It’s Town Meeting time! The Monterey Town Meeting was well attended on Saturday, and the school budget passed overwhelmingly with tremendous support from the townspeople! Tonight, we are live in Sheffield at 6:00 pm and New Marlborough at 7:00 pm. Tomorrow we will be in attendance for the Egremont Town Meeting at 6:00 pm. Per the Regional Agreement, the District needs four of the five towns to vote in the affirmative for the proposed budget in order for the 2024-2025 Budget to be approved! We continue to be grateful for the exceptional support our communities provide to our schools, and the District remains committed to providing excellence in education for our students and school community!
It was also wonderful to see The District-wide Newsletter – Budget Edition, done by members of the Community Outreach & Advocacy Subcommittee and Administration, in so many people’s hands at Town Meeting! The objective was to ensure that all community members know how their investment in their schools is being used as well as to anticipate and answer any questions a taxpayer may have had prior to casting a vote at their respective town meetings!
There was some great news to report over the weekend! Julie Kelly, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools Analyst, shared that the “FY2024 year-to-date collections totaled approximately $33.857 billion, which is $1.537 billion or 4.8% more than collections in the same period of FY2023, and $889 million or 2.7% more than the year-to-date benchmark.” This is much needed positive news especially with the Senate Ways & Means FY25 Budget release due out tomorrow!
There is still time to continue our advocacy efforts with the goal of ensuring our students, staff, faculty, and families receive our fair share of funding to continue to provide excellence in education for all students!
To review the documentation presented at the hearing, please see the District website at https://www.sbrsd.org/documents/district/budgets/fy25-budget/567699 .
The Core Team is getting ready to participate in the final Rural Convening of the year with our colleagues from around the nation on Wednesday, May 8th, to share out our learnings, to collaborate, and mostly to celebrate the hard work and innovative ideas our teams have been creating and developing on behalf of our students and school communities!
This has been an amazing journey, and this kind of transformational work is the best part of our roles as we are seeing and feeling the changes happening each day in our Districts! We are looking ahead to getting our Community Team back together in newly formed subcommittees to keep the initiatives moving ahead in the next few weeks!
More information about this incredible community focused initiative is here at https://www.sbrsd.org/page/transcend-partnership.
South Egremont School
Earth Day Science
Mrs. Sue's Pre-K class celebrated Earth Day with a fizzy science experiment!
The children used eyedroppers to squirt colorful vinegar onto baking soda in round pans. It was green and blue vinegar, just like the Earth's land and oceans! They watched and listened with excitement as the mixture fizzed and bubbled, turning the white baking soda into a blue and green landscape.
Once the fizzing stopped, it was time to explore! The children carefully touched the creation, feeling how cool and soft it was. They shared what it reminded them of, with answers like sand and playdough. This activity was a fun way to celebrate Earth Day, and it also connected with what they're learning about their five senses!
Innovation Pathways offers opportunities for students to explore cutting-edge technology and in-demand fields! The program emphasizes real-world skills through career-focused experiential learning. Participants connect with industry mentors, go on field trips, get set up with internships in their areas of interest, and more!
Mount Everett currently offers two technical pathways in Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology.
To learn more about our Innovation Career Pathways please use the links below! To express interest in learning more about Innovation Pathways please use our form - Expression of Interest Form