Dawe School highlights daily SEL routines, mentoring and community events as attendance, accountability scores rise

Rob Cancelieri, principal of Dawe School, told the Stoughton School Committee that the school—s social-emotional learning (SEL) routines and community programs are paying measurable dividends.

"We start every day as a school community," Cancelieri said, describing live morning announcements that are streamed to classrooms and often include student cohosts, birthdays and school expectations. He said those announcements, dance parties and consistent adult visibility contribute to a positive school climate.

Cancelieri and Assistant Principal Mrs. Thiebaud outlined Dawe—s mentoring and peer-mentoring programs. "Parents get a letter saying your son or daughter has been identified as being somebody who would benefit from a mentor," Cancelieri said of the school—s mentoring outreach; he described mentors who meet weekly to eat lunch or play UNO with assigned students. Dragon Buddies pairs older and younger classrooms for STEM, social-emotional and academic activities, and the Building-Based Support Team (BBST) meets regularly to design classroom strategies and review progress every six to eight weeks.

The presentation included recurring, schoolwide events designed to build inclusion: a winter—time Diversity at Dawe family night with cultural tables and food; autism acceptance activities and an expanded TLC-family support network; and an annual character-assembly program aligned to the CharacterStrong SEL curriculum. Cancelieri also described efforts aimed at new students — a series of lunches and a first-day orientation for incoming kindergarten families designed to ease transitions.

Cancelieri tied the programming to outcomes: "As you can see, attendance wins. We are at 95.1% for our daily attendance rate, which is excellent. It's actually, better than the district and the state," he said. He also reported that Dawe—s overall accountability percentile rose from the mid-30s in 2018 to 61 most recently.

The presentation closed with student-produced video clips and a short list of next steps: exploring additional supports for student physical well-being (walking clubs, nutrition), continuing CharacterStrong implementation and sustaining small class sizes where possible.

Committee members praised the school's community focus. "Norms follow leaders," one committee member said, thanking Cancelieri and Thiebaud for visible leadership and noting the benefit of routine principal presence at arrival and dismissal.

The committee received the presentation; no formal action was taken.