On June 29, the first official day of summer vacation for Newton Public Schools (NPS) students, Superintendent Anna Nolin sent a lengthy email to families in which she thanked educators, parents, and City officials for their partnership with NPS. The email contained links to the reports discussed at the June 24 School Committee meeting, to a newly unveiled curriculum website, and to a “thoughtexchange” feedback tool for families to utilize.
During the week of July 9, a special School Committee meeting convened, following a nearly two-hour Executive Session, to vote to approve calendar changes for the 2024-2025 school year. These changes were made possible via a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Newton Teachers Association that replaced the last two days of the school year in June 2025 with a professional development day for educators on Election Day in 2024. During the public session, the Committee approved stipends for educators moving among buildings due to construction projects.
The 8-minute public portion of the July 9 meeting is available for replay on NewTV.
NPS also ended the year by announcing additional Central Office hires and personnel assignments, on the heels of three new hires previously announced in May. As described in a press release sent to Fig City News, Christina Maryland has been hired to be NPS Director of Communications and Family Engagement, and two NPS educators will take on new assignments: Dr. Maria Kolbe will become Director of Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), and Jennifer Shore will become Director of Special Initiatives/K-8 Math Coordinator. Ms. Shore is known to some families as the Principal of the Distance Learning Academy (DLA), the all-Zoom school option during the 2020-2021 pandemic year, when Newton lagged significantly behind neighboring school districts in offering in-person classes to students.