Back to school: New principals, busing, parent messaging app for Middleboro district

MIDDLEBORO — Set the alarms and sharpen the pencils — Middleboro students return to school Sept. 2.

While the Middleboro Public School District is making several changes this year, the most significant are improving busing efficiency for kindergarten students and introducing a new, streamlined messaging platform to enhance communication between parents and schools.

Sean Siciliano, the Chief Technology Officer and Communications Director, said the busing changes for kindergarteners at the Memorial Early Childhood Center on Main Street would alleviate traffic pressures from 20-some school buses having to drive through the downtown area.

During the morning drop-offs, buses will now follow the same route as the afternoon drop-off schedule. Memorial Early Childhood students will be bused straight to Henry B. Burkland and Mary K. Goode elementary schools. Once the elementary students are dropped off, the kindergarteners will then board dedicated buses to transfer them over to the center.

“We think this will solve the problem and get kids to school in a quicker time frame. It'll be a little bit easier because we'll have most of the kindergarten kids showing up all around the same time,” Siciliano said.

Another big change this year is ParentSquare, a new tool Middleboro Public Schools are using to make communication between parents and teachers more efficient. Siciliano said the platform has features including a “daily digest” where parents can receive one message with all of the day’s updates from broader school messages to specific teacher comments.

It also can translate documents into multiple languages of the recipient’s choice— further streamlining communication between schools and families. Custom notifications can be created so families can tailor what messages they receive.

“There's an app that they can download right on their phone that they connect to, which makes it seamless. We're really trying to push the app for families so they can kind of have everything all in one spot,” Siciliano said.

At the Memorial Early Childhood Center, first day orientation will be held on Sept. 2, where families can meet teachers and kindergarteners can sit in a school bus to see what it's like. Tracie Lord was recently appointed principal of the center after teaching at the school for years, and serving as the interim principal for most of last year.

The Mary K. Goode school open-house will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 and the Henry B. Burkland school will host an open house from 6 to 7:30pm on Sept. 24.

At Henry B. Burkland, the school gained a new principal, Shammah Daniels, who took over from the previous principal Ron Sanborn.

At the John T. Nichols Middle School, principal Timothy McLaughlin and assistant principal Stephanie Nocon will be starting their first year in their positions as well. A welcome-tour led by student leaders in the 8th grade will take place for new and transfer students at the middle school from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27.

At the Middleboro High School, an open house will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27 for incoming freshman and transfer students that did not attend the “StartSTRONG” freshman orientation that took place on Aug. 20 and 21.

Next month, the high school Fall open house will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 17. In addition, before the football home-opener on Sept. 12, an “Aloha Bash” will take place in the parking lot area for students to partake in field-games and fun activities.

To find information on start days, busing and more, go to the Middleboro Public School’s “School Hours” page on their website.