Spotlight on Excellence
Noah Shupenko, High School junior, earned an honorable mention for the 2025 Gerry Mulligan Jazz Challenge. This is a huge accomplishment and earned him a $100 prize!
School Resource Officer, Taylor Ford was honored for Exceptional Service at the Massachusetts Juvenile Police Officers Association’s yearly conference. SRO Ford is a huge asset to the schools and embodies community policing. She builds strong relationships with our students that helps prevent students making wrong choices! Thank you Taylor and Congratulations!
Shout Outs:
- For those of you who missed the May 8, 2025 School Committee meeting where we celebrated the boys Basketball and Cheerleading Teams you can watch Spotlight On Excellence recording here.
- A community member is thrilled to acknowledge Jessica McPhail, Penn Brook Teacher. “Jessica McPhail. She brightens the day for so many at Penn Brook. My daughter had her in Kindergarten and is now in 3rd grade. She still constantly talks about Mrs. McPhail and if she happens to see her during the school day, it is the first thing she mentions after school. She always finds a way to connect to students and makes them feel happy!”
- Mrs. Moran is given a shout out from a peer. “I heard of a student’s dog passing over April break and how the student in my class was mourning them. She asked them for a photo of their puppy and so kindly created a painting of the animal for my student to have and cherish. This is something that noticeably took a long time and was truly a labor of love for a student in grief. It is inspiring to see colleagues going above and beyond to show our students how much we care and knowing I have such dedicated and thoughtful coworkers like her, makes me so proud to work in Georgetown.”
- I want to Shout Out a past graduate of the Georgetown Public Schools, Robert Brennan. He is a local artist who dropped by my office with a generous heart. He is offering three scholarships in honor of his mother, sister and one for a student that will follow their passion in the arts. He spoke about the Shout Out section of the blog and donated many gift cards to Starbucks for me to acknowledge staff members for going above and beyond. He also left us his art in the form of beautiful stickers. They are available at Central Office for anyone who would like one.
Budget:
It is with immense gratitude that I acknowledge the monumental feet of the Georgetown Community with the passing of the Proposition 2 ½ override at the town elections on Monday, May 12, 2025. I understand the struggle individual people had to vote “yes” knowing the impact it will have on their finances. I am humbled to be the steward of the school’s budget and I promise to strive for excellence, be transparent and make all decisions based on what is best for our students.
With the passing of the override, each department, including the schools have a huge responsibility to the Georgetown community. They sent a clear message that they believe in the leaders of each department to deliver an exceptional service. I want to thank everyone for the support, tireless effort to keep the override conversation going and most importantly, the belief that the children of Georgetown deserve the best we can offer. Website: Community Bulletin Board – To help streamline information and encourage families to use the district’s website we made a change in how community flyers are shared. Currently, each building administrator distributes regular newsletters and attaches approved flyers. Moving forward, newsletters will include the Community Bulletin Board link. Families can click on that link to see the new offerings.