Superintendent's Update

Dear Faculty & Staff of South Kingstown School District,

As we enter June and begin to bring closure to a remarkable 2024-25 school year, and while there is still a tremendous amount of work and special events that lie ahead, I find myself thinking about the dedication and talent that has been on display all year long in SKSD. This month's update opens with two such items that capture and celebrate the excellence that you all have brought to South Kingstown throughout this school year.

First, I am thrilled to extend congratulations to our SKSD Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Katie Bubrick. Katie, our exceptional mathematics teacher at South Kingstown High School, received this well-deserved recognition on Thursday during a surprise announcement at a SKHS pep rally. The moment was made even more meaningful by the presence of Katie's family—her wife, aunt, and mother (who made the trip from Florida) to witness this celebration of Katie's outstanding contributions to students, colleagues, and the SKHS community. Katie's innovative teaching methods, unwavering commitment to student success, and collaborative spirit exemplify the very best of what it means to be an educator in our district.

Second, as we prepare to honor excellence across all roles within our educational team, I am pleased to announce our call for nominations for the district's Educator Support Professional (ESP) of the Year. Our ESPs—Administrative Assistants, 1:1 Teaching Assistants, Classroom Teaching Assistants, Child Outreach, and Health Assistants—are the backbone of our operations and play an invaluable role in creating the environment where learning thrives. I encourage you to submit nominations for those colleagues whose dedication, professionalism, and positive impact deserve recognition. Nominations can be accessed by clicking here and will be available until 4 PM on Friday, June 13th.

As we look toward the final weeks of this academic year, I want to once again acknowledge the tremendous professionalism and dedication to our students and families you have all demonstrated throughout this school year. Your unwavering dedication has brought our foundational themes of “safe, engaged, and future-focused” learning to life in classrooms and schools across the district. You have created safe environments where every student feels valued and supported, fostered high levels of engagement with innovative learning experiences that spark curiosity and critical thinking, and maintained a future-focused approach that prepares our students for success beyond graduation. Your commitment to these foundational principles continues to make South Kingstown a district we can all be proud to call home.

In the sections below, you will find important information about year-end procedures, summer professional development opportunities, and preparations for the 2025-26 school year. As we enter the season of end-of-year concerts, award banquets, moving-up ceremonies, and, of course, graduation, I look forward to celebrating this year’s collective achievements as we close this chapter and begin planning for the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.

With sincere appreciation and gratitude,

Michael

“When large numbers of people have a deeply understood sense of what needs to be done—and see their part in achieving that purpose—coherence emerges and powerful things happen.”

~Michael Fullan~

I am very excited to share that the professional development subcommittee was able to secure the services of Ariana DeAngelis (Ariana’s bio) from The Autism Project for the opening session of our PD Day: Exploring Autism - A Deep Dive. This session, paired with an immediate breakout session with colleagues, will assist us- not only in responding to findings of the District’s Equity Audit- but also insure we are taking concrete actions and implementing best/next practices to accomplish the district’s mission to “...educate and engage ALL of our students” as well as meet our collective commitment of “Continuous Improvement” through the “use of thoughtful, systematic processes to evaluate and improve all programs, strategies, and practices”.

In other related opening PD news, the PD Committee is looking for your help in nominating a colleague to help facilitate a session during our August PD day. Have a colleague in mind? Submit a response here by June 16th.

Continuing with the theme of things I am very excited to let you know about, I am pleased to let you know that we have secured multiple licences for the asynchronous micro course “Building Bridges Between Gen Ed and Special Ed” via Novak Education. This course not only delivers content in an engaging and thoughtful manner, but also helps foster educator voice and the confidence necessary to advocate for increased opportunities for inclusion and differentiation through UDL in order to help us meet the needs of all students who attend SKSD.

From the course description:

This course is designed to give participants the needed mindset and skills for facilitating high-quality, inclusive instructional experiences that blend targeted Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) with rigorous standards-based instruction that utilizes the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This course is meant to be a resource for special education teachers, general education teachers, service providers, paraprofessionals, and/or district and site leaders.

As we make a shift next school year and implement a transition day as the first day of school next year (Tuesday, September 2nd), I am happy to hear about the high level of collaboration and the variety of activities planned for students. This being said, I want to be sure that we are also supporting our colleagues in kindergarten who, due to their students’ age, development, and limited school experiences, are unable to have a first day organized by departments or grade-level teams like those being planned at BRMS and SKHS.

To this end, all faculty and staff who regularly deliver instruction and provide support to kindergarten students should plan to work with kindergarten teams to deliver instruction/services during the transition day. Should you have any questions about your school’s plans for 9/2/2025, please touch base with your building principal.

If you have read the SKSD Equity Audit, you will read about the importance of high expectations for all students. But you don’t need to take it from the authors of the audit, take it from John Hattie’s research. In Hattie’s research, the average score equating to one year of academic growth is .4, so anything above .4 has a greater effect size on student learning. Knowing this, the effect size of “Teacher Estimates of Achievement” is a 1.2 and holds the largest weighted effect mean size of over 400 different influences studied (i.e. it’s #1).