Superintendent's Monthly Newsletter

On November 20 we celebrated our Education Support Professionals! Those are the employees who work in Facilities, who are Administrative Assistants, who are a part of our Food Service Program and of course, our Paraeducators. Education support professionals impact EVERY part of the school community each day! We cannot do teaching and learning without ALL of them. With a tip of my hat (again) to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Sarah Courtemanche-O'Brien for creating this graphic, please join me in thanking all the ESPs in East Greenwich Public Schools!

As we continue to work together to ensure all EGPS students feel safe, welcomed, and included when they come to school, we are bound to make mistakes. Mistakes are a critical part of the learning process for all of us (adults and students alike) and as long as we learn from them, allow us to grow to our potential.

As families, you can expect to hear back from an e-mail or a phone call inquiry within 24 - 48 hours, not including vacations, holidays, or weekends. If you have not, it's appropriate at that time to reach out to that person's immediate supervisor. In addition, and as a reminder, we have a Policy on Communication Protocols approved by the School Committee. Please refer to it when you have specific concerns (or praise) to share!

On Thursday, November 7, the School Construction Committee voted unanimously to recommend a "New Build" for the Hanaford School. There was some debate as to whether this project should be an "Addition-Renovation" or a "New Build." While there is a $3.7 million cost differential, the School Construction Committee saw the unknown costs from the Addition-Renovation as daunting. In addition, a New Build would take less time, and there would not be as much disruption to Teaching and Learning.

Click here to see the PDF presented to the SCC.

The following Tuesday, November 12, both the School Committee and the Town Council voted to support the recommendation by the School Construction Committee.

We want to hear from you. Please reach out to me with feedback and questions. If you'd like to contact our partners from Ai3 and LeftField, feel welcome to write to eastgreenwichprojects@gmail.com.

Unified Athlete Pheobe Teeden-Cielo and Unified Partner Addison Fain were chosen to serve as Global Youth Ambassadors for the Special Olympics of North America. They will represent our country and state in Turin, Italy in late winter 2025. Congratulations to both students!

Have you seen greatness in EGPS? Have you witnessed an EG employee being kind, empathetic, or compassionate? Either with your own family or with someone else's? Let me know about it so that I can share it with our entire community! Click here to submit your story of greatness in East Greenwich Public Schools.

We have a new Aramark Food Service Director, Monique Herard. Ms. Herard has worked with Aramark for fifteen years as a foodservice director in multiple districts throughout the state. She earned a degree in culinary arts and am excited to bring some new food choices to our students.

To that end, we will be sending a survey to our students in the next month asking them to share feedback on the current offerings in EGPS. This will be coordinated at the building level.

We also have a Food Service Working group that is meeting monthly with Ms. Herard and the Aramark District Manager, Jay Gustaitis. This group is doing a deep dive into our food offerings and will use the results from the survey to inform next steps in EG.

Please feel welcome to reach out to Ms. Herard if you have any questions or feedback. You can reach her at: Herard-Monique@aramark.com or 401.398.1610.

At the November 7 School Committee Meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Sarah Courtemanche-O'Brien presented RICAS Scores. Click here to see that presentation.

Of note in that presentation is the fact that College Board PSAT & SAT assessments have been restructured over the last year, with the data in that presentation reflecting student use on the new digital platform, Bluebook. The platform has reconfigured the assessment design, making the PSAT & SAT adaptive assessments, based on student responses.

What that means is the data in that report are for the first group of students who took the new version of the assessments last year in the new digital platform (Bluebook). Adaptive assessments are individualized to the learner based on how they respond to test items. If a student responds incorrectly to a lower complexity item, the next question will likely be lower complexity. On the other hand, if a student answers a complex item item correctly, the next item will likely increase in complexity.

Comparing prior years' student data on the PSAT & SAT is no longer an apples to apples exercise.

Please feel welcome to follow-up with Ms. Courtemanche-O'Brien if you have specific questions about this or anything else in her presentation. You can reach her at: sobrien@egsd.net or 401.398.1433.

The time between the Thanksgiving Holiday and the Holiday Recess is an incredibly challenging time in general, let alone in schools. Children and adults are dealing with a time of year that has the least amount of daylight, the most consumerism, with rising anticipation as we approach the holiday season.

We all deserve, grace, compassion, and understanding as we try to navigate these challenging weeks. Try to give the benefit of the doubt, we will do the same. Try to see the other's point of view, we will do the same. Try to treat others better than you hope to be treated, we will do the same.

Winter Holiday Break begins on Monday, December 23. Teaching and Learning Resumes on Monday, January 6, 2025.