Good Morning,
As we wrap up the 2023-2024 school year and prepare for 2024-2025, I want to take a moment to celebrate how much we have been able to accomplish in 2023-2024 and share my excitement for our year ahead. As always, we reflect on our past and those who have been a part of the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District journey. Today, while acknowledging the many challenges our Commonwealth faces, let’s take time to recognize ChooseSEBRSD’s progress and current reality of which the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District Community has been a part.
Five years ago, when we drafted the Strategy for District Improvement, we were deliberate with our goals and initiatives to position the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District for a strong future and to move beyond the difficult decisions that were required throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and turbulent job market that came about out of it. Since the plan’s beginning, I have been committed to providing updates on our progress, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to do so again today to ensure we are all aware of our accomplishments and the path forward. With a thoughtful approach combined with the work of our faculty and staff, I’m proud to share that we are operating from a position of strength. In the last 12 months, our achievements have been many:
• Enrollment has stabilized and is on a positive trajectory. We currently enroll 1,451 students in grades PreK-12. As a matter of fact, the culminating event of the academic year was the Class of 2024 graduating 72 students on May 29th, 2024 at Polar Park in Worcester, MA. An absolutely fantastic evening recognizing and celebrating our David Prouty HS graduates!!
• Retention has improved. We strive to make ChooseSEBRSD a nurturing and supportive environment where students can thrive. That ranges from mentoring, tutoring, and academic and mental health counseling; to sports and special interest offerings; to our academics aimed at excellence in Advanced Placement, Early College and STEAM; coupled with our robust career technical education environment; and exciting kinesthetic, problem-based learning opportunities. In all grades (PreK-12), we are focused on keeping students engaged.
• Thanks to the leadership, dedication, and expertise of our faculty, we have successfully launched new academic courses of study in Early College/Dual Enrollment with Worcester State. At the same time, our high school and middle school are focused on growing enrollments in existing programs with long-term benefits for students in STEAM, Music, Chorus and the Arts.
• We continue to build on our excellence in a multitude of ways.
o First, we provide an excellent set of programming and service delivery options within our district today with the “Cubs Corner” Preschool. Our districtwide “Cubs Corner” program is a model for others in Southern Worcester County and the Commonwealth to emulate and has been a strategic priority of ChooseSEBRSD since my arrival in 2018. Over the past five years the “Cubs Corner” Preschool has improved significantly - while expanding its program offerings and services – with the aim of getting our young one’s (ages 3-5) kindergarten ready for their elementary school experiences. As a result, the “Cubs Corner’ Preschool enrollment has grown from 57 students - at the time we reopened our program doors post-pandemic - to an enrollment today of just over 127 students.
o Second, we undertook the bold steps to completely overhaul our model of secondary education at David Prouty High School by expanding Career Technical Education (CTE) opportunities through expanded investments in the Business/Marketing, Criminal Justice, Early Education and Care, Environmental Science, Technology and Innovation programs of study. As a result, our CTE programs have earned Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approvals and are recognized in Southern Worcester County as providing our students with exceptional hands-on, problem-based experiential learning experiences that prepare them for college, career and life well.
o Third, ChooseSEBRSD has made capital improvements throughout the district this year at East Brookfield Elementary School, Wire Village School and Knox Trail Middle School with thoughtful investments in infrastructure, security measures as well as our network security measures.
• We continue to invest in our most valuable asset, our employees and we are proud to offer ongoing support for induction and mentorship as well as deep and meaningful professional development opportunities. This investment has occurred while our health and retirement benefits remain highly competitive.
• Our regional school district is also continuing to move forward with Module Seven: Construction of the David Prouty High School Building Project, which has the support of not only our local communities but the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Without everyone’s collaboration, partnership and support none of these achievements would be possible.
• Thanks to thoughtful conservative strategic planning as well as strategic investments, our regional school district has been able to weather the post-pandemic economy well while the local job market has constricted and suffered losses. ChooseSEBRSD’s financial picture is strong as evidenced by the fact that the district is about to be released from Fiscal Oversight by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education later this summer. These are both accomplishments that allow ChooseSEBRSD to look to the future with great optimism.
Next year, we will celebrate sixty-three years since our founding as a regional school district. I am proud to say that the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District is a strong and viable fixture within Southern Worcester County poised for success because of you. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the vast number of strategic initiatives and programs we are undertaking to continue to meet student needs and make ChooseSEBRSD exceptional. Thank you for helping to make ChooseSEBRSD what we are today – we would not be the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District that we are without the leadership and support of our learning Community.
Sincerely Yours,
Paul S. Haughey, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District