SPS Weekly Newsletter

This week's header photo features some of the Dawe Dragons honored for showing confidence. The Dawe School focuses on different positive character traits each month and honors students for displaying those character traits at a "Character Counts" assembly.

Stoughton’s Annual Town Meeting starts Monday, May 6. Held at Stoughton High, elected Town Meeting representatives gather to approve the town’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as appropriate funding for capital improvements or the purchase of large-scale equipment. This is a particularly pivotal Town Meeting for the Stoughton Public Schools. Town Meeting will begin with an article asking members to approve the new elementary school building project and authorize the funding for it. The Massachusetts School Building Authority recently approved the project scope and budget, and if approved at Town Meeting, Stoughton voters will be asked to approve the project during a special election in June, which will officially give the green light for the project to be built. So Town Meeting is an important step in the approval process.

I have detailed in previous messages the significance of the new elementary school project. The new school will be built for a larger enrollment, allowing us to consolidate the number of elementary schools in Stoughton from five to four (the new building, along with the Dawe, Gibbons, and Hansen), while closing the South and repurposing the Wilkins. This plan is the most efficient and cost-effective way for us to address overcrowding issues at all of the elementary schools, while providing improved facilities and educational opportunities for the largest number of students. If you would like to learn more about this project, I encourage you to watch this video about the project scope and budget and to watch this video about the consolidation plan.

In addition to the new elementary school building project, Town Meeting will be voting on the school’s proposed budget for next school year. Like many school districts across the state, we have had to deal with several financial pressure points this budget cycle, while still aiming to provide the high quality education our students deserve. We had to make some difficult decisions, but the proposed budget allows us to work toward this objective with the least amount of disruption to students, families, and staff. You can read more about the budget in a message I sent to the community back in March. Our proposed budget can be found here.

Finally, we also are asking Town Meeting for funding to make the front entrance vestibules at the O’Donnell Middle School, Wilkins School, and Jones Early Childhood Center more secure; to fund the lining and marking of parking lots at our school buildings (other than Stoughton High, which was recently done); and funding to hire a professional school security consultant to complete a thorough and comprehensive safety/security audit of all eight school buildings.

Town Meeting has traditionally championed education and I thank Town Meeting members in advance for their support this year.

Joseph F. Baeta, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Stoughton Public Schools

We are pleased to announce that Nicole Velozo has been appointed the next Director of the Jones Early Childhood Center. Ms. Velozo is currently an integrated preschool teacher at the Jones and will become Director starting July 1, 2024. She will succeed Lynda Feeney, who is retiring at the end of the school year.

Ms. Velozo has been with the Stoughton Public Schools since 2000, first as a TLC I lead teacher, and since 2011 as a lead teacher in an integrated preschool classroom. She has an extensive background working with preschool and special education students and families and has an established record of supporting students with a wide range of academic, social-emotional, and behavioral needs. She has also helped to create a preschool report card, served on curriculum committees for math and ELA, established a wellness committee for Jones staff, and mentored new teachers.

“Ms. Velozo brings over 20 years of experience in early childhood education and that was a key reason for why I selected her. She is aware of the continuous need for providing the best we can for young children and supporting the Jones professionals. I look forward to working with her,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph Baeta said.

“I am beyond excited to accept the position as Director of the Jones. It is really a dream come true,” Ms. Velozo said. “I look forward to supporting the staff, students, and the families of the Jones every day. As a teacher in the district for the past 24 years I have prided myself on making my classroom a safe and nurturing environment for our youngest learners and I will continue that work as the Director.”

Join us in congratulating Ms. Velozo on becoming the next Director of the Jones Early Childhood Center!

Nicole Velozo and Jones ECC teacher Brooke Porder pose with a group of Jones preschool students Friday afternoon.

The O'Donnell Middle School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Alex Wang, received a bronze medal at the MAJE (Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education) Southeast District Junior Festival! The festival was held Thursday at Oliver Ames High School. Jakob Tran, Jackson Gosule and Xaven Studer were all awarded outstanding musicianship awards. Congratulations!

O'Donnell Middle School students in the 8th grade drama class will be performing The Struggles this Saturday. Stoughton High is one of the host sites for the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (MTEG) Middle School Festival this weekend. In addition to OMS performing its one act play, five other middle schools will be performing at Stoughton High throughout the day. The OMS performance is scheduled for 1pm. Click here for more information about the festival. The OMS cast is pictured here.

Who can take the sunrise, sprinkle it with dew, cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two? The South School after school theater program can!

The South School after school theater program presented its production of Willy Wonka for families on Thursday night and for the whole school on Friday. The students did an incredible job acting, singing, and dancing! Congratulations to the cast and crew and to the South School staff who oversaw the production! They are pictured here on stage before the start of Thursday's performance.

Members of the Stoughton High Unified Track team are pictured here after their second home meet of the season Tuesday against Oliver Ames. Unified sports give students of all abilities the chance to take part in the high school athletics experience. Coach Liz Londergan's Black Knights squad was inspiring to watch and many of the athletes set personal bests at the meet!

(The team's t-shirts are a donation from SHS football coach Christopher Evans and the Gridiron Club.)

The Food Services department is in the process of returning money families have in their School Cafe accounts for school lunch since school lunch is free of charge. Since some families have set up their accounts to automatically replenish when it gets low, this feature will be turned off so the accounts don't replenish when the money is returned. Please note that School Cafe is used to pay for other things like AP exams and the funds in the school lunch account are separate from this. If you have any questions, please reach out to SPS Food Service Director Guy Koppe at g_koppe@stoughtonschools.org.

There will be a Multicultural Night at the Gibbons School (235 Morton St.) on Thursday, May 16 from 6-7:30pm. This event is open to all SPS families. To find out more, and how you can participate (we are looking for families to sign up and run a booth, run an activity, or volunteer), click here.

The annual Once A Knight Always A Knight 5K Walk/Run will be held Saturday, May 11 this year. The race starts at 9am at Halloran Park in Stoughton (right near the District office/Jones Early Childhood Center). For more information, including how to register, how to sponsor this event, and the race route, visit the Stoughton Recreation Department's website.

Another friendly reminder that with the school year underway, we want to make sure we have accurate and updated emergency contact information and health information for your child. Please log into your PowerSchool Parent Portal account, click on the forms link in the left navigation menu and update any information that is not accurate in the two forms - Current Student Information/Emergency Form and Current Student Health Information. When you have updated the information, please click on submit at the bottom of each of the forms. If your child's information is accurate, please click on submit at the bottom of each form to indicate that you have reviewed the data and it is accurate.

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