SPS Weekly Newsletter

This week's header photo features Gibbons School second graders performing at their spring concert Friday morning!

I want to provide families with an update about bus transportation for next school year. Given the reality we are facing with our overall budget situation for next year while still wanting to be able to retain the amount of buses needed to sufficiently transport our students to and from school each day, we needed to go back to a fee-based pay and ride system. There will be a $375 per student fee to ride the bus in 2025-2026, with a family cap of $750. Those eligible for free and reduced lunch would be eligible for reduced rates for bus transportation.

Per our bus transportation guidelines, elementary students living more than 0.25 miles away from their school, and secondary students living more than 0.5 miles away from their school are eligible for bus transportation. Additionally, any student in Kindergarten through Grade 6, who lives more than 2 miles from the school they are entitled to attend, shall be eligible for transportation at no cost (MGL., c71, sec 68). The full, revised bus transportation guidelines, approved at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, can be found by clicking here.

A new contract for bus transportation was also approved on Tuesday. Only one vendor, our current provider First Student, put in a bid. The contract the district signed is for three years and while the cost increase is reasonable given the market right now, it is still a substantial increase to transportation costs, further necessitating the need to have transportation fees. In fact, the cost for transportation under this new contract is $31,000 more than what we budgeted for when our proposed FY26 budget was approved by the School Committee (we had to submit a budget before this contract was settled), so we will already need to find additional funds on July 1 when the new fiscal year starts.

More information will be provided to families about when the bus transportation application period will take place. At this point, I simply wanted to make you aware of the situation.

Finally, I will be holding office hours to discuss the proposed FY26 budget for the Stoughton Public Schools. Families, staff, Town Meeting representatives, Finance Committee members, and community members are invited. The first session is scheduled for this Saturday, March 15, 2025 from 10-11:30am at the District Office, 31 Pierce St. Please read this letter for more information and refer to the graphic below for a full schedule of office hours.

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Joseph F. Baeta, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Stoughton Public Schools

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) requires districts to submit an Educational Program Plan that goes over the educational needs of the district and how the new building would support these needs. The building design for the proposed new elementary school was literally shaped by this education plan. Wilkins Principal Katie Monahan and South School Principal Jake Dore wrote this plan back in 2023 with stakeholder input from parents, students, teachers, staff, administrators and community members. They presented a list of 10 key priorities from this education plan at the School Committee meeting Tuesday night (summarized below):

Areas located within each wing, collaboration spaces are a place for small groups of students and teachers to work together.

A dedicated area dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics instruction.

Updated safety elements throughout the building to surround students and staff with 21st century support and protection.

• Double entry vestibules

• Reinforced glass

• Up to date alarm systems

• Automatic locking mechanisms

The plan includes spaces throughout the building and grounds that support learning opportunities. Examples from other schools are shown below:

Rooftop sustainable garden space, exposed and labeled piping, recycled water system, etc.

• Making learning visible & relevant

• Supports the MA Science standards

Target 4% reimbursement as noted in MSBA Project Advisory 81

• LEED Silver (v4)
• All Electric Building: ‘Net Zero Ready’
• PV Ready
• Air & Ground Source Heat Pumps (partial geothermal)
• A building that educates students, staff, and the community about sustainable building strategies
• Air Quality Awareness
• Mindful Material Selection

Appropriate spaces for specialized populations, including special education learning spaces, counseling/speech/physical therapy/occupational therapy offices, and multilingual learner class spaces.

This building includes appropriate spaces for teachers to plan and prepare lesson material, classroom spaces, lunch/collaboration spaces, meeting spaces and conference rooms, and parking spaces.

Click on the button below to review the education plan in full. You can also watch the presentation from the School Committee meeting (it starts approximately 19:45 into the video):

The Stoughton High School Tuesday Jazz Band is pictured here getting ready for their performance with legendary, Grammy-winning musician, Bijon Watson. Come see our Evening of Jazz on Wednesday, March 19 from 5:30-8:30 at SHS! The event will feature performances by the SHS Jazz Bands, Oliver Ames Jazz Band, O'Donnell Middle School Jazz Band, the SHS Jazz Voices, and special guest Bijon Watson!

Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 at the door and can be purchased by clicking here.

Speaking of the Stoughton High Tuesday Jazz Band, after a successful performance at the recent Southeast MAJE Regional festival, the band qualified to perform at the Massachusetts MAJE State Finals Festival on March 22nd at Norwood High School!

At the MAJE Regional festival, Caleb Mendonca, Andrew Carlson and Nicolas Uchani were awarded "Outstanding Musician" Awards.

Additionally, Andrew Carlson, a senior, also received the most prestigious award of the night - the Division II "MVP" or Most Valuable Player Award among all bands in attendance at the festival.

Congratulations!

The Dawe School has its own twist on "The Masked Singer," a popular TV show where celebrities perform in costume to conceal their identity. At the Dawe, Mindy Redman, Math Instructional Coach, created "The Masked Mathematician" where a Dawe staff member is in disguise, gives some hints about who they might be, and then asks the students to solve a math word problem, one for grades K-2 and another for grades 3-5. The video below was shown during the Dawe School's morning announcements program earlier this week. The answers (and the identity of the masked mathematician) were revealed at the end of the week.

Attention families looking to register for next school year:

The pre-registration portal for preschool, kindergarten, and grades 1-12 for the 2025-2026 school year is open. More information and the link to the pre-registration forms can be found by clicking here.

Please keep in mind:

• Preschool students must be 3 or 4 years of age by August 31, 2025 and be toilet trained. Pre-registration does not guarantee a spot in the preschool program as there are limited spots available.
  
  
• For kindergarten, children must be 5 years old by August 31, 2025. Any student currently attending the Jones Early Childhood Center for preschool that will be entering kindergarten in the fall must still register for kindergarten.
  
  
• Students only need to register for grades 1-12 if they do not currently attend the Stoughton Public Schools.

Registration is open for the upcoming spring sports season for both Stoughton High and the O'Donnell Middle School. See the graphics below for more details. Click here to register.

Save the date! Next week the O'Donnell Middle School Drama Club presents Alice in Wonderland Jr. at the Stoughton High Auditorium! Performances take place:

• Thursday, March 20 at 7pm

• Friday, March 21 at 7pm

• Saturday, March 22 at 2pm

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. Tickets will be sold at the door and can also be purchased in advance by clicking here.

Looking forward to another great production from the OMS!

The Jones ECC PTO has rescheduled its meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Baeta and TJ Recupero from the Elementary School Building Committee to Monday, March 24 at 6pm at the Jones Early Childhood Center(137 Walnut St.). This is a great opportunity to find out more about the new elementary school project and redistricting. Families from all schools are welcome!

Attention Parents/Guardians/Community Members: Recruiting any professionals in the trades, healthcare, STEM, business, information technology, law/government, transportation, and marketing (not limited to these) industries willing to discuss their careers and answer questions for the event above please contact SHS College and Career Counselor, Ashley Guba: a_guba@stoughtonschools.org.

Did you know that March is National Reading Month? The SHS National English Honor Society is hosting their first ever Reading Knight on Thursday, March 27 from 6-7:30pm! Students are invited to come to the event and celebrate their love of reading. This event is for SPS students of ALL ages. Click here for more details.

International Social Emotional Learning Day was earlier this week on March 10th. The day celebrates how SEL is “Uplifting Hearts, Connecting Minds.” Studies show SEL reduces stress and promotes self-regulation, self-awareness, social awareness, decision-making, and relationship building. Here are some specific examples of how SEL can positively impacts students:

• Higher levels of empathy
• Increased social confidence
• Better attitude about school
• More responsible decisions
• Better recognition of emotions

When your student is able to recognize difficult emotions and would like help finding a mental health care provider for them, use Care Solace, a complimentary and confidential care coordination service provided by Stoughton Public Schools:

• Call 888-515-0595. Multilingual support is available 24/7/365.
• Visit caresolace.com/stoughtonschools and either search on your own OR click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone.

Our goal is for our students to feel uplifted hearts and connected minds!

For updates throughout the week, be sure to follow Stoughton Public Schools on social media: