The Old Rochester Regional Joint School Committee met on June 12 for a public meeting between Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester elected committee members and ORR Administration. Following the recent end of the academic year, the air was positive, and attendees were excited for a deserved break and prep-time for the coming school year.
ORR School Committee Chair Michelle Smith and Massachusetts Superintendents Union #55 Chair Nichole Daniel held their respective roll calls for the meeting, and Smith added a note of sadness while acknowledging the retirement of Mattapoisett member Rose Bowman, this being her final meeting. Superintendent Michael S. Nelson then spoke, thanking those in attendance as well as teachers and other staff members for their hard work and a congratulations for successfully completing another school year.
Smith then read a thank you to former longtime Rochester and Union-side member Sharon Hartley for her over 20 years of service to students, the school districts, and school committees. “I will truly miss you and I thank you for; I feel like you mentored me through, and I appreciate that and I miss you,” she concluded. Hartley was in attendance and was gifted a copy of The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall by Charis Cotter, with a thank you note within from the ORR Joint School Committee.
Hartley thanked the committee and other coworkers and expressed the importance of the joint committee. She spoke of her desire for the committee to continue to use their time together effectively to help one another and work together, saying “this is our time for communication and our time to help each other.”
Following recognitions, the committee moved on to discuss the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, with the first day of school being Wednesday, August 27 (Kindergarten begins on August 29). Superintendent Nelson also began discussions on the “Vision 2028 Strategic Plan,” being the district’s general plan for the next few years. “We have five objectives; the superintendent’s goals, your school improvement plan goals, the administrator’s goals, teachers, et cetera.” The committee spoke of goals for students as they climb through their academic careers, as well as the importance they place in assessments and the addition of midterms to their assessment calendar.
The committee expressed satisfaction with progress made during the previous year, while also voicing intentions to revisit certain initiatives in upcoming fall meeting. They also emphasized community and parent involvement, with administrators and the superintendent encouraging parents to remain active in the planning school policy.
The next meeting of the ORR Joint School Committee will be held in September, following the beginning of the next school year.
ORR Joint School Committee
By Sam Bishop