Superintendent's Newsletter
September 2024
Dear School Community,
First and foremost, I want to congratulate all of our students on a successful start to the school year. It has been an absolute pleasure interacting with our students and faculty members this past month when visiting our school buildings. Already, our classrooms have become learning communities where our students have established and adopted routines, expectations, hopes, and dreams for the 2024-2025 school year. Second, I want to thank all of our families for their ongoing support within our school community. We know that when schools and families work together to support learning - children benefit. I enjoyed meeting and reconnecting with many of our parents, guardians, grandparents, and family members at our recent open houses.
With all respect,
Michael S. Nelson
Superintendent of Schools
The district nurses want to welcome everyone back to school! We are seeing students with colds, viruses, etc. in our school buildings. For clarification purposes, we wanted to share the current guidelines for Covid-19. Please review this information here.
From Dr. Fedorowicz
We are excited to share updates on the successful completion of our Year One Strategic Plan, which focused on enhancing educational experiences across our schools. Vision2028 updates and expectations for Year Two are included in this shared video. As part of our continued commitment to academic excellence, we are proud to introduce several new DESE-approved curricula this year. In elementary literacy, we are in the second year of implementing IntoReading, designed to support comprehensive language and reading skills. For grades 5-8, we are expanding OpenSciEd, a hands-on, inquiry-based science program, and rolling out Investigating History to deepen students' historical understanding. Additionally, our math curriculum for grades 7 and 8 now includes Desmos Math, which fosters engagement and conceptual learning through interactive lessons. These updates and professional development aligned to implementation and pedagogy were made possible by the grants we were awarded, which have helped move us forward in our Curriculum Review Cycle, aligned with Vision2028. I am very proud of our educators and students for their commitment to teaching and learning. Thank you for all of your dedication and support for our school community. We look forward to a year of growth and achievement for all our students!
From Dr. Curley
It has been so nice meeting staff, students and families this month! The special education teams throughout the districts have begun using the new IEP form. When you receive the meeting invite for your child’s IEP meeting, please use the link provided to view the new document. Please reach out to Jaime Curley at jaimecurley@oldrochester.org or 508-758-2772, ext 1942 with any questions.
Please join me at the “Meet and Greets” that I am holding throughout the districts:
9/26 - 2:00-3:00pm at Old Hammondtown School
9/27 - 2:00-3:00pm at Rochester Memorial School
10/2 - 8:30-9:30am at Center School
10/2 - 2:00-3:00pm at Sippican Elementary School
10/2 - 4:30-5:30pm at Central Office Conference Room
10/10 - 1:30-2:30pm at ORR HS/JHS in the High School Library
Sippican Elementary School has partnered with the Marion Institute to participate in the Grow Education Farm-to-School (Grow FTS) program for the second year in a row. Read more.
At Old Rochester Regional High School, ten students have earned the AP Capstone Diploma.™ Additionally, 9 students earned the AP Seminar and Research Certificate™ during the 2023-24 school year. Read more.
Did you know that our districts are served by five regular school committees? Throughout ht emonth of September, our school committees heard an update from administration on the start of school, reviewed many donations and the school improvement plans for each of our schools. Click here for the complete schedule, meeting resources and minutes.Upcoming meetings:
October 3rd - Rochester School Committee
October 10th - ORR School Committee
October 17th - Mattapoisett School Committee
October 24th - Marion School Committee
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