Hull School Committee Approves Jacobs School Handbook Changes, Including New Hat Policy
Student Council's Proposal Convinces Committee to Allow Hats for Middle Schoolers
HULL - June 9 - The Hull School Committee unanimously approves amendments to the Jacobs School handbook, including a new policy allowing middle school students to wear hats. The change comes after a compelling presentation from the Jacobs Middle School Student Council.
"They put together a pretty convincing, very convincing PowerPoint," says Kyle Shaw, Jacobs School Principal. "They talked a lot about how it allows them the opportunity to express themselves and also feel more comfortable in their own skin."
The student council presented their case not only to Shaw but also to the entire Jacobs staff, including elementary teachers who might face questions from younger students about the policy difference. According to Shaw, the staff unanimously supported the change.
The hat policy represents one of several efforts to create distinction between the elementary and middle school experiences within the Jacobs School building following reconfiguration.
"One of the pitfalls of reconfiguration is just the fact that our students don't get to move to another building," Shaw explains. "We're trying to make that middle school wing at Jacobs something to look forward to."
Committee member Liliana Hedrick questioned whether individual teachers might have discretion over hat-wearing in their classrooms, but staff members emphasized the importance of consistency in policy implementation.
"I think that it just needs so that everybody implements whatever rule the same way," a staff member noted during the discussion.
The committee also confirmed that hats are already permitted at Hull High School and were allowed at Memorial Middle School in recent years before reconfiguration.
Committee member Regan Yakubian praised the process: "I just appreciate that the student council heard a lot about this one. But I like that they came up with something that they felt really strongly about and you guys, you met with them and you talked it through and this kind of shows them advocating for themselves."
The handbook changes also include updates to half-day dismissal times, though regular school day start and end times remain unchanged. Shaw noted that additional language regarding Chromebook usage and potential fees for damaged devices will be added before the start of the school year.
During the meeting, the committee also reviewed the Jacobs School Improvement Plan for the 2025-26 school year. While no vote was required on the plan, Shaw outlined five key improvement areas: student achievement, behavioral health and social-emotional learning, curriculum and instruction, operations, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
The plan builds on successful initiatives like "Pirate Time," which provides targeted 35-minute intervention periods for each grade level without students missing core curriculum instruction.
"Some kids are going to an enrichment group. They get all mixed up, because sometimes kids need to, like, they're having difficulty, say, with grammar. So they're going to go in a grammar group, but they may be, like, a high math student in a high math group another time," explained Jessica Buonagurio, reading specialist.
Earlier in the meeting, the committee received a detailed presentation on literacy data showing strong results from the district's implementation of the Amplify CKLA curriculum over the past two years.
Christine Cappadona, Director of Curriculum and Assessment, reported that approximately 80% of students are meeting benchmarks across grade levels, which she described as "exciting results from the work that they have done through the years, these past two years."
The literacy data showed particularly strong growth in kindergarten, where 87% of students met year-end benchmarks compared to 49% the previous year.
Other key actions taken by the committee included:
* Approval of school committee meeting dates for the 2025-26 school year, with meetings generally scheduled for the first and third Mondays of each month at 6:30 p.m.
* Agreement to develop a rotation schedule for committee members to serve on the town's Master Plan Steering Committee over its 15-month process
* Approval of reverting to the previous Title IX policy following changes at the federal level
* Discussion of community outreach forums, with plans to determine dates and times later
The committee also established a new practice of publicly acknowledging warrant approvals during meetings for greater transparency.
"We just think it's very important that we make sure for public disclosure that the approval of the warrants is something that we are acknowledging in the meetings," explained Superintendent Michael Jette.
The meeting concluded with the committee voting to enter executive session to discuss negotiation strategy with non-union personnel, including the superintendent.