2024/2025 School Committee Communications

The Holliston School Committee will be holding a series of office hours over the coming weeks to answer questions from the community. Please join us to discuss the HHS Schedule, ask about school finances as we prepare to pass the budget for the upcoming school year, or talk about any other matters!
 

• Wednesday, March 19, 7:45 - 9 pm (after HS family schedule presentation) HHS Library
• Saturday, March 22, 9 - 10:30 am Coffee Haven
• Tuesday, March 25, Zoom 7 - 8:30 pm 
• Tuesday, April 1, Zoom 7 - 8:30 pm 

Sincerely,  

The Holliston School Committee 

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

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

Hilary Bresnahan: bresnahanh@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

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

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

Francis Ogura: oguraf@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

Joseph Paru: paruj@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

 February 14, 2025 

Dear Holliston Public Schools Community,  

At our meeting last night, we received a feasibility report from school administration about transitioning the High School to an A/B version of the current schedule. Please find attached a copy of the report.  As we have previously communicated, the HS Schedule Subcommittee voted on December 20, 2024 to recommend a schedule to the HFT and HSC per the MOA from last spring that went into effect with the passage of the tax override on September 10th.  Unfortunately, the HFT ultimately failed to ratify this schedule and has taken actions and positions that the HSC contends do not represent good faith bargaining.  Due to these concerns, the HSC filed a charge against the HFT on January 22, 2025 with the Department of Labor Relations (DLR).  However, despite asking for expedited relief, the process will not start until early April, past the deadline for the ratification of a new schedule. While this process proceeds, we fully expect the HS Schedule Subcommittee to continue its work. 

These facts have brought us to a difficult decision.  While concerns with the current block schedule have been known for years, most recently it has come even more of a point with recommendations from our accreditor, NEASC, as well as the equity audit that we performed.  Waiting an additional year (at least) to make any improvement for our students may be difficult to accept.  At the same time, putting students through multiple changes in class offerings is also not ideal. This schedule proposal was initially presented on February 29, 2024 and the details below have been highlighted as part of that presentation.  

Moving to an A/B implementation of our existing schedule would have the following benefits: 

• Band and Chorus would move out of DSB to regular blocks and allow students to participate in both DSB and Band/Chorus 

• Allow for increased delivery of academic supports for students on IEPs that are outside of DSB and build into the schedule supports for general education students 

• Allow for the continued progression of the math program by keeping math courses every day for the full year  

• Allow for continued 1.5 year AP offerings by doubling up offerings in one semester and pairing the AP with a health or other half year elective in the second semester 

• Increased continuity of world language and other subjects 

Negatives: 

• The length of class would remain longer than best practice at 81 minutes (4 minutes longer per period to account for additional 15 minutes of instructional time) 

• Students would take more classes at one time.  However, it is important to note that this would not result in more work at the same time as the work for each class would be spread out by double the amount of time. Additionally, this course offering option would open up elective opportunities which generally have lighter homework loads than core classes. It would not be a doubling of the workload.   

This is not a decision that we take lightly.  We want to take the next two weeks to hear from the community. We expect to vote on this modification at our February 27, 2025 meeting.  

Sincerely,  

The Holliston School Committee 

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

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

Hilary Bresnahan: bresnahanh@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

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

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

Francis Ogura: oguraf@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

Joseph Paru: paruj@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us 

Feasibility of A-B Schedule

One attachment • Scanned by Gmail

XI.A. Feasibility of A_B Schedule

Good morning,

For additional information and discussion regarding the high school schedule, 
we are sharing a link to last night's School Committee meeting: 

https://youtu.be/aollu9l9MKE?t=7118

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 January 24, 2025

Dear Holliston Community Members:

 

We are writing to provide a further update on potential changes to the Holliston High School (HHS) Class Schedule.  At our meeting on January 9,  2025, the Holliston School Committee (HSC) ratified the schedule that was recommended by the HHS Schedule Subcommittee on December 30, 2024.  Unfortunately, we were notified by the Holliston Federation of Teachers (HFT) that the HHS Teachers had voted not to ratify this recommendation the previous day.  

 

As a reminder about the history of this Subcommittee: On May 20, 2024, the HSC came to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the HFT on a successor collective bargaining contract. This agreement included the creation of a HHS Schedule Subcommittee that was tasked with researching and evaluating our current HS schedule and making a recommendation on a potential change to the schedule. This agreement went into effect on September 10, 2024, upon the passage of the operational override to fund the salary portion of the MOA. 

 

On December 20, 2024 that Subcommittee voted to recommend a schedule to the HSC and HFT for ratification.  This recommendation came after 3 months of work that included over 10 meetings (30+ hours) culminating in two day long meetings on December 19^th and 20^th.  This recommendation was supported by 5 of the 8 Scheduling Subcommittee members (4 administrators and 1 teacher) with the remaining 3 teachers either voting against all proposed schedules or abstaining.  The recommended schedule was Option #1 in the survey that was sent to families, students and staff.  The options that were surveyed came after a collaborative effort during which, through a series of votes within the Subcommittee, more than 8 different schedules were narrowed down by the Scheduling Subcommittee.  Other than Option 5, only schedules that received majority support within the Subcommittee were included in the survey.

 

Due to actions taken by HFT members on the Scheduling Subcommittee during Schedule Subcommittee meetings and leading up to the ratification vote taken on January 8th, the HSC filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against the HFT on January 22, 2025. We assert that on multiple occasions, the HFT and its leadership failed to bargain in good faith as is required by Massachusetts labor laws. 

 

While we believe that it is unfortunate that we had to take this action, we also want to make unequivocally clear that the HSC remains open and committed to working with the HFT to implement a new schedule for the 2025-26 school year.  

 

We have requested “expedited review” as part of our Unfair Labor Practice charge against the Holliston Federation. However, there is no guarantee that this process will be expedited.  Consequently, because we must continue to take steps to move the district forward and address significant concerns that have been discussed about the current schedule, the HSC will also move forward with an alternative path. At our  meeting last night, the HSC voted to direct Dr. Kustka to consider the feasibility of making some minor adjustments in the implementation of our existing schedule  to allow for classes to run year long. Specifically, we requested information about the feasibility of using the existing schedule to implement an A/B class scheduling model where classes meet every other day and students take 8 classes at a time but for the entire year. We also asked that this information be presented to the HSC in a timely fashion for our consideration on potentially voting to implement this initiative for next year at a future meeting.  While we recognize this is not ideal, we need to look at alternatives in the event that  our filing cannot be resolved expeditiously as we work towards improving our educational offering for students. 

 

The HSC recognizes that there will be a lot of questions about this potential change in class scheduling model, as well as, the significant impact that this might have on students.  We do not take this potential change lightly and hope that we will be able to come to an agreement with the HFT that will allow us to move forward with the schedule recommended by the Schedule Subcommittee.  At the same time, we do not believe that allowing for continued delays is an option either.  We plan to communicate more information as it becomes available and as we are able to communicate.  In the interim, please feel free to reach out to the HSC with any questions and we will do the best we can to answer them. 

 

Sincerely,

 

The Holliston School Committee

 

Daniel Alfred, Chair- alfredd@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

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

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

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

Hillary Bresnahan- bresnahanh@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Francis Ogura- oguraf@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

Joe Paru- paruj@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

HHS Schedule Committee Recommendation

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video School Committee Meeting - 1/23/2025

School Committee Meeting - 1/23/2025

Dear Community Members:

 

I am writing to you to provide an update on the potential Holliston High School Schedule change.  On December 30th, 2024 the subcommittee that has been working on schedule options sent a letter to the Holliston School Committee (HSC) and the Holliston Federation of Teachers (HFT) that it had reached an agreement on a new schedule.  This represents an important milestone in the process of agreeing to the first real change in the High School schedule in 25 years.

 

As a reminder, this schedule subcommittee was created by the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) agreed to in May, 2024 by the HSC and HFT and that went into effect upon the passage of the property tax override vote on September, 10th, 2024 which was overwhelmingly supported by the voters. During the override process, I heard from many community members that they were excited about the prospects of a move away from a block schedule at the high school. I believe that this schedule recommendation is aligned with the community feedback.

 

The work of the subcommittee was a collaborative process in which 4 educators and 4 administrators met more than 10 times over 3 months (equating to over 30 hours) and ultimately came to a decision that, while not unanimous, did receive support from membership of both groups. I want to commend the hard work and dedication of the administrators and teachers who took on this challenging task and worked in close collaboration over these many months.

 

The schedule that was included in the recommendation, and attached to this email, also incorporated feedback from surveys of staff, families and students. While no schedule is perfect, this schedule represents ideas from both administration and educators. After reviewing the recommendation, I believe that it is a significant positive step for HHS and addresses many of the inequities and issues with our current schedule. These are concerns that have been brought up by multiple different reports (NEASC, equity audit, etc) that we have received over the past year as well as from feedback from educators, families and students over many years. 

 

The Holliston School Committee will vote on the ratification of this schedule recommendation (per the HFT contract and the May, 2024 MOA) at our upcoming meeting on January 9th, the public portion will begin at 7pm.  I would encourage anyone interested in this work to attend the meeting in person, via Zoom or to watch on HCAT.

 

Warm Regards and Happy New Year!

 

 

Dan Alfred

Holliston School Committee Chair

HHS Schedule Committee Recommendation

 

To the Holliston Public School Community, 

 

Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, Holliston Public Schools (HPS) will implement new school start times. These changes are necessary to accommodate the additional instructional time included in the new teacher contract and are also in response to ongoing parent feedback over the past four years.  

 

In September, following the passage of the override which provided funding to finalize the teacher contract and secure additional buses needed to go from three start times to two, the Holliston School Committee (HSC) established an advisory committee to review and make recommendations on busing and school start times. There were 16 members of the committee composed of parents, teachers, a member of the Holliston Select Board, HSC members, and administrators. After extensive discussion of the complex variables involved, the advisory committee ultimately recommended that the HSC should consider the following factors when making decisions about school times:

 

• The district day is not to start before 7:30 AM, nor end after 4:00 PM
• The scheduling of schools should be thoughtful around student sleep at HHS/RAMS, limit the impact on teacher retention, and limit the impact on after-school activities including, but not limited to sports, clubs, extracurriculars, and afterschool jobs.
• HHS/RAMS should start no earlier than 7:50 AM
• Survey stakeholders for feedback

 

Following the establishment of these recommendations, and given concerns about the advisory committee’s school pairings recommendation, the Elementary Principals developed a new proposal (linked here) that would allow the Placentino and Miller schools to start at the same time at Miller’s current start time of 7:30AM. Previously, starting these schools at the same time had not been a feasible option, but with 10 additional minutes for Placentino and 15 additional minutes for Miller negotiated by the HSC and HFT into the new contract, along with arrival and dismissal efficiencies implemented during COVID, the administrators realized that this was now a viable option to consider.

 

At the November 26, 2024 School Committee meeting the HSC reviewed the advisory committee’s recommendation, the principals’ recommendation, as well as other potential start times options. Ultimately, the HSC narrowed down the options to three different school time options. Each of these options would utilize a two-bus-run structure, with Placentino and Miller Schools starting together, and the Middle and High Schools starting together. After this meeting the HSC distributed a survey to students, families and staff to gather feedback on these options. The HSC heard additional public comments, reviewed administration recommendations, and presented the survey results at the December 12, 2024 School Committee meeting.

 

The HSC acknowledges that establishing new school start times is an incredibly complex decision. The goal was to find a solution that is in the best interest of our students, balancing sleep, after-school activities, and minimizing impact on families and staff. After the December 12th meeting, members of the HSC worked with the administration on finding a solution that kept with the spirit of the options surveyed but addressed concerns raised by the community during the process. The administration presented two slightly modified options at our December 19, 2024 meeting for our additional consideration. After careful consideration of the available information, survey data, feedback, concerns, emails, and public comment, the HSC voted to establish the following school times starting with the 2025-2026 school year:

 

School	Start Time	End Time
Placentino Elementary	7:40 a.m.	2:15 p.m.
Miller Elementary	7:40 a.m.	2:18 p.m.
Adams Middle School	8:25 a.m.	3:03 p.m.
Holliston High School	8:15 a.m.	3:03 p.m.

 

Thank you to all the students, families, and staff who provided essential feedback and perspectives to the HSC through surveys, emails, and public comment. We appreciate your insight and contributions to this process.

 

Sincerely, 

 

Holliston School Committee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone—students, families, and staff—who took the time to participate in the School Start/End Time Survey. We truly appreciate your input. At last night’s School Committee meeting, we heard public comment from a number of community members and reviewed the results of the survey. You can view the full recording of the December 12, 2024 here.

 

For more detailed information, please take a look at the Start Times Survey Results presentation, as well as the accompanying memo detailing a proposal developed by the school principals: Administration’s Recommendations.

 

Our next School Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 7:30pm. At this meeting, we expect to vote on the proposed school start/end times for the 2025-2026 school year. We encourage you to review the meeting materials and reach out with any questions or feedback. You may send your comments to the Chair at alfredd@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us.

 

Thank you for your continued engagement.

 

Sincerely,  

 

Holliston School Committee

 

The Holliston School Committee is hosting an open forum for any community members to come and ask questions about the different potential start times options or related concerns.  Questions may be asked live (in person or via Zoom – link to agenda is here) or may be submitted in advance to the Chair (alfredd@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us).  The forum will be at 6pm on December 12th in the HHS Library. The HSC will subsequently present the results of the different recent surveys about start times.   

 

 

REMINDER: Please complete the survey linked below by midnight on Tuesday, December 10, 2024! Additionally, the Holliston School Committee meeting on Thursday, December 12 in the HHS Library will start at 6pm with an open forum for Q&A and comments from the community.

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Dear Holliston families,

 

The Holliston School Committee is interested in your perspective on the proposed schedule options.  Please provide your feedback through this 15 minute survey, linked below.  

 

Survey Link

 

Next year, Holliston Public Schools will be shifting from three bus runs to two.  Adams and HHS students will continue riding the bus together.  Miller and Placentino students will begin riding the bus together in 2025-2026 when the new school schedule takes effect. We are working to determine which schools will start first and what time each school will start.

 

Based on the teacher contract, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, an additional 15 minutes will be added to the HHS, RAMS and Miller instructional days, and an additional 10 minutes to the Placentino instructional day. If we did not reduce from three bus runs/start times to two bus runs/start times and added the additional 10-15 instructional minutes to each school, Placentino would dismiss at approximately 3:40 p.m.

 

Based on input from the Fall 2024 School Start Time Committee and HPS administrators, ongoing community feedback and building on the work and recommendations of the 2017-2019 School Start Time Committee the following are three proposed schedules for the 2025-2026 school year and beyond.  These proposed schedules take into consideration feedback from elementary parents regarding the late Placentino start time, the gap between the Miller and Placentino school times and the importance of after school activities for all students.   

 

Thank you,

The Holliston School Committee 

Subject: School Start Times Update - Where we are and what is next

Dear HPS Community:

I wanted to send an update on the progress of changes to school start times.  These changes are required as part of the additional instructional time included in the new teacher contract and are also in response to continued parent feedback over the past 4 years.  As a reminder, in September, after passage of the override which provided funding to finalize the teacher contract and for additional buses, the HSC created an advisory committee to review and make recommendations on bussing and school start times.  This advisory committee was composed of 6 parents (with representation from all schools), 4 teachers (3 Miller and 1 HHS), 1 member of the Holliston Select Board, 3 HSC members, and 2 administrators (one of which was a recent principal of RAMS and was representing the principals).

This advisory committee met 5 times over the course of 5 weeks (the recordings of 4 of these meetings are on the HSC – Start Times section of the HPS website - https://www.holliston.k12.ma.us/about/school-committee) and voted 12-1-1 on a set of recommendations to the HSC on October 29^th (attached).  This recommendation was presented to the HSC last night (November 14^th) and the HSC had an initial discussion about the recommendations as well as pros and cons of alternative options.  We also received public comment from our elementary school principals about their concerns about a specific recommendation for school start time pairings and bus ridership.  I strongly encourage everyone to watch both the public comment (though HCAT did have a recording glitch which cut off some of it) as well as the HSC discussion.  The public comment section can be found at the following link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQOBKodLOk) starting at minute 17 with the recommendation and then the HSC discussion at this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfr7IkFi434) starting at minute 26.

Additionally, as was discussed at the meeting, the elementary school principals as well as central office administrators are going to work over the next 1.5 weeks on a detailed logistical proposl to start Miller and Placentino together.  This work will also include input from our RAMS and HS principals on all impacts to instructional time, after school activities, including sports, theatre, clubs and high school jobs, if the start time of those schools was moved later. Putting Placentino and Miller on the same start time had previously not been feasible.  However, as Dr. Slaney details, it became feasible due to the additional instructional time in the contract, lessons learned about pick-up and drop-off during COVID, and other factors.  The principals and Mr. Buday and Dr. Jordan had been discussing this idea since the passage of the override; however, it was only after additional discussions since the advisory group held its final meeting was this option really became seen as potentially feasibly.  Please keep in mind, however, that this remains just one of a few options that the HSC will be considering.

The administrators will be making a detailed presentation to the HSC at a public special meeting on Tuesday, November 26^th at 5:30 PM in the HHS Library.  After this presentation, the HSC discussed holding a Q&A webinar in December (with the ability to submit questions in advance and during the webinar) that would be recorded and sent out to the community as well as a potential survey.  This webinar and any survey would cover multiple different potential options and discuss the pros and cons of each to ensure the community fully understands the impacts of each option. More details on these next steps will be forthcoming.  I want to highlight, however, that there is a tight timeline as this decision, per the new contract, must be announced by January 1^st.

I want to recognize the fact that no solution will be perfect.  The HSC, however, is committed to working towards a solution that is in the best interests of the students and instructional time while also ensuring the impact on teachers and staff is included in the overall deliberations.  I also want to thank all of the members of the advisory committee for their time and commitment. 

As always, please feel free to reach out with your thoughts, questions, or concerns.

Sincerely,

Daniel Alfred,

Chair, Holliston School Committee

School Bus Start Times Committee Recommendation

School Committee Video (part 1)

School Committee Video (part 2)

 

Holliston School Committee Newsletter  October 2024  Hello everyone! It is hard to believe that we are already approaching the end of October. We on the Holliston School Committee (HSC) wanted to share a few highlights of the many efforts going on at our schools so far this school year and update the community on some other big initiatives.    Robert Adams Middle School: 2024 National Blue Ribbon School Award We congratulate the Robert Adams Middle School for the distinct honor of earning the 2024 National Blue Ribbon School Award. RAMS is one of only nine schools in the state of Massachusetts, and the only MA middle school, to receive this honor.  This award is based on school achievement that is reviewed by the US Department of Education over two years.   Miller/Placentino Playgrounds We are thrilled to report that the Miller and Placentino playgrounds have been upgraded and improved. This work was completed at the start of this school year and has provided students with great play spaces for recess.     High School Schedule  At the October 10 School Committee meeting, HHS Principal David List discussed the efforts of  the High School Scheduling Committee which is considering various options to move from the current block schedule to a traditional high school schedule. Mr. List provided a further update of the ongoing work at the October 24th HSC meeting. This work continues and we look forward to reviewing the final proposal from the Committee in the coming weeks.   School Bus/Start Times Committee The School Bus/Start Times Committee, consisting of parents, teachers, school committee members, a member of the Holliston Select Board, and administrators, has met four times so far. They are addressing complex challenges to figure out the best way to incorporate the additional time on learning (15 extra minutes at Miller/RAMS/HHS and 10 min at Placentino) as agreed upon in the 2024-2027 teachers’ contract that was ratified by both a majority of the teachers and unanimously by the HSC and funded by the September 10th override. The override included $200,000 of additional money to fund additional buses which will be required to achieve the schedule change. This is a complex task with many different considerations and we encourage the community to view the recordings of these meetings to better understand the many factors that will influence the final recommendation.  While we await the final recommendation from the Committee, we remain committed to honoring the commitments made as part of the override which address issues with the start times and gap between Miller and Placentino start times that have continued to be raised by parents.  October 8 Meeting Video October 17 Meeting Video October 22 Meeting Video   HSC 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   November 14, 2024 December 12, 2024 January 9, 2025 January 23, 2025 February 13, 2025 February 27, 2025 March 13, 2025 March 27, 2025 April 3, 2025 April 17, 2025 May 1, 2025 May 15, 2025 May 29, 2025 June 12, 2025   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 Hilary Bresnahan: bresnahanh@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us Sarah Fitzgerald: fitzgeralds@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us Cynthia Listewnik: listewnikc@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us Francis Ogura: oguraf@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us Joseph Paru: paruj@hsc.holliston.k12.ma.us

September 13th, 2024   Dear Families,    The Holliston School Committee is Seeking Volunteers!   Over the next few months, the Holliston School Committee will be developing a plan to adjust busing and the start and end times of the school day for the 2025-26 school year.  This change is being driven by a combination of continued parent feedback as well as in response to the increased learning time outlined in the 2024-2027 teachers' contract. With the passage of the override this week, funding for this contract is now in place and the contract is officially official.  As outlined in the MOA, the student day for Miller, Adams, and the High School will increase by 15 minutes and Placentino will increase by 10 minutes. Additionally, the district will shift from three start times down to two.    In order to ensure a broad array of voices and more opportunities for input from all stakeholders, we are taking a different approach than the changes that occurred in 2019.  Instead of creating a subcommittee of the School Committee, the School Committee will be forming a separate Advisory Committee that will include representatives from school administration, teachers/staff, parents/guardians, and school committee members; it will report back to the full School Committee.  This advisory committee, working under the guidance of the administration’s experts, will work to ensure that potential issues with prospective plans are raised up as early as possible. Ultimately, once a final proposed plan (or set of different alternative plans) is reached, the Holliston School Committee will seek broader community feedback and engagement before voting on a final solution.  Per the new contract, this final decision must be made by January 1st, 2025 so as to give parents, guardians, teachers, and staff time to plan for any changes in schedules.    The Committee was officially created by the HSC last night, and is similar to the Tuition Free Full Day Kindergarten committee that was created a number of years ago.  It is a formal advisory group, sworn in by the town clerk, with publicly posted meetings and subject to Open Meeting Law. We believe that this will further increase the transparency of the process.   We are looking to try and get parent/guardian representatives (one, possibly two) from each school and hope you will consider participating.  If you are interested, please fill out the form linked here if you are interested in joining this advisory committee Given the short timeframe, we are setting a Friday, September 20th deadline for submissions with decisions finalized at our September 26th School Committee meeting. Teacher/Staff volunteers will be sought separately. For your planning purposes, the first meeting of this committee will be on October 1st, 2024 at 4:30PM.  Please expect meetings to occur weekly for 4-6 weeks, likely on Tuesdays at 4:30PM for 1-2 hours. While we are not making attendance at all of them mandatory, we certainly prefer volunteers who can make most of the meetings and tried to find a time that we hoped would work best for both staff and parents/guardians.   Thank you in advance for your consideration.   Sincerely,   The Holliston School Committee

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.

 

September 12th, 2024   Residents of Holliston:    The Holliston School Committee (HSC) would like to thank the entire Holliston community, including older adults, parents with young children, parents of school-aged children, current students and new voters, for its strong showing of support for the override this past Tuesday.  The passage of this override finalized the funding of the successor contract with the HFT Educators Unit A. With this passage, we now have a 3 year contract with our largest bargaining unit.   The HSC would also like to thank and recognize the hard work and dedication of many other individuals and groups that helped make the election possible.  Specifically, we would like to thank our Town Clerk, Elizabeth Greendale, and her staff (both employees and election volunteers) for the countless hours they put in between the state primary election last week and this week’s special town election.  We would like to also thank the Town Administrator, Travis Ahern, and his office for the work that they put in helping ensure the community received information about the special town election.  Further, we would like to thank the Select Board and Finance Committee for the important roles that they both played in this election.  And finally, we want to thank the teachers, paraprofessionals, staff and administrators of the Holliston Public Schools for the work that they do every day educating the children of our town.  We especially appreciate the patience that the teachers had with the uncertainty and public debate surrounding the future of their contract.   While we are very grateful for the support and excited about the outcome, we recognize that much work remains to be done.  At our meeting tonight, we began that work and look forward to communicating the progress we are making to the community in the months ahead.     Sincerely, The Holliston School Committee

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.

 

 

Dear Holliston Community Members:

 

Thank you to everyone who showed up and helped support the Schools at the Special Town Meeting on June 20^th. Attached is the presentation given as part of the Town Meeting.

 

The next (and final) step in the process is an election to be held on September 10^th, 7AM-8PM in the High School Gym. We realize that the community still has many questions about both the contract with the Teachers’ Union as well as our budget request in general.  In an effort to increase Community engagement through this process, we will be hosting a series of information sessions to provide opportunities for discussions with the community.

 

Please find below the list of ten (10) different information sessions that the Holliston School Committee (HSC) will be hosting over the next two (2) months, including two (2) at the Senior Center, related to our request for an override to settle our educator contract, increase our instructional time, change school start times, and process to potentially change the Middle School and/or High School bell schedules.  We have attempted to mix dates, times, locations, and virtual meetings to hopefully allow for anyone who wishes to attend to be able to. While all sessions are scheduled for an hour, time can be extended if necessary, location permitting.  Should you not find a session that meets your schedule, you are more than welcome to reach out to any member of the HSC and arrange a time to speak with them (https://www.holliston.k12.ma.us/about/school-committee).

 

We are also looking at hosting a larger, full committee, information session / forum in the week preceding the election/vote on September 10^th. More information about this session will be forthcoming as we get closer to the start of the next school year.

 

Thank you for your interest in this important matter.

 

Best,

 

Daniel Alfred

Chair, Holliston School Committee

 

 

Information Sessions:

Saturday, July 13^th - 9-10am - Coffee Haven

Tuesday July 16^th – 2-3pm – Senior Center

Thursday, July 18^th - 6:30-7:30pm – zoom

Tuesday, July 23^rd - 6:30-7:30pm - Holliston Public Library

Saturday, August 3^rd - 9-10am - zoom

Tuesday, August 13^th - 6:30-7:30pm - Holliston Public Library

Wednesday, August 14^th, 11am-12pm – Senior Center

Saturday, August 24^th - 9-10am - Coffee Haven

Thursday, August 29^th - 9-10am - zoom

Saturday, September 7th - 9-10am - Coffee Haven

 

 

The Holliston School Committee

Daniel Alfred, Chair

Dawn Neborsky, Vice Chair

Hilary Bresnahan

Sarah Fitzgerald

Cynthia Listewnik

Francis Ogura

Joseph Paru

 

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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.

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Holliston Public Schools

370 Hollis Street

Holliston, MA 01746

508-429-0654