The Cohasset Compass

Hello and welcome to the new CPS District newsletter - The Cohasset Compass. The goal of this newsletter is to communicate important information about the district in a meaningful way. We will be sending this newsletter out approximately twice per month. In addition to the District newsletter, families will receive individual school newsletters on regular basis. We encourage you to read those for more school-specific news. As always, should you have questions or wish to sit and talk, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at sshannon@cohassetk12.org.

Ever Onward,

Sarah

We are off to a great start. It was fun to be at each school to watch our students return for a new school year. At each school, there were smiles on everyone - on our students, on the staff, and even in some cars as we saw parents dropping their children off. It can be hard to get back into the swing of things for our older students and some of our youngest kiddos have an adjustment period as they shift from being home to being back in school but as I walked around the buildings last week and today, students were actively engaged and learning. We are so excited to have then back.

To help you learn more about your child's day, we hope you will join us at their school's open house where you will have a chance to meet their teacher(s), become familiar with their classroom routines, and be introduced to their curricula. Our open houses will be held on the following dates:

• Osgood - Tuesday, September 17
• Deer Hill - Thursday, September 19
• CHS - Tuesday, September 24**
• CMS - Thursday, September 26**

Each of the building principals will reach out with more specific times and details.

**At the conclusion of the CMS and CHS Open Houses, we will host a community forum to share information about the school feasibility study for the Cohasset Middle & High School Buildings. All, including elementary parents/guardians, are invited to attend either of these sessions. They will be held in CMHS Learning Commons from 7:45 - 8:45pm.

The District is engaged in a feasibility study to determine options for the future Cohasset Middle and High Schools. A foundational element in the feasibility process is to create an educational vision. While this is a secondary, specific vision that will drive the design of a future building, it will also serve as a foundational element for our future districtwide strategic plan. Therefore, it is important to us that our elementary staff and families are represented in this process as key stakeholders along with our secondary community.

We invite you to join us in this work and to help shape the future of teaching, learning, and space in our future Cohasset Middle-High School. This multi-session series will guide us in creating a shared vision for our schools.

While attendance at all sessions is not mandatory, membership in these sessions will be prioritized based on the ability to participate in each to ensure a comprehensive and cohesive vision.

Session 1: Understanding Middle & High School Students

Monday, October 7 @ 8:30-11:30; CMHS Learning Commons
Define the academic and social-emotional characteristics of middle and high school students. Explore similarities and differences between age groups and discuss structures and programs that foster independence, separation, and connection within the school.

Session 2: Visioning Instruction and Wellness

Tuesday, October 15 @ 8:30-11:30; CMHS Learning Commons
Identify high-quality instructional practices, learner engagement strategies, and ways to “empower students to improve communities.” Define our vision for social-emotional wellness, assess current practices, and explore areas for growth in the future Cohasset Middle-High School.

Session 3: Designing the Ideal Learning Environment

Tuesday, October 29 @ 8:30-11:30; CMHS Learning Commons

Using insights from prior sessions, define the ideal learning environment, including key space types, program adjacencies, and guiding design principles for the new school.

If you are interested in joining us in this work and can attend all three sessions, please complete this form by Friday, September 20, 2024. We will confirm membership for participants by Wednesday, September 25, 2024. Ideally, our sessions will include 8-10 staff members and 8-10 parents/guardians representing grades Pk-12.

Thank you for considering participation in this important work.

If you aren't able to join us for the visioning sessions, we encourage you to be informed and share your voice in the feasibility study process. To facilitate this, we will be holding a series of community forums for all community members, those who have children in the system and those who don't. Our first community forum will be hosted by the District and Ai3, the architects who are running the study.The presentation will include an overview of the feasibility study and conceptual design process for Cohasset Middle/High School, with background on previous and upcoming activities to inform the study and design options.

Additionally, we will have an 8'x12' map of the site for community members to participate in an information-gathering-and-brainstorming activity. We invite all families Pk-12 to attend.

For this first meeting, we will run the same meeting twice (so only come to one session) to align with the CMS and CHS open house nights. We invite you to join us on either Tuesday, September 24 at 7:45 OR Thursday, September 26 at 7:45 in the CMHS Library Commons. The next community forum will be held in November. We will communicate more information about that session once we've confirmed it.

We are excited to share that Alumni Field is getting a new scoreboard. More information about this will be coming soon. In the meantime, we want to let everyone know that the transition from the old board to the new is happening now and into next week. They poured the foundation and installed the footings this week. They are curing over the weekend and the new scoreboard will be installed Monday and Tuesday. It will be up and running by mid-week!

• September 17: Osgood Open House
• September 18: School Committee Meeting at 6:00pm
• September 18 @ 7:00pm: Anxious Generation Community Discussion hosted by Buttonwoods Books and Toys. You can register for the event here.
• September 19: Deer Hill Open House
• September 20: Early Release for Professional Learning (Districtwide). Please see your school websites for dismissal times.
• September 24**: CHS Open House and CMHS Feasibility Study Community Forum
• September 26**: CMS Open House and CMHS Feasibility Study Community Forum
• September 27 - 28: CHS Homecoming Weekend