With four members away and Chair Samantha Hurley on the phone, Jeanne Cristiano ran a short Everett School Committee meeting on Monday, May 18, that was mostly good news: a spotlight on the Devens School, a run of senior honors, and two Everett Citizens Foundation grants.
The Devens School
Principal Tiffany Boakye, a 15-year district employee who came up as a special educator, classroom teacher and assistant principal, said the Devens is a public therapeutic day school for students in kindergarten through grade 12, ages 5 to 22, who are referred through a placement process, and that it also takes tuition students from neighboring districts. “We are incredibly fortunate that here in Everett we are able to educate and support students within our community rather than referring them out of district,” she said. Staff use a trauma-informed model called TCIS, and “each morning after announcements, we begin our day by saying, you belong here,” a phrase printed on bracelets she handed the committee. A new principal’s cabinet of high school students runs the school store, where students earn tickets for kindness and arriving on time, and a hallway sensory walk lets students “get their wiggles out.”
Member Millie Cardello, who recalled touring the building when the school opened, said: “I walked through that school feeling like every teacher, every staff member had a superpower.” Student representative Emma Perry said this year’s rolling rally went inside the Devens for the first time to reach students who could not come out.
Seniors, capstones and scholarships
Superintendent William Hart said 70 students earned the state seal of biliteracy at world language night, and that 107 career and technical education seniors presented year-long capstone projects across all eight Chapter 74 programs. The winning team built Ocupath, “an AI powered career and financial guidance platform for students.” “They speak with such eloquence, with such certainty and knowledge that it really makes you know that these young people are going places,” he said. The Kiwanis Club of Everett gave $10,000 in scholarships to 11 seniors, including Perry, Danica Pham and Brooklyn LaMonica. The first Career and Technical Education National Honor Society induction at Everett was held May 14. The Boston Bruins mascot visited the Whittier and Madeline English schools for teacher appreciation week, and Parlin student council members toured the State House with Vice Chair Marcony Almeida Barros, who is deputy chief of staff to the governor.
Perry reported that the Life Skills coffee shop hit its goal of 33 shops this year, the law pathway held its capstone trial (“the defense won even though the Commonwealth had a great trial, I mean, great counsel, which was me”), senior prom was the next day, and the Memorial Day concert was set for Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Cardello asked whether a bank branch could return to the high school, as the old building once had. Hart said the district has discussed it, that it “would be part of the plan for a new Everett High School,” and that Everett has about 10 banks and credit unions that already sponsor scholarships, backpacks and hiring. The committee accepted $5,680 from the Everett Citizens Foundation for summer credit recovery and $5,575 for a sensory and movement room serving about 150 preschoolers at the Webster Extension and Adams School, both 6-0. Members Almeida Barros, Margaret Cornelio, Joseph D’Onofrio and Joseph LaMonica were absent.
Previous School Committee meeting (May 5): Everett School Committee Sends a $139.3 Million Budget to the Mayor 9-0, Opts Out of School Choice, and Asks for AI Language in the Bullying Policy
