Medfield principals report smooth elementary opening; ParentSquare, start times and ELA pilots highlighted

At a Medfield School Committee meeting, elementary principals reported that the 2025–26 school year opened smoothly and outlined several districtwide efforts to improve classroom communication, instruction timing and social-emotional learning.

"Things at the opening went very well, very smoothly," said Missy, an elementary principal, thanking building staff, custodial and central-office teams for their work. The principals provided school-by-school enrollment figures: Memorial reported 40 preschoolers, 151 kindergarteners and 190 first-graders (381 total); Wheelock (transcribed as "Welock") reported 9 preschoolers and a combined total of 398 students across early grades; and Dale Street reported roughly 383 elementary students. Across the three buildings, class sizes average about 17 to 23 students.

The presentation highlighted ParentSquare, a communication platform the district adopted this year to centralize messages, translations and calendar items for families. Principals said family connection rates are near universal: Memorial and Dale Street showed roughly 100% family connection, and Wheelock was reported at 99.8% connected, with about two-thirds of families using the ParentSquare app. Speakers said ParentSquare can manage conference signups, permission slips, volunteer sign-ups and payment collections going forward.

Administrators also described a shift in elementary start times for 2025–26: the three elementary schools now operate from 8:00 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. The district added an optional Medfield extended day program that runs 2:35–4:00 p.m. for families who need after-school care; staff reported daily participation varies (example counts given were 33 students on Fridays and 56 on Thursdays).

On literacy, the elementary team said two ELA pilot programs have been used this year. Nineteen teachers across the three schools participated in an earlier pilot of a program called Bookworms reading and writing curriculum; after completing that pilot around Halloween, staff began implementing a program identified in the transcript as "HM Interreading." Literacy coordinator Jamie Callahan was described as facilitating professional development, collaborative planning, lesson modeling and weekly feedback cycles so teachers can report on engagement and instructional alignment. School staff emphasized that, regardless of program, they align resources to the same state standards and monitor student progress with district assessments.

The district also began implementing Wayfinder, a researched social-emotional learning curriculum. Wayfinder focuses on six core skills — purpose, self-awareness, adaptability, empathy, collaboration and agency — and staff said they created a prek–12 curriculum map and trained all staff before the school year. The intention is for classrooms to deliver one Wayfinder lesson weekly, with supplemental short activities used across settings such as morning meetings, lines, assemblies and specialist classes.

Why pilots matter: committee members asked whether rotating pilots might disrupt continuity. Staff answered that standards alignment and regular assessment (DIBELS, STAR and other measures referenced) will be used to detect gaps and ensure students make expected progress; the team said they would continue monitoring growth and share findings with the superintendent and committee.

What comes next: teachers will continue to collect feedback from families and students and will recommend whether a program should be adopted districtwide after the pilot period. The committee scheduled follow-up and acknowledged budget considerations for any full adoption in FY27.

The committee did not take a formal vote on curriculum adoption at the meeting; staff asked the committee to await the pilot feedback before advancing adoption recommendations.