Students are scheduled to head back to Dartmouth schools on Sept. 2, and this academic year, they can expect to see some new teachers, improved facilities and fresh ideas.

Cathy Maccini, principal of DeMello Elementary, said her staff is getting ready to pick up where she left off on School Transition Day. During the last week of classes, Cushman’s kindergarteners toured DeMello to prepare for the first grade. With the school year approaching, it’s now the staff’s turn to prepare.

“The rooms are looking sparkling clean thanks to the custodians and the teachers,” said Maccini. “They’ve spent a great deal of time prior to school starting to get their rooms ready.”

She said that, on top of the usual events students and parents can expect, such as open house in September and “Discover DeMello” night in November, the staff has been developing a new enrichment event to help connect the school with Dartmouth residents.

“We’re going to be inviting community members — parents, guardians, teachers and maybe some high school students — to share their knowledge with our students,” she said.

These community-led workshops could include everything from an introductory foreign language class to cake decorating or yoga.

“The sky’s the limit. We’re going to be exploring all kinds of opportunities and see what skills and knowledge our staff, parents and community members have to share,” said Maccini.

Students returning to Dartmouth Middle School might notice some changes around the building.

Dartmouth Middle School Principal Darren Doane said the summer was spent sprucing up the building, giving the walls a fresh coat of paint and replacing doors. He said new auditorium seats will be coming in October.

“We moved into this building about eleven, twelve years ago. This used to be the high school. A lot of things haven’t been done since then, so we’ve had a lot of maintenance people come in,” said Doane. “It’s exciting to see these things get done.”

Not all of the changes were cosmetic, though. This summer ushered in a computer software update and an overhaul to the science curriculum. Doane said the school acquired new materials for sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

“We had a bunch of teachers, over the past year, looking at a variety of different resources,” he said. “Our new textbooks also have an online component, where [students] can access additional information. That’s exciting from our science teachers’ perspective.”

Dartmouth High will welcome some fresh faces this year, including a new associate principal, Rachel Chavier. Chavier, who worked in the English department for eight years, and spent the past three years as assistant principal at Furnace Brook Middle School.

Since returning to Dartmouth High, she’s been focused on replacing some teachers that left earlier this summer. New hires include an English teacher, Jessica Brittingham, a new unified arts teacher, Morgan Bozarth, and a new Mandarin teacher, Yuzhe “Emily” Wang.

John Gould, Dartmouth High School’s principal, is entering his second year on the job and said he’s looking to improve and build upon what he started during his first year.

Gould said some of that work involved being a visible part of the community and responding to kids’ needs. He said that, rather than providing a safety net for students, he wants to proactively address deficits a student may have, whether it’s a social, emotional or academic need.

“My focus now is to have a strong opening of the year. I made a point of taking a weekend and writing postcards to each one of the freshmen,” said Gould. “I want them to feel a seamless transition.”

Barely through her second month on the job, Superintendent Bonny Gifford has met with everyone from principals to town officials to the police chief to DCTV. On Aug. 24 and 25, Gifford held an administrative retreat for the school system, where guest speakers discussed teamwork, teaching and student wellbeing. She said the experience left her with a big picture perspective of Dartmouth’s schools.

“There were 26 of us working closely together and sharing ideas. I think it’s going to be a great team. You can tell folks are invested in their work,” said Gifford.

Moving forward, she wants to establish a system to better address the social and emotional needs of students. She said that, with the number of hardships young people face on the rise, it becomes more difficult for children to learn.

Her focus will be finding ways to address those kinds of issues within the school system. She believes a key to the solution will involve community involvement.

“It’s not an initiative,” she said. “It’s the establishment of a positive culture.”