Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Marshfield FACTS Turns One

May 28th will be the 1 year anniversary of the creation of Marshfield FACTS (Families Adolescents and Communities Together Against Substances).  This organization, which has brought stakeholders from across Marshfield together in our community's fight to end opioid abuse, has done amazing work in just 12 months.  Below is a link to Mariner article that encapsulates some of that fine work.

http://marshfield.wickedlocal.com/article/20160514/NEWS/160518639

Friday, May 13, 2016

We Are Marshfield Project

Here are a few pictures from the We Are Marshfield Project, which took place all around town on Friday, April 29th.  A big thanks to Ms. Marie Kurmin and Ms. Joan Pozerski for leading this effort, along with over 200 MHS seniors and over 40 parent volunteers. 

In addition, we have some photos from our 8th grade Gold Cluster, who also did great work cleaning up at Rexhame Beach. They have made this an annual endeavor.






School Committee Changes

With the town's elections of this past week, the makeup of the Marshfield School Committee has changed slightly.  After serving on the School Committee for the past nine years, Mrs. Nancy Currie decided to step down from the board she has worked so hard on during her tenure.  In her place will be Ms. Heidi Church, who was elected and sworn in on May 10th.  We are excited to have Mrs. Church as a new member and we cannot say enough about all of the work that Mrs. Currie has done for this school district.  As a teacher, a parent and a school committee member, Mrs. Currie worked tirelessly on behalf of our students and staff and her impact will be felt for years to come.

In addition, Mr. Rich Greer was re-elected to his position on the Committee and is excited to continue the important work he has been doing on behalf of our school district since he joining the Committee.  Mr. Greer and Mrs. Church will serve with Mrs. Carol Shrand, Mrs. Kendra Stetson-Campbell and Mr. Sean Costello.

The School Committee's next meeting will be on Thursday, May 26th, at the Daniel Webster School.

THANK YOU Marshfield Town Meeting

I wanted to thank all of the townspeople who attended Annual Town Meeting (ATM) and who supported those articles that will have a huge impact on the children of Marshfield.  The school's operating budget received a 3.95% increase, which is the largest increase in over 10 years.  This will allow us to maintain our programs and staffing levels4, while providing us with some room to address needs identified in our Financial Plan.

In addition, the schools received $500,000 from the Capital Budget.  $350,000 of this total will go towards school safety enhancements.  This will include more cameras around the seven schools, along with card swipe access at each building and an increase of hand held radios for schools to have better communication with each other.

Moreover, the Capital Budget provided $150,000 to go towards reaching objectives set forth in the district's newly approved Technology Plan.  This money will allow our technology team to start deploying interactive projectors in our K-8 classrooms, along with the purchase of Chromebooks/Ipads at the elementary and middle school level.  In addition, we will also start replacing some of our teacher's desktop computers.

In other votes pertaining to the schools, the ATM supported an article that provided $200,000 from free cash to help supplement the district's Compensated Absences Reserve Fund.  In addition, the CPC's $125,000 proposal to help fund a new playground at the Governor Winslow School was also supported by ATM.  Once built, this will be a tremendous resource for the entire town of Marshfield.

ATM is a tremendous process by which the town can come together to identify and address its needs and I again want to thank all who helped support the funding sought for our school district.  We will put those resources to good use.

Ugandan Ambassador Visits FBMS

A few weeks ago, the students and staff at the Furnace Brook Middle School had the honor of hosting a visit from Uganda's Ambassador to the United State, the Honorable Oliver Wonekha.  Her visit to the school was just a small way for the team at FBMS to be recognized and thanked for their efforts over the past few years to help those less fortunate in parts of Africa.  Their work, over the years, has included raising funds to help build a well in South Sudan, along with providing money for clothing for youngsters in Malawi.

The following is a link to an article in the Marshfield Mariner on the visit:  http://marshfield.wickedlocal.com/news/20160506/ugandan-ambassador-thanks-furnace-brook-for-work-in-Africa

Way to go Team FBMS!!!

MHS to Host Massasoit Community College Classes

I'm happy to say that after months of meeting with President Wall and members of his leadership team at Massasoit Community College (MCC), it looks like Marshfield High School will be hosting MCC courses a few nights a week, starting in the fall of 2016.  We are still awaiting a few contractual steps, but Massasoit has seen our space and feels it will be a great match for the programs they hope to run next year.

As it stands now, MCC will be renting out three classrooms to run General Education courses two nights a week for the fall and spring semesters.  In addition, they will utilize one of our technical labs for the Maritime Technology courses they will be running.  President Wall has expressed his desire to start the Maritime Technology program here in Marshfield because of our natural ties to the ocean and maritime industries.

We will be making a more formal announcement in the weeks to come and students from throughout the area will be able to start enrolling in these courses some time in June.  For now, we are just looking at the 2016-17 school year but, as we move forward, we will work with MCC to see how we will be able to grow this collaboration.  In addition, the college will continue to work with state and local officials, as they try to secure their own campus space in Marshfield.

I want to thank Tom Miller, our Director of Business and Finance, for working out all of the contractual language with his counterparts at MCC.  In addition, I want to thank Representative Jim Cantwell, who has been working with MCC for years, trying to assist them in gaining their own campus space in Marshfield.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

School Committee Meeting Change

The School Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 10th at the Governor Winslow School has been changed to Monday, May 9th.  It will still be at the GWS, with the open meeting starting at 7:00 PM.