A special thank you to all who came to our community open house at the new Florence Roche Elementary School on Saturday, March 1st! Our 4th grade student council members were so impressive as tour guides and student ambassadors for our community and our school.
We received this message from one of our attendees:
Good Morning,
My husband and I were among the lucky town residents who were treated to a wonderful tour of your new building by 2 well prepared, well spoken and fun fourth graders. Thank you for opening this beautiful new school to the community. It is a wonderful learning environment and our 2 grandchildren are enjoying their experiences in this new place. We appreciate all the extra effort that you and your team made to accommodate the members of the Groton community on a Saturday. Please extend our thanks to the students and your staff.
From Brian O'Donoghue and Laura Taylor: a shout out to Michael Fahy, 4th grade teacher, for organizing the team of tour guides and for supporting them throughout the event. Also a shout out to Leslie and Erin for their support with the refreshments - what a great morning!
In addition to touring the school, many community members also participated in a budget forum, hosted by the School Committee, where we presented three budget scenarios, two of which would require further reductions in personnel and impact students in all schools across GDRSD. Passing overrides in both towns will be required in order to fund the Superintendent's proposed budget that will be officially voted on and certified at the next SC meeting on March 12th. Please stay informed and I encourage you to access the GDRSD home page, where there are links to 2026 Budget Documents, the Business and Finance page, and our DESE district profile. The most recent documents linked to the home page include the FY26 Budget Book and the February 12th School Committee Meeting slide presentation summarizing the Superintendent's proposed level services budget (no reductions to personnel), as well as two other FY26 scenarios, both of which require significant budget reductions including additional cuts to staff: administrators, teachers, and student support personnel. Please email questions you may have related to the budget to budgetquestions@gdrsd.org. We will be compiling these and answering them as part of a shared Frequently Asked Questions document posted on the budget page.
