Congratulations to our amazing Front Office Staff and Administrative Assistants throughout the District who collectively are this week's Educator of the Week. To say that they make everything work well in Marshfield Public Schools is an understatement. They are the first people who visitors meet when they enter a building; they comfort and help students, staff, and families when they have questions or concerns; they act quickly, providing information and support during an emergency or time of need; they communicate with all school stakeholders; they help organize and run the various programs we have that help students, staff, and families; and they are truly the heart and soul of each of our schools. We are incredibly lucky to have these amazing individuals working at Marshfield Public Schools, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are thankful they are part of the Marshfield Family. Congratulations and thank you to the following amazing people:

Marshfield High School:

Maria Medeiros

Diana DeCoste

Nicole Finn

Carl Howerton

Barbara Holden-Last

Laurie Duane

Marjory Graney

Frieda Galligan

Nancy Tellier

Furnace Brook Middle School:

Susan Martina

Melanie Drew

Kristin Haddigan

Deb Bushey

South River Elementary School:

Jaimie Noyes

Angela Hoey

Martinson Elementary School:

Trish Devlin

Carolyn Hubbard

Governor Winslow Elementary School:

Jill Bowman

Christina Mullen

Eames Way Elementary School:

Karen Admirand

Valerie Quigley

Daniel Webster Elementary School:

Diane Kennedy

Camille Morris

Granatino Early Education Center:

Lynn Neacy

Seth Ventress Central Administrative Offices:

Joanie Pozerski

Anne Rodwell

Cindy Whipple

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and loved ones. We are thankful to work in such a supportive and wonderful town. There will not be a Marshfield Matters Newsletter next week. Happy Thanksgiving and Go Rams!

A reminder that the Special Town Meeting is December 16 at 7:00PM at Marshfield High School. Among the important articles are articles regarding the Martinson Elementary School Roof Replacement project. A complete list of warrant items can be found here.

On November 2, the New Hampshire Guild of Woodworkers hosted their 2nd Annual Woodworking Competition for Student, Amateur and Professional Wood Craftspeople. 142 pieces were entered and judged by a panel of Master Furniture Craftsmen. The pieces were displayed at the University of New Hampshire and awards were given in several categories, including High School Student Woodworking.

38 students from 7 high schools (Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire) entered pieces to the competition. Marshfield High School was represented by 3 outstanding students Anderson Dalton, Elliott Gracia and Will Jones. Please congratulate them on being accepted into this competition. Anderson Dalton won the top award with his rocking chair!

Parents and Guardians, if you have interest in participating on the District-Wide Belonging Team, please click on this link. to state your interest by 3:00PM on Friday, November 22, 2024.

Principals will also be working with their staffs to choose representation. Belonging is one of the pillars of our strategic plan, and our approach to belonging is tied closely with wellness and the social-emotional learning needs of our entire school community. Please see the details below for more information regarding this great opportunity to add voice to this important team.

DISTRICT-WIDE BELONGING TEAM: FIRST MEETING IS ON DECEMBER 9 FROM 6:00PM – 7:30PM

Evening Meetings: December, January, February, March, May (plus voluntary community dialogues…TBD)

Essential Questions:

• How do we establish our social-emotional learning (SEL) practices to include engagement and education of the community, staff, students, and families on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?

• What are the intersections between DEI and SEL?

• How can our District-Wide Wellness Team inform and support our work in DEI and SEL?

• What do we need to do to have an interdisciplinary approach to SEL that includes DEI throughout the school system?

• How do we create a safe environment for having difficult conversations?

Goals of Year 1:

• Establish a District-Wide Belonging Team

• Establish a Building-Based Belonging Team at each building

• Create Mission, Vision, Theory of Action, and Community Agreements for the District-Wide Belonging Team

• Conduct Equity / SEL Audits

• Engage in Community Dialogues as part of Audits, including discussion of use of social media and Wellness (Digital Wellness)

• Organize and Run Mosaic Event (March 27)

District Belonging Team Make-up:

2 Members from SC:

3 District Leaders:

Principal or AP from each school (7 or 8 people)

Educator from each school (7 or 8 people)

3 MHS students from SSAC

6 parents (2 elementary parents, 2 middle school parents, 2 high school parents)

3 members from the Wellness Committee (Membership T.B.D. by Wellness Committee)

(Opportunities for parent / guardian participation on the Wellness Team will be forthcoming)

Bella Spalt created a teapot disguised as a birthday cake. Pretty creative!

Celebrate Marshfield's rich multicultural community at Mosaic! Whether you want to showcase your culture as an exhibitor or explore the many cultures that make Marshfield special, there's something for everyone. Enjoy live performances, music, raffles, and more! Sign ups will open in January. Mark your calendar for this vibrant event!

Student voice in everything we do at Marshfield Public Schools is important and valued. To further student voice throughout the district, I am happy to announce the formation of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SSAC). The SSAC meets with ​the Superintendent monthly, and Assistant Superintendents and other leaders (when they are available) to advise, to provide feedback, and to present viable solutions on District initiatives and programs.

Sample topics the SSAC will discuss:

• Approaches to increase student voice

• Approaches to promote cultural competency, inclusion, and diversity

• Approaches to help students cope with stress and pressure

• Approaches to promote student wellness

• Approaches to increase social opportunities for students

• Approaches to increase academic opportunities for students

• Approaches to improve transitions between schools Approaches to improve school culture

• Other...

SSAC Membership – Members selected by MPSD Principals

• Eight Students from Marshfield High School (two from each grade)

• Six Students from Furnace Brook Middle School (two from each grade)

• Two Fifth Grade Students from each Elementary School (attend evening meetings in December, February, April, and June)

Membership cycles from 7 - 12 grade. It is reestablished each year at the elementary schools and grade 6.

SSAC Members may be asked to present or to be present at some School Committee Meetings and other events as determined by the SSSAC and members will play an important role on the Belonging Team.

Congratulations to the following students who were selected for this important team. Opportunity for voice will continue and we will get more students involved through this team.

Our Learning Walks this year will revolve around Deep Student Engagement, Task Development, and Learning Environment for Students. The District Leader established look-fors are inspired by Amy Berry and her book Reimagining Student Learning, From Disrupting to Driving. This is a multi-year focus, which will involve all stakeholders.

In a nutshell, we will focus on those elements in the classroom that move students from disrupting to driving learning, while also focusing on the development of strong tasks to engage the students within a culturally responsive climate that promotes inclusion.

These lookfors are being unwrapped at staff meetings across the district. This week, we engaged in an walks of Furnace Brook Middle School, Daniel Webster Elementary School and Eames Way Elementary School . I also saw Friday morning meeting at Martinson Elementary School and lunch at Governor Winslow Elementary School. It was wonderful seeing the staff and students in action.

Thank you for your nominations!

The Marshfield School Committee and MPSD Leadership team are excited to review the nominees to select the district’s 2024 Wall of Honor induction class. The purpose of this honor is to foster pride in our system through recognition of individual achievement of former students, teachers, coaches/advisors, administrators, school committee members and friends of the Marshfield Public Schools. Questions can be directed to WallofHonor@mpsd.org.

At the last Marshfield School Committee Meeting, I was proud to present my goals, which were unanimously approved, for the 2024-2025 School Year. These goals reflect the Mission, Vision, Core Values, Pillars, and Strategic Objectives of our 2023- 2028 Strategic Plan. Each goal aligns with a Strategic Objective in the Plan. The goals are as follows:

GOAL #1: Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, I will create an entry plan in order to gain familiarity with stakeholders, to identify effective past practice and potential areas for improvement, and to facilitate a successful transition into the role of Superintendent.

GOAL #2: Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, I will focus the District on student voice and engagement through the theme of “Through the Eyes of the Student.”

GOAL #3: Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, I will collaborate with district and school leaders, staff, parents/guardians, school committee members, and students to create a “Belonging Team,” which includes Social-Emotional Learning, Wellness, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion subgroups, set goals for the district and team in these areas, and begin to implement these goals within the school community.

Goal #4:

Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, I will collaborate with leadership, and when appropriate, the Marshfield Police Department and Marshfield Fire Department, to foster effective protocols, procedures, and systems throughout the District.

The complete presentation, including the Strategic Actions and Benchmarks for each goal, can be found below by clicking on SUPERINTENDENT GOALS.

I look forward to collaborating with the entire Marshfield School Community to realize these goals.

Sincerely,

Patrick Sullivan, Ed.D.

Superintendent

Marshfield Public Schools

Vision and hearing screenings are being completed in all schools across the district. You may receive a letter from the school nurse stating that your child requires further evaluation after their screening results. Be sure to follow up with the pediatrician for next steps and if you have questions, please reach out to the school nurse. These screenings are important with the goal of early detection and intervention to prevent learning difficulties that may arise from undetected vision and hearing problems. Ellen Michaels, Certified Nursing Assistant at MES, engages with students while providing heart health education during these screenings

Our targets for this year are developed from the Strategic Plan and Vision of the Graduate and are informed by on-going data gathering, including my ongoing entry-plan work. As a District, these will be our targets and focus for the year. I realize that this year we will not finish our work in any of these areas, but the goal is to make measurable improvements in all of these areas by the end of the school year.

Family and Community Engagement: All buildings will explore Joyce Epstein’s 6 Dimensions of Family Engagement looking at the communication, community collaboration, learning at home support, parenting support, volunteering, and family input in decision-making in each building.

District and School Culture: Each building will look at the level of voice and choice of staff in each building, types and reasons for celebrations, processes for collaborative decision making, structures for collective responsibilities and governance, and traditions within the school.

Student and Staff Equity Belonging and Wellness: As a district we will be reformulating the Social Emotional Learning, Wellness, and Diversity / Equity / and Inclusion teams as subgroups under one expanded Equity Belonging and Wellness team. This team will include students and families from across the district and will function as ambassadors for the work throughout the district.

Data Driven Decisions: We will continue to build our data structures throughout the district, engage in data dialogues, and analyze and explore data to make needed changes.

Rigorous Curriculum Development: We will be firmly establishing the stages of our district-wide curriculum review cycle and engaging in curriculum adoption, including the new elementary ELA curriculum district-wide.

Financial Stability: We will be looking closely at capital and operational budget priorities and working collaboratively with existing budgets as we firm up our curriculum review cycle.

Efficient and Effective Protocol, Procedure, and System Development (including safety): We will look closely at all our procedures and protocols (at least as many as we can) through a systems thinking lens and make any needed improvements.

Collective Teacher Efficacy (which is another way of saying our ability to work effectively together in teams): This is an important focus for us. Emphasizing the importance of educator collaboration is certainly nothing new; however, through research of John Hattie in New Zealand, we now can confidently say that working well together is the most important initiative in which we can engage to produce strong academic and social emotional achievement for our students. Hattie researched over 1000 meta-analysis, 50,000 quantitative and qualitative student and teacher peer-reviewed research reports, and data covering over 250 Million students world-wide, and found that the largest effect size on student achievement is made through collective teacher efficacy. Schools and districts where educators collaborated best had the highest achievement growth.

Student Voice and Engagement in the Teaching, Learning, and Leading: Also featuring prominently in effect size are strategies that make learning visible and explicit to the students. That brings us to our theme for the year, “Through the Eyes of the Student” and our greatest focus for the year, which is student voice and engagement in the teaching, learning, and leading throughout our schools. There is nothing more paramount and important this year than continuing to foster an environment that places students first and which provides them with a culturally responsive and inclusive environment that promotes student agency and voice.

Reminder: ELPAC planning meeting

December 9th at 6:30pm

Martinson Elementary School

Attention MHS and FBMS multilingual families, translated report cards will be mailed home next week. English versions are available in Aspen.

“Tournament Time” heads down the final stretch at MHS

The MHS Football Team finished off a very scrappy Winchester Football Team, 48 - 28 in their Round of 8 Matchup. Senior Quarterback, Tor Maas returned from his injury and led the Rams offense. Seniors Charlie Carroll and Davin True continued their fine playoffs again, finding the back of the endzone multiple times for Marshfield. Defensively, Senior Alex Molander was all over the field at Linebacker making tackle after tackle. He tied the school record for most tackles in a game with 34. Ironically enough, he shares the record with his Defensive Coach, Sean Bogni. Marshfield is looking for revenge against King Philip in their Final 4 Matchup this Friday night at Bridgewater-Raynham. The Rams were defeated by K/P last year in the Division 2 Super Bowl. Marshfield is ready for their challenge.

The Girls Cross Country Season came to an end last week at Regionals. Marshfield was very

competitive in both a very packed and talented Field. Once again, the Rams were led by their very

talented team of runners. Eleanor Angeles-Whitfield, Meredith Miller, Charlotte Perreault, Ava Brunswick and Sarah Penney all had great individual runs. Congratulations Girls on a great season.

Seniors Graham Heinrich and Matt McCabe both qualified individually for Regionals and both had great runs. Graham finished 7th overall and Matt 48th in a field of 180 of the best runners in Massachusetts. Congratulations Boys on a great run and season.

The Marshfield High School Cheer Team recorded their highest score of the year at 84.4 and qualified for States. Captains Madison Cleary, Sarah Hubbard and Colleen Tierney have been leading the way all year. The Team will head out to Worcester State and compete against the best Cheer Competition Teams in Division 1. Good luck!!!

We are a little more than 10 days away from the start of Winter Sports. Where did Fall go?? Winter Registrations are open on FamilyID.

Please click on the link to access the Marshfield Public Schools PTO Page. Thank you to the PTO for all of their work in supporting Marshfield Public Schools.

How to Parent an Anxious Child

Register Here

Technology Troubles: Too Much Time Online!

Register Here

Responding to Challenging Behavior

Register Here

Please help Marshfield Facts by completing this survey. Thank You!

Discover a variety of exciting events happening across the Marshfield community! Our Community Events page is regularly updated with fresh listings, so there's always something new to check out. Don't miss out—take a look today!

For over ten years, Marshfield Education Foundation has provided opportunities for enhanced learning by working in partnership with Marshfield’s educators to fund grants that complement the social, emotional and academic development of our students.

As we enter the season of giving, we hope you’ll consider supporting the Marshfield Education Foundation with a donation to our 5th Annual Fall Giving Campaign. Donate Today!

https://givebutter.com/marshfieldfallgiving

Please click on the link to access information regarding the MEF. We are thankful for their amazing support.

Get your tickets here!

Click here for more information!

Are you, or someone you know, interested in joining our fantastic team of educators? We would love to add you to our dedicated team of Substitute Teachers. We also have a few ESP, SESP & Tutor positions we are still looking to fill. Click the link(s) below to learn more:

Employment Opportunities

Nov 25 - MHS Conferences (evening)

Nov 26 - FBMS Conferences (evening)

Nov 27 - Early Release

Nov 28, 29 - Thanksgiving Break

Dec 9 - ELPAC Planning Meeting (MES)

Dec 11 - District Wide Early Release

Dec 16 - Special Town Meeting (MHS)

Dec 20 - Holiday Break Early Release

Eames Way School

Governor Winslow School

Daniel Webster School

Martinson Elementary School

South River School

Furnace Brook Middle School

Marshfield High School

Marshfield High School Counselor Connection

Marshfield Health & Wellness

Email: psullivan@mpsd.org
Website: www.mpsd.org
Location: 76 South River Street, Marshfield MA 02050
Phone: (781) 834-5000