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Parent Information Nights are completed and school is in full swing in Medfield. The school district welcomed several new teachers and even more new students – 103 students joined the district for 2017-2018. The high school is seeing the biggest staff change with twelve new teachers. Principal Robert Parga notes an atypical combination of retirements, relocations with spouses, and maternity leaves for the slightly higher than usual number of new hires.
"It's important to support our new staff to ensure they have the information and resources they need in order to be successful. Each new staff member is assigned a mentor during this transition year. These mentors provide guidance and assistance in everything related to the curriculum and other responsibilities that go with being a teacher in the Medfield HS learning community," said Parga.
Students who walk to the Blake/MHS campus and those parking in the Metacomet lot returned to a new sidewalk along Metacomet Street providing added safety. The town highway department completed the project over the summer. This project has been in the works for a couple of years due to safety concerns for the students walking to school; especially during the winter months. The Medfield Public Schools expressed gratitude for the DPW’s effort with this project.
Memorial School’s interim principal, Dr. Christopher Martes, is in place until the end of December while Principal Melissa Bilsborough takes a maternity leave. Dr. Martes brings a wealth of experience to his interim role returning to Medfield after being its superintendent from 1995 -1999. He then was the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and spent the last ten years of his career as the superintendent of the Framingham Public Schools and the Foxboro Public Schools. Wheelock and Dale Street schools classrooms are filled with eager learners and the new elementary school day schedule in its second year is now a familiar routine.
Medfield Talks returns with a speaker series geared for parents and guardians on current topics of interest. October 17 marked the opening program, featuring Jon Kleiman from the Challenge Success program. Challenge Success is a Stanford University-affiliated nonprofit that works on school reform and student well being. Jon’s discussion focused on “The Well Balanced Student” achieved by establishing a home environment that reduces academic stress without sacrificing achievement. Future Medfield Talks speakers will be announced and all are open to the public.
Also on the horizon for all Medfield residents is a tool to help understand our spending and help the district benchmark between years and with other districts. ClearGov is a subscription service school districts and municipalities are adopting which focuses on benchmarking and comparing municipal financial data for residents giving taxpayers a transparent, customizable view into their town's finances. For school systems in particular, ClearGov presents data in an online dashboard format, offering student counts and details on funding and expenditures, as well as performance measures such as SAT scores and graduation rates.
Communication to the families of Medfield continues on many fronts from the school administration. Visit Medfield.net for links to more information.
