High School Project, Administrative Stability Have Nauset Schools On Right Footing

The first day of school is always greeted with high hopes and optimism by teachers, staff and administrators. But for Nauset school officials, those feelings have been heightened a bit this year.

 After years of planning and coordination, students and staff at Nauset Regional High School occupied brand new campus buildings Tuesday, marking an important milestone in the ongoing effort to renovate the North Eastham campus on Cable Road.

 The opening of the new G, E, F and N buildings represent the new construction portion of the campus renovation, which is being funded with $169 million collectively authorized in 2021 and 2023 by voters in the four district towns of Orleans, Brewster, Eastham and Wellfleet. Of that figure, $36.6 million is being subsidized by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

 Work to renovate the remaining four campus buildings will continue throughout the 2024-2025 school year, and the fully renovated campus is expected to be online in time for the start of school in September 2025. 

Nauset School Superintendent Brooke Clenchy last week said that the work on the project to date is a credit to “multiple teams” that bring it to the 60 percent completion mark, including the Nauset regional school committee, the 17-member school building subcommittee, staff and administrators across the district, the project contractor, Brait Builders, and the voters.

 “I think all of these people that are involved need to take just a minute and celebrate where we’re at,” she said.

 Officials began seven years ago planning the combined reconstruction/renovation of the high school, which first opened in North Eastham in 1972. The district broke ground on the project last year, moving staff and students into modular classrooms onsite while construction was underway. That shift came on the heels of a pandemic that forced staff and students into stretches of remote and hybrid learning.

 Between the pandemic and the start of campus construction, it’s been an atypical last few years at the high school. But Clenchy said students and staff haven’t been deterred amidst all of the changes. Quoting from Thomas Foley’s valedictorian address from June, she praised the “unshakeable spirit” of Nauset Regional High School.

 “Are we looking forward to this all being done? Sure,” she said. “Is it affecting us in terms of student growth or student academics? I would say no. Not really.”

 Excitement around the new high school buildings has helped set a hopeful tone for the rest of the Nauset district coming into the new school year, Clenchy said. Last week, the superintendent presided over a “convocation” with staff and administrators at Nauset Regional Middle School. The event, she said, marked the first time that all 500-plus Nauset staffers were able to come together in one room since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

 “They were so warm and receptive, it was just such an amazing morning,” she said. “You get a lot of inspiration from those moments as a superintendent.”

 At the middle school, Peter Cohen begins his second year as principal alongside assistant principals Michael Ciliberto and Brett Costello. The three were hired last year, and much of their first year together involved learning “the lay of the land,” as Cohen said, and from there building a school culture after significant administrative turnover in prior years.

 With much of the groundwork set, Cohen said he’s excited about building upon the foundation that he and his staff have helped set in year two.

 “Everything was so new last year,” he said. “This year we feel more grounded, more prepared.”

 The return of Cohen and his team to the middle school also helps afford students and staff a stability in administration that had been lacking prior to their arrival. Following the resignation of former principal Keith Kenyon at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Beth Deneen was brought on as interim principal in 2022-2023 as Nauset officials took their time in finding the right person to lead the school full time.

 “That is one of the things that I have stressed in my time here is that we will wait for the best and the brightest,” Clenchy said of the process that led to Cohen’s hire. 

 The 2023-2024 school year at the middle school sees the introduction of two rebranded classes, Earth keepers for seventh graders and change makers for students in grade eight. The two classes evolved from the popular adventure ed course, which was rebranded this year after the retirement of the class’ longtime teacher, John Simms. The courses will be taught this year by Susannah Remillard.

 “There’s an environmental studies component to it, a Native American history component to it,” Cohen said. “It’s recognizing that we live in this amazing, unique location, and it’s sort of up to this generation to be able to help preserve that and learn about some of the Native American traditions. I think some of our kids go to Nauset Regional Middle School and don’t necessarily know where the word ‘Nauset’ comes from.”

 Cohen also said he’s looking forward to expanding upon “Nauset Time,” an advisory program where students are broken into groups daily to work on things such as team building, time management and social-emotional wellness. 

 A greater focus has been placed on social-emotional wellness in recent years, in part due to interruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But he said there are also other factors such as social media and technology that have contributed to the need for educators to focus more on students’ mental health.

 “Some of those issues probably existed pre-COVID,” he said. “It’s just that COVID shined a brighter spotlight on that we need to explicitly teach some of these skills, that emphasis on kindness, respect and citizenship and community service and helping kids be able to interact with one another.”

 Staff at Orleans Elementary School have been similarly invested in incorporating emotional wellness into its curriculum and educating what Principal Elaine Pender calls “the whole child.” She and her staff are coming into the new year on the heels of a 2023-2024 campaign that saw the school achieve recognition as one of the top performing schools in the state.

 “Every year has kind of a different feel, but this year feels solid,” she said. “Everyone is in a really good frame of mind.”

 After the disruptions brought on due to COVID in recent years, Pender said there’s an added calmness and confidence in the elementary school as the new year gets underway.

 “It’s a confidence in our ability to support students where they can be themselves and really get to where they need to be,” she said. “There aren’t the boundaries or the hindrances that perhaps have been there, so we can kind of hone in on what [students] bring to us.”

 And amid concerns nationally about teacher “burnout” due to complications on educators due to the pandemic, Pender said teachers and staff get an added boost from the support they receive from the broader community.

 “I think because we have a system of support, we keep our teachers and they come back strong with new initiatives, new ideas, more collaboration. It’s exciting.”

 For Clenchy, the positivity and enthusiasm heading into the new school year was evident during last week’s convocation, even just in walking through the middle school hallways and seeing the messaging on the school’s bulletin boards. The right tone has been set for students, teachers, staff and parents across the district, she said.

 “You can feel the pride.”