April 30, 2024

Dear Parents, Guardians, Caregivers, Staff, and Community Members:

As I visit throughout the school district, I am surrounded by examples of positivity throughout each building and grade level. Our staff and students are amazing, and I am always grateful to lead our school community. Below, you will read about some of the amazing things happening in our schools, but I will share a few of the recent happenings I have been involved in.

One of the highlights of my role as Superintendent is engaging in conversations with students across all grade levels, particularly during my Superintendent Student Roundtable meetings throughout the year. Last week I met with my students at Miller and RAMS, and tomorrow I will speak with Placentino students. The student voices are so uplifting and truly help inform decision-making regarding school safety and improving teaching and learning.

The principals and I held our third PreK-12+ “Coffee Hour” last night (via Zoom) to continue to answer questions and share the work that is happening to align the school district and continue to seek equitable opportunities for all students. We had great participation and parents indicated they would welcome another Zoom event in June. Stay tuned for dates and please join us next time.

Today, I was thrilled to walk with students on the Safe Routes to Schools spring walks from Blair Square. The number of Placentino students and parents walking and biking today was impressive. I hope this is just the beginning of daily walks and bike rides to school to enhance physical wellness and mindfulness for our students.

Tomorrow night, I will be providing updates regarding the FY25 Budget at the school committee meeting. Like many communities, Holliston faces challenges in funding unforeseen costs, particularly related to transportation and other increasing school expenses for the 2024-2025 school year. Unfortunately, this has necessitated the recommendation to reduce six positions within our schools. While this is a difficult decision, rest assured that we have carefully examined enrollment shifts to ensure that these reductions will not negatively impact class sizes or programs. We remain committed to offering excellent educational opportunities for all students, including unique program offerings such as French Immersion and Montessori at the elementary level.

I look forward to seeing you at the various end-of-year events happening at all levels within our schools. Additionally, mark your calendars for the Celebrate Holliston Parade on May 11th, where we can come together as a community to celebrate our town. Here's to warmer days ahead and continued success for our students and schools!

Warm regards,

Susan E. Kustka, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

We have so much to be thankful for and celebrate here in Holliston, thank you for always putting kids first. Here are a few exciting updates from the Student Service Office.

Congrats to our Athletes!!

The 5-Town Special Olympics were held on Friday, April 26th, and we had a fantastic turnout with athletes representing Holliston, Ashland, Millis, Medway, and Medfield. Holliston had 28 athletes from Grades 3-12+ competing in the "World Wide of Sports", with events in soccer, basketball, golf, and relay. We also had 3 very special guests from our very own New England Patriots. It was truly a joyous day, filled with smiles, strength, positivity, and beautiful sunshine! We finished the day with a medal ceremony presented by our own Holliston Police and closed with a fun picnic lunch together.

We are incredibly proud of our athletes and thankful to our volunteers, trainers, and Holliston Fire and Police for escorting us to and from the event. Finally, a special thanks to Wendy Krauss and Karen Mahon, and a HUGE thank you to Holliston’s very own Tom Lamont of Lamont Plumbing & Heating who sponsored our athletes and made a very generous donation to provide t-shirts for all athletes and volunteers.

Just a reminder that our Special Program Portal is now fully operational for all families with students on IEPs and 504s. By fully operational we mean that we are pleased to share that you can now access any “finalized” documents including; meeting invitations, attendance sheets, IEPs, and 504s, AND you can now access all evaluations under “self-service documents”.

Evaluations will be uploaded to the portal at least 48 hours before your child's meeting, and you will have the ability to print all documents from the portal if you choose. If you have not yet logged into Special Programs, please follow the attached instructions below.

Please know that this portal provides security measures that control external access to your child’s confidential information. Each time something is uploaded into your portal, you will receive a notification from “donotreply@specialeducation.powerschool.com", with a link to log in directly to the Special Programs Parent Portal using your username and password.

Using this portal means we will no longer pdf documentation, this will assist us in maintaining the utmost security of your child’s information. As always if you have any questions or concerns please reach out to your building SSA or Jess Beattie at beattiej@holliston.k12.ma.us

We encourage all families with students who receive Special Education Services to attend our upcoming Family EdSeries: Introducing the NEW IEP. This will be held on May 7th at 6:30pm via zoom, and provided by the Director of Student Services and supported by the Student Service Administration Team. We will provide a deep dive into DESE's New IEP, which will be launched across the state this Fall. This event will be recorded and posted to the HPS Webpage.

If you missed Part II: Demystifying Dyselxia held on April 23rd, please use this LINK to view the recording and access all resources.

As we welcome the blossoming of spring, I am delighted to share some exciting updates from Arch 2 Social Emotional Wellbeing. On the front of Trauma Sensitive Schools, we've continued to make significant progress in prioritizing the emotional well-being of our students. Our steadfast commitment to building resilience and empathy lays the foundation for inclusive and supportive spaces. I eagerly anticipate over 15 educators completing their fourth graduate course in May through Lesley University's "Institute for Trauma Sensitivity" and receiving their certificate in "Trauma & Learning". We are proud to announce that we continue to set the stage for RULER SEL development. Our educators have been working diligently to learn, practice, and examine the RULER approach. This groundwork will enable us to implement RULER with students starting in the 24-25 school year. The Equity Audit Steering Committee continues to work diligently to promote inclusivity and diversity across our schools.

Warm regards,

Jariel Vergne

Director of Social Emotional Learning & Equity

As previously shared, Holliston Public Schools will be utilizing RULER as part of our Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) approach, and we want to share some of the benefits with you. In the future, we will provide tips, conversation ideas for home, and other ways in which social-emotional learning can be integrated into our greater community.

RULER for Families is designed to connect parents and caregivers to the work we will be doing in schools for the 2024-25 school year. By reinforcing the value of emotions in families, we aim to provide you with tools to better understand and manage emotions, both for yourselves and your children.

Through RULER, we will offer innovative ways to engage families, including in-person sessions where you can learn alongside other families. Our content will be developmentally appropriate and will focus on skill-building opportunities to help you recognize, understand, and manage emotions effectively.

We will provide practical activities to help you feel more comfortable with emotions and guide you in supporting warm and secure relationships within your family. The language we use will be approachable and inclusive, centered around concepts like kindness, happiness, and confidence.

As we approach the 2024-25 school year, the Family Resource section of our SEL approach aims to help you be your "best self" as a caregiver – patient, responsive, and loving, while also setting high standards for our children. This program will validate and broaden social and emotional skill learning at home, honor cultural diversity, and prepare children for success in life.

If you're interested in learning more about RULER and emotional intelligence, we encourage you to watch the following video: RULER Overview video

Stay tuned for more information regarding RULER as we move into the summer and begin to share and plan for the 2024-2025 school year.

Lesley University's "Institute for Trauma Sensitivity" and Holliston Public Schools have partnered since Fall 2022 to offer educators graduate-level courses. This program allows educators to take up to 5 courses, concluding with an in-depth examination of Racism, Equity, and Trauma. Upon completion, educators receive a certificate from Lesley University in Trauma Sensitive Schools, setting the stage for Social-Emotional Wellbeing and Belonging in our schools.

Equity Audit Steering Committee:

The District's Equity Audit Steering Committee, comprised of diverse individuals representing Educators, Students, Parents, and Administrators, continues to meet regularly. Each member brings a unique perspective based on various identities, including race, gender, ethnicity, language, learning style, experience, and age. Together, they reflect on recommendations from the equity audit and contribute to the development of action steps.

Recently, three committee members reported on progress and their experiences with the work so far. To learn more about the update presented during the School Committee meeting on February 29, 2024, you can watch the video below.

We have upgraded all district phones to Zoom Phone with cloud-based services and additional AI features. We are interested in your experiences when you are now calling the buildings to reach the front office, other staff members, or leave a message for the attendance/tardy lines. Please email me directly at macleodd@holliston.k12.ma.us with any suggestions/ feedback to improve our phone communication with families.

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep students safe online, we are piloting a new content filter and classroom management solution called Deledao. This solution will also hopefully address our growing need to be able to customize filtering and classroom management to align with curriculum needs.

We are currently testing this new solution in grades 5 - 8 with plans to expand to other grade levels in the coming weeks. If we decide to adopt this solution, we will share additional features that will benefit parents/guardians/caregivers who are interested in additional off campus safety features.

All the best!

Dan MacLeod

Director of Technology & Digital Learning

All of Holliston's Curriculum & Instruction work is part of our Stategic Plan's Arch 3: Teaching & Learning. We are excited to share some of the important work that is being done is this area.

Warmly,

Joanne Menard, Ed.D.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction

Currently Holliston has Curriculum Review Committees for the following: World Language, Math, Science , and ELA (secondary only). Each committee has been following the District Curriculum Review Process which includes the following:

• Gather and Review the following

• District Strategic Plan

• National, State and Local assessment results

• Current Scope and Sequence

• MA Curriculum Frameworks

• Current grade level expectations

• Vision of the Graduate Expectations

• Current Textbooks and resource materials

• Evaluations by outside agencies (DESE, NEASC, etc)

• Course Descriptions from Program of Studies

• Examine Comparable Districts

• Review current research in content area

• Currently offered content-specific teacher professional development

• Any other relevant information

• Create a district vision of standards-based, rigorous content - curriculum

• Utilize DESE’s recommended Instruction Partners’ Curriculum Support Guide, 2018 to choose and pilot potential curricular materials and resources

• Identify district needs and make final recommendation to the Superintendent using consensus for appropriate next steps

After each review is completed, a report will be made public on the Teaching & Learning website and shared out with the community.

Holliston Public Schools was awarded a Genocide Education Grant in the amount of $31,150 from the Department of Education (DESE) for the 2024-2025 school year. The grant will be used to support a partnership with Facing HIstory and Ourselves (FHAO), a Brookline based international civic education organization. FHAO will provide professional development to teachers to strengthen their pedagogical content knowledge and expertise in genocide studies. The grant is offered to support districts as they implement the Genocide Education Law [Mass General Law Chapter 71 section 98(a)].

The first annual Mathapalooza was held on March 14th (Pie Day) from 6:30-7:30 p.m.. A huge shout out to Ashley Bouchard, our Elementary School Math Specialist who organized and ran this hugely successful event. Many families from both Placentino and Miller schools attended (there were over 700 students and parents in attendance!!!). Students had a ton of fun participating in STEM activities. If you were unable to attend this year, please consider attending next year.