Stoneham School Committee renews blanket athletic waiver, adds end-of-season reporting requirement

STONEHAM — July 24, 2025 — Stoneham School Committee formally seats new superintendent and approves blanket eighth-grade athletic waiver for 2025-26. The committee voted 5-0 Thursday to renew Athletic Director Dave Pignone's blanket authority to seek eighth-grade participation waivers for junior varsity teams — adding a new requirement that Pignone report back after each season on waiver usage and enrollment numbers. Pignone acknowledged a girls basketball misstep in which more eighth-graders were added than needed, pushing some underclassmen to varsity where they saw limited playing time: "we learned that." The committee also opened a busing policy discussion after a state Department of Education finding compelled the district to serve approximately 54 families living more than two miles from their school; Chair Megan Samborski said any offer of the estimated 15 remaining bus seats to sub-threshold families "would need to be a lottery" to be equitable across all schools. In her first superintendent's report, Dr. Kristen DeFrancesco announced two state PRISM literacy grants totaling $447,195 — $390,000 for pre-K through grade 3 and $57,195 for middle school grades — that will fund curriculum, teacher stipends, and materials across a planned K-8 literacy continuum.