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Welcome Back, Sharks

Welcome Back, Sharks

Dear  Monomoy Families and Staff, 

Welcome back to our Sharks! We are excited to launch the 2023-2024 school year on Tuesday, September 5. Our amazing educators have been back at work since last Wednesday, preparing lessons and organizing classrooms for the return of students this week.

The beginning of a new school year is a time filled with anticipation. As I shared in my message on Friday, recent events may add an element of concern or anxiety to that anticipation. Monomoy remains committed to making our schools a place where every student feels like they belong and every student has what they need to succeed. This commitment will continue to be a cornerstone of our core values. Teaching and learning cannot happen if students feel unsafe, excluded, or demeaned. Our team has been working to ensure that there are supports in place for all students, particularly those impacted by the recent incident, directly or indirectly. Please contact your child’s school if you think they could benefit from additional support.

At the start of the last school year, we introduced an initiative to develop a Portrait of a Graduate. Last year, we surveyed staff, students, and the community and held focus groups to ascertain the skills and mindsets – beyond our academic content – that were most important for graduates to master in order to thrive in the future. A 26-person Development Team, composed of educators, students, parents, and community members, took this feedback and distilled it down to four groups of skills and characteristics that Monomoy should focus on in order to best prepare our graduates. 

We are excited to share with you our Portrait of a Graduate, which focuses on developing students who are Creative & Critical Thinkers, Communicators & Leaders, Engaged Citizens, and Independent & Confident Learners. The Development Team has broken down those four broad characteristics into more specific traits as well. As the school year gets underway, these concepts will be reinforced with students in the classroom, in assemblies, and with visual reminders in the hallways. Moving forward, we will be working to ensure that these are fully integrated into our teaching and learning, and create benchmarks for students to reach along the way to graduation. I look forward to this journey and the benefits it will provide our students.

I also wanted to share a few additional updates and reminders with you:

  • School starts for students in Grades 1-12 on Tuesday, September 5. Kindergarten students begin September 7, and Preschool students begin September 11

    • School day start & end times: CES/HES 7:45 am - 2:15 pm, MRMS/MRHS 8:45 am - 3:15 pm, (Early Release Wednesday dismissal times for Parent Pickup: CES - 1:30 p.m.; HES - 1:20 p.m.; MRMS - 2:20 p.m.; MRHS - 2:35 p.m. Buses will arrive 40-45 minutes earlier than usual — find the schedule of Early Release Wednesdays on our website here)

  • School meals have been permanently funded by the state of Massachusetts, meaning all students can receive free breakfast and lunch at school.

  • Bus routes can be found on our website at https://www.monomoy.edu/busroutes and student bus numbers and stops can be found in Aspen.

  • All basic supplies are provided by the district. If obtaining supplies is ever a challenge, please contact your student’s teacher or school for assistance.

  • We welcome the new staff to our district and those taking on new assignments within Monomoy – a list of these changes is attached

Enjoy the holiday and we’ll see you on Tuesday!

Scott Carpenter, Ed.D.
Superintendent