The May School Committee began with a moment of silence for two members of our community that passed away: John Reed and Dylan Gerald. Mr. Reed was a longtime member of the faculty of Barnstable High School who clearly had a great impact on his students as a teacher and Imani club advisor. He also invested deeply and personally in recruiting faculty members of color to our District. The impact he had within Barnstable Public Schools extended throughout the regional and national community. His impact included contributions to the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association, National Educators’ Association, Massachusetts Partnership for Diversity in Education, Cape Cod NAACP, Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, and as a founding member of the Zion Union Heritage Museum here in Hyannis. He will be missed by so many people in our community. Mr. Gerald passed away on April 14. He had been serving the Barnstable Public Schools as the Director of the Daycare at Barnstable High School as well as the Director of our Before and After Care program in our elementary schools. Mr. Gerald was a kind-hearted and gentle educator. He developed strong relationships with the teachers in his programs and our high school interns got to know him well. The program was often short-staffed and Dylan always “rolled up his sleeves” and did whatever he needed to do to keep services running, including teaching in the infant room for the vast majority of this school year. Mr. Gerald believed the best in students. He had a promising career as a leader ahead of him and we will most certainly miss him.

 

The School Committee had two Highlights in Educations this month. First they were treated to a slide show of the recent Barnstable High School trip to Italy during April vacation. The chaperones and several students spoke about the trip and their experience. It was a wonderful time had by all. Next, over 100 students from Barnstable took the National Latin Exam – a rigorous standardized test of their vocabulary, grammar, history, mythology, and culture skills. A number of students received recognition for their performance including:

  • Cum Laude Award: Moses Winslow, Landyn Boufford, and Jack Bertling
  • Magna Cum Laude: Parker Hegarty-Cook, Julia Silva, Haylie Voravong, Rae Cheron, Caroline Cogswell, Derek Mooney, Starrla Bliss, Amalia Thompson, Nathan Gregoire, Addyson Breen, and Kemelly Rodrigues
  • Silver Medal: Simon Richardson, Madison McLaughlin, Henry Richardson, Will Penni, and Nik Lyons
  • Gold Medal: Julia Vieira and Wyatt Delnegro

 

It was the last meeting for the Students Envoys to the School Committee: Sherri Danforth and Luci Komar. They have been Student Envoys for the last two years and will be graduating in June. Sherri is attending Stonehill College and Luci will be attending Harvard University in the Fall. We thank them for their service and keeping the Committee updated on the student happenings at the high school for the last two years. We wish them the best in college and in their future endeavors.

 

The Committee had a presentation on the GATEWAY (Gifted and Talented Education With All Youth) Program in Barnstable from Director Kari Morse. The Subcommittee on School Committee Policies has been reviewing all the School Committee Policies and the policies in Sections A-H have been updated and were approved by the Committee.

 

The Committee approved three revised job descriptions and a Special Education Teacher position at BWB. Hiring season is gearing up in the Barnstable Public Schools, so please check our openings at https://barnstable.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx.