Manchester Essex School Committee Adopts Technology Policies, Approves ParentSquare Rollout

ESSEX — July 10, 2025 — Manchester Essex Regional School Committee unanimously adopted a package of technology policy updates and approved a new staff communication platform at its July 10 summer workshop. The committee dispensed with the standard two-reading process and voted to accept revisions to policies governing staff and student device use, social media, and teacher-to-family communication — documents that had not been substantially updated in 10 to 15 years. The most significant local addition, beyond the Massachusetts Association of School Committees model language, prohibits staff from using personal cell phones to communicate with students or families in ways that violate district policy, with discipline "up to and including discharge and referral to law enforcement." The district will deploy a platform called ParentSquare at the start of the school year to give staff a compliant communication channel, funded by reducing Zoom expenditures. The superintendent also reported that an interim middle school principal candidate has been identified and is awaiting state approval, that Chapter 70 state aid came in above budget projections, and that the district holds between $450,000 and $500,000 in reserves that could cushion a federal funding disruption — though a full pullback would leave fiscal year 2027 in a "precarious position."