By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The School Committee approved new student handbooks for the 2025-2026 academic year during a recent meeting.
The Administrative Leadership Team told a prior School Committee at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year that the principals wanted to return to school-based handbooks and move away from the district-wide handbook that was implemented during former Superintendent Kristen Vogel’s tenure. The School Committee expressed its support for the proposal.
Education officials at all four schools worked in partnership with all four School Councils in order to develop the updated student handbooks. Teachers and support staff also provided feedback that was incorporated into all three handbooks.
Lynnfield High School
Principal Patricia Puglisi and Assistant Principal Mike McLeod gave an overview of Lynnfield High School’s handbook.
The LHS handbook includes the competency determination (CD) that will be required in order for students to graduate. Puglisi and Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico stated in a memo sent to Superintendent Tom Geary that the CD needs to be implemented in the wake of voters approving a ballot question last November that eliminated passing the MCAS exam to graduate from high school.
“Instead, students will need to meet the CD by completing locally-determined coursework that is aligned with the state curriculum frameworks previously assessed on the MCAS,” Puglisi and Federico stated. “The law now requires that school districts determine both graduation requirements and what constitutes competency determination in our district.
“Keeping in mind Lynnfield Vision of a Graduate: All graduates of Lynnfield High School will successfully demonstrate acquisition of the following skills and dispositions to be: Communicators, resilient, literate, problem-solvers (and) global citizens.”
Puglisi and Federico stated that, “To achieve the required competency determination, students must demonstrate proficiency, as defined by a passing grade, in the following core subject areas: English 9 and English 10; algebra 1 and geometry; (and) biology.”
“Students who successfully complete a full Algebra 1 course at the middle school level will have that course counted toward their CD,” Puglisi and Federico stated.
Puglisi said during the School Committee’s meeting that McLeod worked to update the high school’s smoking/vaping/tobacco/nicotine policy and the marijuana/drugs/alcohol policy.
“They were very outdated and the consequences were not appropriate,” said Puglisi.
McLeod said the high school’s previous policies were “illegal.”
Puglisi clarified McLeod’s comment about the policies being illegal.
“The reason why we say illegal is because the law changed in terms of suspension,” said Puglisi. “The policy just hadn’t been updated since the change.”
Puglisi also noted in a memo sent to Geary that the revised LHS student handbook includes an updated Academic Integrity policy.
“Academic integrity is perhaps the most important virtue with respect to a student’s academic work at Lynnfield High School,” the Academic Integrity policy states. “A student’s integrity and credibility are based on this honesty which is one of our core values of academic excellence. Lynnfield High School students are expected to understand that dishonesty on exams, papers and homework is a violation of our academic integrity policy and is a very serious matter. Students are expected to avoid all forms of cheating, including practices, which allow others to cheat from them. It is unfair to the students who earn their marks with hard work; it undermines the integrity of grades; it destroys the trust between teachers and students; it is unacceptable.”
McLeod said the updated LHS handbook outlines consequences for students who are caught cheating.
Lynnfield Middle School
Principal Stephen Ralston and Assistant Principal Dana Courtney gave an overview of Lynnfield Middle School’s handbook for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Ralston said a hard copy of the middle school’s code of conduct will be given to each student.
“These will live in the students’ binders that they will carry with them throughout the day,” said Ralston. “We are still dedicated to having that hard copy in front of the students, which is something they have not had probably a few years prior to COVID. I think that is really important for us and for the students to make sure that all of our students have the information and know our expectations for our school climate, culture and student conduct.”
Courtney said the revised LMS handbook includes a range of responses for different incidents that occur.
“There is some flexibility in our responses,” said Courtney. “Every infraction is a little bit different depending on the child and the situation. This gives us a little bit of a range that seems appropriate for the behavior.”
Courtney said teachers and support staff can use the handbook as a reference when a student gets sent to the office.
“If a student is sent to the office, I always try to circle back with teachers to let them know what the outcome was,” said Courtney. “This is another way that they can be assured to know one of these things has been addressed as a consequence for behavior.”
Elementary schools
Summer Street School Principal Karen Cronin and Huckleberry Hill School Principal Lauren King gave an overview of the elementary schools’ handbook.
Cronin said the language included in the old handbook was “a little bit dated.”
“Language is always changing and language matters,” said Cronin. “We replaced the term ‘parent’ to ‘caregiver’ to be more inclusive.”
Cronin said the handbooks will include an introductory letter in order to “establish a warm and welcoming tone for families knowing this is their first entry into the school district.” She also said the handbook outlines “arrival and dismissal procedures.”
“Arrival and dismissal is very specific at an elementary school,” said Cronin. “We laid that out clearly.”
Cronin also said the elementary schools’ handbook outlines “expected student behaviors.”
“It’s kind of an elementary version of a code of conduct,” said Cronin.
Similar to the secondary schools’ handbooks, King said the elementary school handbook will include the cellphone/electronic device, student conduct on buses and dress code policies. She also said it outlines homework expectations for students as well as the fall and spring conference structure.
SC compliments handbooks
School Committee member Kim Baker Donahue said the revised handbooks will allow students to see “the consistency as they get older.”
“I think that is great,” said Baker Donahue.
School Committee member Jamie Hayman thanked the ALT for revising each handbook.
“I think one of the missteps that we had was going to one singular handbook,” said Hayman. “Seeing the work that went into pulling this back into three separate handbooks and the amount of time that it takes is not lost on me. I certainly appreciate it.”
School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy said she found the handbooks to be “very readable and clear.”
“I appreciate that as a parent,” said Elworthy. “The expectations are very clearly laid out. I know that this is not light work, so we truly appreciate it.”
School Committee Vice Chair Jim Dillon said he hopes the three revised handbooks “will be a tool that will make a difference.”
Committee member Kate DePrizio said the revised handbooks are “more accessible and easy to use than what we previously had.”