Eight years after directing her first Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School musical, Into the Woods, theatre teacher Brooke Hardman Ditchfield is leaving the school — but not the Island.
Ms. Hardman Ditchfield, whose resignation was announced at Monday night’s meeting of the high school committee, told the Gazette she will have multiple irons in the fire after she leaves the school at the end of June.
One of her new roles, she said in a text message Tuesday morning, will be as director of theatre and live programming at Circuit Arts, the new umbrella organization for the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.
Ms. Hardman Ditchfield’s husband, Brian Ditchfield, is the film festival’s executive director.
She has a second job lined up as well, though she wasn’t ready Tuesday to give the particulars.
“I am also taking on a full-time position at another fantastic Island organization that I am very excited about,” Ms. Hardman Ditchfield said by text. “[T]hat announcement will be forthcoming.”
Ms. Hardman Ditchfield, whose last production for the high school was Les Misérables in April, will continue directing for the stage with the Boston-based Actors’ Shakespeare Project, of which she is a member.
She did not attend the high school meeting Monday, but in a letter to the school committee, Ms. Hardman Ditchfield pledged to assist the high school performing arts department in the search for its next theatre instructor.
“We will be so sorry to lose Brooke,” principal Sara Dingledy said at the meeting. “I know she’ll be in a position that’s super exciting for her.”
In other business during the in-person meeting at the high school library, the committee heard a report from superintendent of schools Dr. Matthew D’Andrea on progress toward a capital funding formula for the high school building project.
The all-Island committee charged with developing the formula has had two productive meetings in the past two weeks, Mr. D’Andrea said.
“They have landed on a tentative formula,” he said, detailing a scenario in which 25 per cent of each town’s capital assessment would be based on equalized property values and the other 75 per cent on enrollment.
“I will say I am very optimistic, based on the first two meetings, and I’m hopeful within the next couple of meetings that . . . something will be agreed upon,” he said.
The capital formula committee meets Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in the high school library.
Sam Hart, the school’s coordinator of special projects, reported that 39 students are enrolled in college-credit classes, up from about 28 at the beginning of the school year.
“It’s a strong cohort,” Mr. Hart said.
The high school is also exploring transfer options with Bristol Community College, for education credits, and Cape Cod Community College, which offers aviation mechanics to students in the school’s Career Technical Education (CTE) program, he said.
Committee members approved a grant-supported retreat in New Hampshire for students and faculty in the Stand With Everyone Against Rape (SWEAR) program, which is based on intensive talks about sex, consent and related matters.
“These conversations are uncomfortable, but they need to happen,” school counselor Amy Lilavois said.
During a review of revenue and expenses, district finance director Mark Friedman told the committee that retention bonuses for school bus drivers will add up to about $40,000 this year.
“We’re having such a hard time recruiting,” Mr. Friedman said. “We budgeted $46,000 for next year.”
The district is offering an overall retention incentive of $2,000 per driver, paid out over time, he said.
“That’s consistent with what the Cape and other places have done,” Mr. Friedman said. “[It]’s something new to us, but also new to a lot of other districts over past 24 months,” he added.
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