sense of fulfillment and confidence, creating emotional reserves that students can draw upon during difficult times. When students experience the joy of learning that reflects their interests and aspirations, they build the resilience needed to persist through obstacles and setbacks.

The connection between joy and resilience also highlights the importance of cultivating supportive and inclusive school communities. When students feel that their perspectives matter and their contributions are celebrated, they develop a sense of belonging and purpose. This not only enhances their immediate educational experience but also instills habits of emotional strength and self-efficacy. By embedding choice and voice into their educational experience, schools can create a culture where students are not just prepared to overcome challenges but are also equipped with the emotional well-being to thrive in an ever-changing world.

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

Looking to join a dynamic and growing professional educational community?

Join us at UME, NMC, and SES, where creativity thrives, teamwork energizes, and success is celebrated—big and small!

Currently, we have the following positions open:

ESP (Education Support Professional)

PK-2 SPED Teacher

Long Term Sub - Title 1 Reading Interventionist

Submit a letter of interest/resume to Will Smith, Administrative Assistant to the Principal, at wsmith@sbrsd.org.

Governor Healey has released her F26 state budget recommendation (H.1). Below are the key elements to highlight from the first phase of the state budget -

· Minimum aid is $75 per pupil and is included in the Chapter 70-line item.

· Universal Free Lunch is funded at $170,000,000, which is not full year funding.

· Rural aid is funded at $16,000,000.

· Regional Transportation funding has been split between its regular line item and a new line item. The reimbursement is 95%.

Included below are the trends over the last five (or available number ) years recommended by the Governor by account type:

Universal School Lunch Program (1596-2422)

Governor: $170,000,000

Final FY25: $170,000,000

Regional Transportation (7035-0006)

Claim projection: [95%]

Governor: $72,119,862

FY25: $99,456,813 (84%)

FY24: $97,077,605 (87%)

FY23: $82,178,615 (79%)

FY22: $82,178,615 (90%)

FY21: $82,178,615 (96%)

School Transportation Reimbursement (1596-2451)

Governor: $50,000,000

Language:

For reimbursements to regional school districts for the transportation of pupils and to cities, towns, regional vocational or county agricultural school districts, independent vocational schools and collaboratives for certain expenditures for transportation of nonresident pupils to approved vocational-technical programs of any regional or county agricultural school district, city, town, independent school or collaborative under section 8A of chapter 74 of the General Laws; provided, that if the amount appropriated in this item is insufficient to fully fund said section 8A of said chapter 74, initial reimbursements made by the department of elementary and secondary education may be prorated by the department to all eligible cities, towns, regional vocational or county agricultural school districts, independent vocational schools and collaboratives; provided further, that funds from this item for reimbursements to regional school districts for the transportation of pupils shall be in addition to funds appropriated in item 7035-0006; and provided further, that the commissioner of elementary and secondary education may transfer funds from this item to said item 7035-000

Circuit Breaker (7061-0012)

Claim Projection: [unknown at this time]

Governor: $531,991,844

FY25: $493,177,484

FY24: $504,573,601

FY23: $441,031,605

FY22: $373,333,860

FY21: $345,154,803

Rural Aid (7061-9813)

Governor: $16,000,000

FY25: 16,000,000

FY24: $15,000,000

FY23: $5,500,000

FY22: $4,000,000

FY21: $3,000,000

Governor's language: For rural school assistance grants to cities, towns, regional school districts, county agricultural schools, independent vocational schools, charter schools or collaboratives to increase regional collaboration, consolidation or other strategies to improve the long-term operational efficiency and effectiveness of public schools; provided, that in awarding such grants, priority shall be given to proposals that support schools and districts that have experienced, or are experiencing, significant enrollment losses that jeopardize their long-term fiscal health and ability to offer high quality educational programming

Chapter 70 Aid (7061-0008)

Governor: (Minimum Per Pupil $75 included): $7,097,168,436

FY25: $6,864,918,685

FY24: $6,584,758,265

FY23: $5,988,520,366

FY22: $5,503,268,224

FY21: $5,283,651,632

Minimum Per Pupil Aid (1596-0007 this is a line-item number change)

Governor: $0 ($75 is included in Chapter 70-line item)

FY25: $0 (included in Chapter 70-line item)

FY24:$7,864,821

FY23: $9,689,521

FY22: $0

FY21: $0

Here are some other important items to highlight:

Task Force Initiatives ~

Please see this week’s updates to these ongoing initiatives:

Improving Attendance Task Force – (Facilitators: Julie Steuernagle and Paul Sullivan, with support from Sandi Hubbard.)

● The Task Force met last week and sent out a parent survey on attendance to secondary families, and collected feedback on the Wayfinder tool, which is a nationally ranked system used for advisory lessons and social emotional supports and resources, from the teachers. They Task Force will analyze the responses and make recommendations for next steps.

Cell Phone Policy Task Force – (Facilitators: Jesse Carpenter and Charles Miller, with support from Julie Dolan.)

● Status quo for this week! The proposed policy review has been completed by the task force members and a survey was shared with faculty and staff for their feedback. This will be followed by distribution to our school community. Finally, when the Task Force has incorporated the input from all stakeholders, the proposed cell phone policy will be sent to the Policy Subcommittee for review and a vote to be recommended to the full School Committee.

To review the documentation presented at the SBRSD hearing, please see the District website at https://www.sbrsd.org/page/budget

The Superintendent Advisory Councils (SACs) will be meeting the end of February, where they will have a presentation on the Sandy Hook Promise initiative which is grant funded in partnership with the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts. We look forward to putting together a student-led team from SBRSD that will share their learnings with other students, participate in and facilitate activities around school culture and belonging, and help to bring assemblies to school as part of this effort. The SACs will also provide updates on the status of their fundraising efforts and brainstorm ideas for improving our schools!

It's wonderful to hear all the excitement from the Secondary students as the second half of the school year begins! Many have stopped by to talk about the new classes they are taking and the opportunity they have at the Middle School level to take exploratory courses. Many students already seem to have an idea of what they may want to pursue for a career and are looking to see if there are opportunities to strengthen that hunch or to change their mind and try something else! In any event, they are engaged and excited for the future!

Last night, the Community Team Meeting was held with approximately 30 participants in attendance, and we are so lucky to have our coach Holly here in person to help lead the work! We are striving to re-ground ourselves in our “why,” re-focusing on our north star, and clarifying the important role the community teams have in supporting our District goals. We deeply value the ongoing and tremendous support from our school community as we believe that this is what will sustain our work and keep educational innovation as a cornerstone of all we do in the District!

On Thursday, the SBRSD Team will be presenting at Transcend's next Board meeting! My role is to share our why, how this work has transformed the District, the lessons learned, and what our school community has gained from our partnership. There will be a student panel as well with a time for questions and answers from the Board!

At last week’s special School Committee Meeting, the students from the inaugural BerkStudio experience did a fantastic presentation on their first semester and gave a report as part of a capstone project! CTSB recorded the meeting and will be broadcasting it, and we will be posting a video and their PowerPoint presentation on the website for all stakeholders to see! We are so incredibly proud of the students, and thank their teacher, John Hammill, for his work and support of this new experience.

The website is updated so that members of the community can interact with all the events we hold throughout the year!

A link to the Transcend Partnership page can be found here: https://www.sbrsd.org/page/transcend-partnership

We encourage other members of our school community to join us in this work and share their thoughts and expertise as we continue our journey forward!

Fourth graders learned about Newton's Laws of Motion by creating interactive museum exhibits. Each group demonstrated a different law using a unique, student-designed model. They recorded videos of their exhibits and explained the scientific principles behind them.

Some of our wonderful 8th-grade students joined hundreds of other student ambassadors and participated in Project 351 over the weekend! Project 351 is a youth-led movement for change, uniting 8th graders from across the state for a year of transformative service.

Third-grade students are conducting a pendulum experiment to investigate the relationship between string length, starting point, and weight on the number of swings. They're collecting data, analyzing results, and developing their scientific thinking skills.

This time of year, there are wonderful things happening in our schools and we would like nothing more than to have you here to support our students alongside us!

Please join us for Mt. Everett’s Production of 13, Jr.! Shows will be on Friday, January 31st at 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 1st at 7:00 pm, and Sunday, February 2nd, at 2:00 pm in the Thomas A. Consolati Performing Arts Center!

The Winter sports season is in full swing, so please come out and support our athletes! We have many other events happening including Philanthropy in the Schools Event, Flying Cloud – Robots and Coding, Flying Cloud – Girls Science Club, College Resource Lab, Girl Scouts, Vex Robotics, and Drama Rehearsals - just to name a few!

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

Take a look at our Early College course offerings below! Do you see a class that interests you? Talk with our Early College Coordinator, Lindy Marcel, and enroll now!

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

Innovation Pathways offers opportunities for students to explore cutting-edge technology and in-demand fields! The program emphasizes real-world skills through career-focused experiential learning. Participants connect with industry mentors, go on field trips, get set up with internships in their areas of interest, and more!

Mount Everett currently offers two technical pathways in Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology.

To learn more about our Innovation Career Pathways please use the links below! To express interest in learning more about Innovation Pathways please use our form - Expression of Interest Form

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