The first day of school in Brockton on Wednesday went smoothly. While there were some small hiccups, Priya Tahiliani, interim superintendent of Brockton Public Schools said teachers were “optimistic and upbeat” and students had “smiles galore."
School Committee member Jorge Vega greeted everyone at Wednesday night’s school committee meeting with, “happy first day of school,” and that could certainly describe the atmosphere of the evening’s meeting and across the district throughout the day.
“We’ve noticed a huge difference,” said School Committee member Joyce Asack of the change in mood compared to this time last year.
“We’re starting our school year on a totally different note,” she said. “You can notice it, the atmosphere, the morale.”
Just before the first day of last school year in August 2023 , Mayor Robert F. Sullivan announced that BPS overspent its budget by $14.4 million, which eventually amounted to a total of $18.25 million. Although students were positive going into school, the mood of the meeting that evening was tense.
SAFETY AND SECURITY: BPS name safety and security director following a year of violence, chaos in schools
Fast forward a year, and the vibes are starkly different.
Members of the community stood outside Brockton High School holding signs welcoming students as they arrived.
“It was an incredible first day today,” said Tahiliani. “As a new Brockton Public School member, it was very special to be able to be a part of this day.”
School year starts off positively
The BPS hallways were positive and festive Wednesday morning, several school officials reported.
"I don't think I was as excited to go back to school as these kids were," said School Committee member Claudio Gomes .
Gomes added that he registered his own child in Brockton Public Schools for the first time this year, and said "it was a smooth process."
Enrollment numbers
A total of 15,570 students were enrolled in BPS as of Wednesday night, with 391 more students still in the process of registering and 80 new applications in the last 48 hours, said Tahiliani. At Brockton High School, where 3,730 students kicked off the new school year, Principal Kevin McCaskill said it was "a pretty good day."
"The kids were fantastic, and the staff really did their thing," McCaskill said.
Yondr pouches: Brockton High to become a 'cell phone-free environment' with Yondr bag program
Transportation
There were some first-day bumps in the road, Tahiliani said. Issues arose with bussing and transportation as some bus routes experienced delays in the morning, and elementary school busses were roughly 15 to 30 minutes late in the afternoon due to delayed dismissal at BHS. Also, 10 students at Baker Elementary School were picked up late by one of the district's internal vans.
"We are actively looking at these and overall, it was actually a successful day for transportation," Tahiliani said. "If this is our baseline, I feel really confident in what the rest of the year will look like."
She said that buses will arrive at BHS for afternoon pick up slightly earlier going forward.
“It’s not going to be perfect, but it was a good first day,” said committee member Asack.
Translators needed on first day
School Committee member Ana Oliver said she acted as a language translator for bilingual families at South Middle School, where there were no bilingual staff members to help parents and grandparents navigate the school. Oliver said there's a large number of new students at South who don't speak English and urged school personnel to have translators present on the first day of school in the future to assist families.
"I became the translator this morning," said Oliver. "I can't speak Haitian Creole, but I was speaking Spanish, I was translating, I was translating Creole. It was very difficult for some of the parents that didn't know where to go."
More: Budget clash as Brockton schools plead for 97 'critically needed' staff. If city says no?
"In the future when we're just beginning school, we need translators," she said. "There's a lot of information that was not given to them in their language. So, they were lost, they didn't know where to go. They didn't know what time school ended."
Cell phones in Yondr bags at Brockton High
Brockton High officially launched its new cell phone policy that requires all students to secure their phones in a locked Yondr pouch for the entire school day. The bags can only be unlocked by magnetic devices that are only available at the end of the day.
BHS school police officer Jason Mosley said the policy is "working to expectations."
"The Yondr bags seem to be working," said Mosley. "We didn't see a lot of kids leaving school today, so that's a good thing. Of course, because they couldn't unlock them so they couldn't leave."
School Committee Vice-Chair Tony Rodrigues, who visited Brockton High on Wednesday, said he saw a very small number of students on their phones, but rather saw more students interacting with one another and being engaged.
"I was very happy with what I saw at the high school today," he said.
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: 'A huge difference': BPS administrators optimistic following first day of school
Local News
