Ashland Public Schools report smooth opening despite bus‑loop yellow‑jacket stings; district highlights staffing and MTSS rollout

The Ashland School Committee met for its first meeting of the academic year and heard updates from Superintendent Jim Adams and school leaders on staffing, student assessment, safety and districtwide initiatives.

At the meeting Superintendent Jim Adams said the year began “smoothly” but recounted an incident on the first day when a ground nest of yellow jackets in a bus loop led to widespread stings. “We had a number of students ended up being about close to 57, 58 students who would eventually were, identified as having been, stung,” Adams said, adding that no students required hospital transport and that Ashland Police, Fire, EMTs, nursing and transportation staff responded and contacted parents.

The superintendent and committee members praised building leaders and first‑responders for their response and calm handling. Adams thanked nurses, transportation staff and first responders and noted that parents were contacted and no hospital transports were requested.

The committee heard a districtwide staffing update: administrators said the district hired more than 50 faculty and staff over the summer and through the start of school. New positions and new hires were listed for nutrition services, the elementary schools, the middle school and district offices; several principals and assistant principals also attended the meeting for introductions.

Adams outlined instructional priorities for the year: the district will continue to emphasize social‑emotional learning and expand multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS). He said the administrative team read Demystifying MTSS and will stand up a district MTSS committee and building teams in October to implement structures for data‑driven academic and SEL support.

Assessment windows began in September. Adams and other administrators described a schedule that dedicated a day at the middle school to ELA i‑Ready testing to reduce instructional disruption, with a planned math window to follow. They said roughly 90% of middle school students completed the ELA i‑Ready in the initial window.

Transportation was discussed briefly. Administrators said most routes are running within a few minutes of scheduled times; a small number of buses remain habitually 3–5 minutes late in some runs. Committee members and staff credited the district transportation office and the town DPW for improved on‑time performance.

Public comment included a presentation from Brandy Kinsman of the Ashland Select Board and Josh Wickser of Ashland High School updating the committee on plans for Ashland Day, a community festival scheduled for Oct. 4 at Stone Park. “We’re here tonight really to talk about Ashland Day,” Kinsman said, describing a fast community fundraising effort and volunteer organization to run the event after the usual committee said it lacked funds.

Administrators also reported summer curriculum work — 31 projects ranging from business curriculum development to augmentative communication devices — and said unannounced classroom observations will increase in the coming weeks as part of the educator evaluation cycle.

The meeting closed with routine committee business and reminders about upcoming conferences and working‑group appointments.