Superintendent’s Bulletin 10/16/26

Dear Colleagues,

As I write to you this afternoon, I feel the heaviness of another school shooting, this time at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, that has taken the lives of three students and a teacher. Based on news accounts I have read, this is the 36th shooting on school grounds this year.  We don’t yet know the motive of the 16-year-old gunman but it seems likely that mental health issues coupled with access to firearms has once again resulted in tragic consequences.  With all of this in mind, I want to emphasize the importance of our annual safety training in collaboration with the Wellesley Police Department to ensure our level of readiness to protect our students and staff across the district. I also continue to believe that our very best safety strategy is to know our students well and to provide a school environment in which they feel a strong sense of value and belonging.

  

On a more positive note, this is Homecoming Weekend at Wellesley High School, which will begin with a home football game under the lights tonight vs. Newton at 6pm, followed by “Raider Day” on Saturday from 11AM-2PM at the Hunnewell Fields, and concluding with a Homecoming Dance at WHS on Saturday night from 7PM-9PM.  Special thanks to our WHS student organizers, their advisors, and all of the volunteers who worked so hard to organize these events. 

  

Thanks for what you do each day to support our students, our families, and each other. Have a great weekend! 

      

Best, David

October 20 – School Committee Meeting

October 27 – School Committee Meeting

November 11 – Veterans Day (Schools & Offices Closed) 

November 17 – School Committee Meeting

Elizabeth Gonser, second-grade teacher at Fiske, on the birth of Christian George Gonser, Jr., named after his dad! 

The WHS Child Lab is now accepting applications for the 2027-2028 school year. Children who will be three years old or four years old by September 1st, 2027 are eligible to apply. Please contact Katie Bender at benderk@wellesleyps.org for an application. All applications are due by November 15th.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Education issued guidance to help districts and other educational entities plan their response protocol for interactions with federal immigration officers. We are reviewing our current internal protocol for interacting with immigration officers to ensure it aligns with the recommendations in the document. Once any adjustments are made, the district will share more information about our protocol with WPS staff.

As part of Wellesley Public Schools’ ongoing work to ensure that we are fully compliant with the digital accessibility requirements by April 2028, we want to share two draft resources that are now available for your reference. First, we have gathered a variety of materials on our WPS Digital Accessibility website, which will continue to be updated over time. Additionally, a Digital Accessibility Checklist is available to use as a handy reference when creating or updating documents, slide decks, and webpages. This checklist is a quick way to help verify that your materials feature properly formatted headings, alternative text for images, and are fully screen-readable for all students and families.

On April 28, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) unanimously approved a new alternative pathway for educator licensure. This change allows qualified candidates to waive the Communication and Literacy Skills test (CLST) if they meet specific criteria, such as holding an advanced degree, completing a state-approved prep program, possessing a comparable out-of-state license, or having two years of documented instructional experience.

This milestone is a testament to our collective advocacy, including AFT and the MTA, as well as Leader Alice Peisch, Senator and the MA Black and Latino Caucus, for their essential testimony and letters of support.

For a full list of eligibility requirements and FAQs, please visit the DESE website.

Graduate credit courses offered through the Albion Center at Idaho State University will no longer be accepted for credit by Wellesley Public Schools. This decision follows a recent message from the Massachusetts School Superintendents’ Association indicating that the program is under review due to concerns about the rigor of its coursework. While Idaho State University courses may still be applied toward professional development points (PDPs), they will no longer count as graduate-level credit within WPS for lane changes. Please reach out to Sandy Trach, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, with any questions.

As we look toward the next school year, the district will be transitioning from Zoom to Google Meet as our primary video conferencing platform for general staff use. This shift, which will take effect this summer, allows us to be more fiscally responsible by fully utilizing our Google Education Plus license. In addition, Google Meet now offers several helpful new features, including Adaptive Audio, which eliminates echo when multiple staff members join a meeting from the same room, live translated captions in over 65 languages, and a picture-in-picture mode that allows the user to view the Meet and relevant documents at the same time.

This change won’t happen until this summer, which will give everyone the remainder of the school year to explore the platform and receive assistance from the Tech Dept. Please visit the Tech Dept. contact page to submit a Help Desk ticket or to find a member of the department assigned to your building.

The MTRS has many members who do not have a beneficiary on file. This Spring, these members will receive either an email or a mailed letter (if no email address on file) asking them to designate a beneficiary.

To designate or change a beneficiary, members must sign and mail the Beneficiary Designation Form to our Main Office.

If MTRS members have questions, please email annstmt@trb.state.ma.us.

The Town of Wellesley offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support employees and their families.  Effective July 1, 2025, CMG Associates is the new EAP provider (see announcement). Employees may want to access the EAP because of emotional difficulties, life stress, family difficulties, concerns about substance abuse or other addictive behavior, legal or financial problems, or other personal issues. The EAP is completely free, confidential, and available at all times (day or night, weekdays, weekends, and holidays). Employees may call CMG Associates at 888-851-7032, or they may visit www.cmgassociates.com, click on the link entitled EAP Log-In, and use the User ID: WELL.

SMART Plan (457 Voluntary Retirement Savings) 

May make changes throughout the year through the company.

Work directly through US Omni and the SMART Plan.

Email AskHR@Wellesleyps.org. The Human Resources Department is happy to assist you.  

For all Internal Job Postings, please go to “Internal Job Postings” under the Faculty tab of the District’s website. How to Apply for WPS Internal Job Postings as a New Internal Applicant