Hull Schools Welcome New Athletic Director, Address Enrollment Challenges
Ben Kistner to join Hull High School in March as district explores ways to boost student numbers
HULL - February 24 - Hull Public Schools announces the hiring of Ben Kistner as the new athletic director for Hull High School. Kistner, who currently serves as a teacher and athletic director in Holbrook, will begin his new role on March 17, just in time for the spring sports season.
"I'm pleased to let you know that Mr. Ben Kistner is joining us," Superintendent Michael Jette tells the School Committee during their recent meeting. "He is very excited. He's already found, he's gonna have to relocate in order to be a little closer to Hull."
The hiring concludes an extensive search process that attracted 42 applicants. Principal Rob Shaw led the effort with a committee that included parents and students.
"He had a committee that involved parents and students that fielded through all those applicants that then landed down to a couple of possibilities with Ben being what we think is the best fit for us," Jette says.
Kistner, who has a background in health and physical education, will take over from interim athletic director Gary Graziano, who stepped in temporarily following a vacancy in the position.
"Gary will be there to support and to help onboard," Jette explains, noting that while Gary won't continue in a dual role, he will remain available to assist with the transition through the spring.
The district continues to search for an athletic trainer, a position that remains unfilled. School Committee member Courtney Littlefield emphasizes the importance of this role.
"I do think that we need to put emphasis on trying to fill that role," Littlefield says. "It's very important for the safety of our students to have somebody who is there, who is qualified. It just puts the coaches and the players at ease."
Officials also express concern about ongoing enrollment challenges. Superintendent Jette identifies enrollment as one of the key challenges facing Hull schools.
"Enrollment is definitely something that we are continuing to monitor and need to find ways to get creative at having our student enrollment either stabilize or increase," Jette says, noting this as part of his preliminary findings after joining the district.
The enrollment issue connects to concerns about "sustainable programming" and funding. Currently, 15 Hull students attend South Shore Charter School, which is seeking to expand its enrollment capacity.
"South Shore Charter School has a proposal in front of DESE to increase their size," Jette explains. "They currently enroll 1,075 students. They wanna increase that by 225, so they'll go up to 1,300."
School Committee Vice Chair Kyle Conley expresses opposition to the charter school expansion.
"Charter schools are often the sort of death nail, if you will, in a lot of our public schools," Conley says. "This always has the potential of taking more of our students away from our community. Kids learn best when they're in their local neighborhood schools."
Committee members discuss strategies to address enrollment challenges, including better showcasing what Hull schools offer.
"I think a lot of times it's just misinformation or lack of information," says committee member Regan Yakubian. "We have great staff. We have beautiful facilities. Sometimes I think there's just not enough information out there and not everybody understands how wonderful the schools are."
Liliana Hedrick suggests the district might need to "think outside the box" to attract and retain students.
"I know I harp on the arts and all that stuff, and maybe we need to kind of think outside the box a little bit more. Use our landscape, use our talents, and just really push to get more enticement out there," Hedrick says.
Conley emphasizes the need for a community-wide approach to addressing enrollment, noting her recent attendance at a Mass Inc session presented by Purpose-Built Communities.
"We at the school level feel it so tightly on our budget, specifically as we see a decrease in enrollment, and we desperately want to increase our enrollment in schools. And that really has to be a community-wide conversation," Conley says.
She suggests inviting Hull Redevelopment Authority members to a future meeting to discuss potential collaborations that could help address housing and enrollment issues.
"We need to be a part of that conversation," Conley says. "The onus of some of that is our work as a committee reaching out and making sure that our voice is heard in other spaces other than just around schools, because this is a community-wide conversation."