North Reading School Committee approves three overnight trips, accepts more than $43,000 in donations

NORTH READING — January 12, 2026 — North Reading School Committee unanimously approves three overnight student trips and accepts more than $43,000 in community donations. The board's largest action was accepting a $40,540.88 gift from the Batchelder School Parent Organization — the product of at least five years of PTO fundraising — to fund a new playground including a gaga ball pit and climbing apparatus, with construction expected to begin this spring. The committee also approved a 20-student Model UN delegation to the Harvard Model UN Conference in Boston at $475 per student, a boys ice hockey trip to the Jeff Hayes Memorial Tournament in Falmouth, and the DECA Massachusetts State Career Development Conference in March, flagging that transportation arrangements for all three trips must be confirmed to comply with school policy prohibiting personal drivers carrying other students. Superintendent Dr. Scott Daly reported the district has been officially invited into the Massachusetts School Building Authority's 270-day eligibility period for a potential permanent building at the Hood School that would consolidate pre-K programs, with a feasibility study authorization potentially going to Town Meeting as early as June. The 2026-27 school calendar, with students returning the Tuesday after Labor Day and a last day of June 17 absent snow cancellations, was adopted 5-0.