Hello everyone! The school year is in full swing, and seems to be off to a great start. There is so much important learning taking place in classrooms from Pre-K to 12+, and we on the School Committee always enjoy hearing about the wonderful things our teachers and staff are doing with their students, and about the many initiatives taking place at the administrative level.

Town Meeting

At the October 16 Holliston Town Meeting, the schools made a budget request for new Chromebooks for all students in grades 5 and 8, which passed! Having Chromebooks for all students helps create equity in town, so we’re very grateful to the citizens for allowing this to happen.

Teacher Forum

On Thursday 10/12 the School Committee members held an open forum for Holliston teachers so that we could hear their feedback and get teacher input. We had an excellent turnout of teachers and paraprofessionals from all four schools. Thank you so much to all the teachers who came… your input is so important as we strive toward more open communication among all constituents in town!

Policies

As you may know, creating and evaluating district-wide policies is one of the main jobs of the School Committee. Reviewing each policy is a long, detailed process, and many other policies are currently in the works. Here are the policies we’ve most recently finalized, which are viewable on the School Committee website along with all of our policies:

ACAB– Sexual Harassment/Title IX

JICFB– Bullying Prevention

FF– Naming School Property

KCD– Public Gifts to Schools

JLTA– Life-Threatening Allergies

JIC– Student Discipline

Office Hours

The School Committee has a goal of increasing communication with all stakeholders in town, and finding ways to gather more input from all members of the community. One of the ways we’d like to do this is to offer office hours throughout the school year for folks to come by and ask a question, let us know what’s going on, or just check in. We’ve had a lot of participation with Zoom office hours in the past, so we’re holding our first Office Hour at 7pm on Zoom on Thursday November 16. Here is the LINK  if you’d like to join us.

Our Meetings

You can watch our meetings in real time or afterward. If you’re planning to speak publicly at a meeting but can’t make it live, you’re welcome to join the Zoom by clicking the link in the posted agenda for that meeting. Our meetings are also broadcast live on HCAT, (for a much higher quality viewing experience than joining via Zoom!) You can also visit HCAT or HCAT’s YouTube channel to watch older School Committee meetings to catch up on what you may have missed.

Here is the rest of our meeting schedule for the year. All meetings are Thursdays at 7:00 pm, in the High School Library

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions!

Dan Alfred, Chair: alfredd@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Dawn Neborsky, Vice-Chair: neborskyd@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Amanda Bigelow: bigelowa@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Sarah Fitzgerald: fitzgeralds@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Minnie Gupta: guptam@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Lisa Kocian: kocianl@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Cynthia Listewnik: listewnikc@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

It is the policy of the Holliston Public Schools not to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, color, homelessness, sexual orientation, age or disability in its educational programs, services, activities, or employment practices.