13 Takeaways from the March 13 School Committee Meeting

Pelletier to retire, only 20% of children with disabilities are meeting or exceeding MCAS expectations

1. Business Manager Dave Libby had his final public hearing on the FY25 budget tonight. There were no changes since his presentation in February. The next step is for the budget to be approved at May Regular Town Meeting. Our original budget presentation reporting is here, and updates made at the last School Committee are here. Libby’s full presentation can be found starting on Page 5 of the packet.

2. Tonight there were multiple recognitions for TMHS athletics. The wrestling team won the Division 3 State Champions, and Athletic Director Ron Drouin highlighted competitors Jack Lightfoot, Nicky DeSisto and Ben Barrasso, and Coach of the Year Steven Kasprazak. Colby Mengata was also recognized as as the MIAA Division 4 Track & Field Championship 2024 Varsity Boys Shot Put.

3. Cast members from the Center Elementary School’s play Peter Pan sang Lost Boy for the committee. The play will be April 25 and 26 at the Wynn auditorium.

Center Elementary Students sing Lost Boy from Peter Pan

4. Regional Director Adriane DiPasquale and Assistant Area Manager of AlphaBEST gave the yearly presentation. Currently there are 259 students enrolled, and that number doesn’t include any vacation camps. This is increased enrollment since last year. The company offers five scholarships for families in the district.

DiPasquale shared that they try and wrap around the school day to provide a robust experience for students. They offer visual arts, robotics, coding, drama and sign language, as well as offering outdoor experiences, fitness activities and homework help. They rotate through activities throughout the week to keep it interesting for the kids. They’re working on getting all students on the wait list into the program and expect to be able to do so soon. There are already 100 families enrolled for summer to date.

AlphaBEST is also working with the district to bring in daycare services for employees, beginning with toddlers. There are 21 families interested in this care so far.

5. Superintendent Brenda Regan shared that the Wynn Cell Phone grant will be used to pilot Yondr Pouches at the school, with the program starting after April vacation. These are pouches that can be locked with a cell phone inside and can only be opened on an unlocking base.

6. Regan also plans to have an assistant superintendent candidate at the April meeting, given that current Assistant Superintendent Lori McDermott is leaving as of June 30.

Regan also announced that Director of Special Education Rick Pelletier will retire at the end of this school year.

7. School Committee Member Reports:

Tewksbury SEPAC: They have an upcoming forum for School Committee candidates on March 21 at 7 p.m. at TMHS.
Wellness Advisory Committee: There will be no update until the next meeting.
Policy Subcommittee: They met last Friday, but no updates this month.

8. Per Regan, the district sees no current or future need for the North Street School, as cheer is no longer using the space. Currently there is still running water, heat and electricity, but at this point there is no need to keep heat on, and the town can drain the pipes and shut down the water. Electricity will remain on for the alarm. The committee voted unanimously to turn the property over to the town; acceptance will be voted on at May Regular Town Meeting. Resident Keith Anderson did question why there wasn’t a plan to deal with taking down both schools when the new Center Elementary School was being built.

9. Every three years, every district must create a Student Opportunity Act (SOA) plan. The current focus is learning recovery for all students. McDermott noted that the SOA highlights a subset of the district’s overall initiatives.

“It’s focused on improving outcomes for student groups seeing the greatest disparities, said McDermott. Currently only 20% of children with disabilities are meeting or exceeding expectations on the MCAS, and the average student is showing less than one year’s growth.

The district will focus on making sure special education students are making growth. There is also concern that 46% of special education students were chronically absent, which means they’ve missed 10% of the school year.

“We are a community that fully includes everybody,” said Regan. “I think if people hear that, that’s what we truly … what we’re attempting to include, is really all students.”

10. From June 24 through July 2, for the Superintendents Evaluation Timeline, the School Committee will receive evolution documents via email, the Superintendent will distribute and review progress of goals and self-assessment and individual School Committee members will meet with the Superintendent. Around July 10, School Committee members will submit their evaluations to Chair Bridget Garabedian, who will summarize the data. Around July 17, the School Committee will deliver an oral and written summary of Regan’s evaluation in public session.

11. In 2005, the district had a Long Range School Space Planning Committee (LRSSPC) bring in an outside company to conduct a study to assess the conditions, needs, space, projected enrollment and capital improvements related to Tewksbury schools. That report concluded that five schools had outlived their usefulness. Since then, three have been replaced with the new TMHS and the Center Elementary School, while the Dewing and Heath Brook are still in use. The district will ask the Select Board to bring back this committee to re-evaluate the current schools.

12. In School Committee matters of interest, Garabedian noted that the July meeting needs to be moved to the 24th because both Regan and McDermott will be at the MASC conference. She noted that it’s Nick Parson’s final meeting and thanked him for his service, saying they both joined the committee during a tricky time. The rest of the committee expressed similar sentiments.

Parsons said that it was a privilege to serve the town during trying times. He thanked his fellow committee members, and district and town staff. He added that Regan exceeded expectations in his mind, and he encouraged everyone to think about the benefits of the job of teaching, aside from money because there is not enough right now.

Kayla Biagioni-Smith thanked Wynn drama teacher Jon DiPrima for the recent trip to see Wicked in New York. Rich Russo thanked the Center School for having him in to read to three classes during Read Across America week. And finally, Garabedian reminded the community that nominations are still open for the Ginsberg Family and Krissy Polimeno Outstanding Educator Awards, which we reported on here.

13. Future Meeting Dates: