March 28, 2024

What is Save Our Schools Up to Now?

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As the new year rolls in, we find ourselves at a crossroads both within ourselves and in our community. As we make personal resolutions to improve the new year, we must also make resolutions regarding how to improve the stability and unity within our community. With an election coming up and the start of a new budgeting season already begun, we at Save Our Schools are gearing up for the next few months.

First, we would like to make sure everyone is on the same page as to who SOS really is. After seeing some interesting falsehoods on social media, we thought that our audience could use a refresher.

Save Our Schools - Dighton-Rehoboth began as a Ballot Action Committee in support of the July 2018 Proposition 2 ½ Override, founded by DR graduates Noah Avila (‘18) and Matt Hebert (‘17). These two men led the fight for the override on the mantra ‘by students, for students,’ and were joined by parents, neighbors, teachers, and local politicians to help save the Town of Rehoboth from financial turmoil and the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District from economic depletion. After the override passed, the BAC was dissolved and all of its assets were donated.

In April of 2019, when former SOS Media Director Chris Hoskins (‘19) of Rehoboth and media team member Jenn Duczkowski of Dighton realized we were fighting another uphill battle with the FY 2020 budget, Save Our Schools was restarted as a media platform and outreach group to spread the word on what needed to be done. After months of diligent work, Chris, Jenn, and many others realized it was time to take the next step for SOS by filing with the Federal Elections Commission to become a Political Action Committee, with Chris as Chairperson and Jenn as Vice-Chairperson. They were joined by Dighton parent Tamara Stevens as Treasurer, Rehoboth student Mackenzie Morgenweck (‘21) as Communications Director, Dighton Student Madalyn Stevens (‘22) as Director of Student Outreach, Dighton parent Jessie Beerman as Education Consultant, and Rehoboth parent Jolie Duczkowski as Field Director.

As the fight continued and the school year began, some reorganization was needed in order to prevent conflicts of interest and to perform better as a team. Therefore, Mackenzie became the Vice-Chairperson and Dighton student Madeline Beerman (‘24) was made Assistant Director of Student Outreach.

Rehoboth student Lauren DeCoste (‘22) was also asked to come aboard as our Media Specialist. The SOS Leadership Team has continued to provide transparency for our school community by broadcasting every DR School Committee Meeting, as well as Rehoboth and Dighton Town Meetings that have students’ interests at stake. Our Leadership Team devotes countless hours to fulfill our mission, and we hope to see more in our community join us at PAC meetings, School Committee Meetings, or future events.

We hope that this clears things up for those of you who know us, those who are yet to know us, and those who may not agree with us but are still vital members of our community.

As we look ahead, SOS is eager for the next few exciting months in our school community. With some fresh new faces running for School Committee seats, we would also like to provide a fresh new way for voters to see who they may or may not be electing. This is why Save Our Schools is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a debate for School Committee candidates as we inch closer to the Annual Town Elections! Our debate will include all candidates for the Regional School Committee from both Dighton and Rehoboth that meet certain requirements and/or thresholds (TBA). Since we do not have a date or a set location for this event yet, it’s important that all interested parties keep an eye on our social pages and our website to stay informed!

Happy New Year, and good luck to all of the candidates that have filed so far! We are excited to see what comes out of 2020!

Save Our Schools - Dighton-Rehoboth
Political Action Committee

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