The Everett School Committee voted 9-0 on Monday, February 2, to implement free full-day pre-kindergarten for the 2026-27 school year, formalizing the plan Superintendent William Hart and Assistant Superintendent Margaret Adams laid out two weeks earlier. Chair Samantha Hurley and Vice Chair Marcony Almeida Barros sponsored the item. Registration opens in March, with a lottery in May if applicants outnumber seats.
Hart attended remotely while recovering from surgery, and Jeanne Cristiano also joined by video, so every vote was by roll call. Joseph D’Onofrio was absent.
State aid
Hart said the governor’s budget of a little over $63 billion gives Everett a small increase in Chapter 70 education aid over last year. “While it is an increase, there are other things that are included in making up the number to run our budget,” he said. “I had a general concern that the number was, although good, it wasn’t where I think it needs to be to continue to run the system the way that we are accustomed to running it.” He said he is working with Sen. Sal DiDomenico and that internal budget hearings with departments and the city are under way.
Vocational admissions
The committee adopted a revised Everett High School career and technical education admissions policy that states a lottery will be held whenever applicants exceed seats, conforming to new state rules. “We’ve already done that, but now we’re just conforming to DESE rules by stating that there’s a lottery,” Hart said. A separate state-required middle school pathway exploration policy, guaranteeing all middle schoolers information about CTE programs before high school, also passed 9-0. Almeida Barros noted the materials at each member’s seat were designed by CTE marketing students.
Mental health
Jake Cavanaugh, director of the NAN Project, told the committee the peer-to-peer mental health and suicide prevention program began at Everett High ten years ago, after he and his mother founded it in memory of his sister Nan, who died by suicide in 2012. Trained young adults ages 18 to 25 share their recovery stories in classrooms. The group has worked recently at the Whittier and the high school, and has ARPA funding from the city to expand. Millie Cardello pressed for parents to be notified before presentations: “Sometimes when parents find out things after the fact, they’re more apt to be concerned or upset about who’s teaching my children.” Cavanaugh said the group would share its agenda with any school that invites it. Of 230 students at its mental health summit last year, 50 came from Everett High, he said. Van Campen said the city’s youth development department “is gonna go through a pretty large transformation over the next several weeks” and that congressional guidance is to spend unspent ARPA funds fast. Cristiano noted the district hired about 21 licensed clinical social workers last year. Hart listed the BRIGHT program, counselors in every school and a new check-in, check-out program with 36 volunteer teachers at the Keverian School.
Also February 2
- The meeting opened with a moment of silence for Helen McLaughlin, an educator and principal whose husband, Lester McLaughlin, served on the committee for more than a decade.
- Madeline English School’s Bulldog Bots, coached by Bruce Jaffe and Jennifer Cavalieri, described qualifying at the Revere tournament for the FIRST LEGO League state championship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “At first it was frustrating and confusing,” student Logan said. Cardello praised the students’ public speaking: “You spoke from the heart.”
- Grants accepted 9-0: $8,500 to train five bilingual staff as special education interpreters, and Everett Cultural Council grants of $750 for the Adams School and $667 for after-school science.
- Six Everett High artists won Scholastic Art and Writing Awards: David Bermudez, Kylene Molina Martinez, Anthony Whitlow, Luanne Silva, Shahendra Hall and Lizzie Padillo Castro.
- Students competed in a marketing challenge at Gillette Stadium, pitching ways to sell tickets to Thursday night concerts.
- Bills and payroll of about $3.6 million were approved. The next meeting is Tuesday, February 24, because of school vacation. The committee adjourned at 7:43 p.m.
Previous School Committee meeting (January 21): Everett Schools Propose Free Full-Day Pre-K for September as the Webster School Is Named One of Two National Distinguished Schools in Massachusetts
