Freetown-Lakeville school principals presented three-year school improvement plans at the Sept. 24 school committee meeting and the committee voted to approve the district’s SY 2026–2028 school improvement plans.

Administrators described aligned goals across grade levels: early literacy and foundational math emphasis in elementary grades; a district-wide focus on writing instruction, building writing stamina and rubric development at the intermediate grades; and targets at the middle and high school levels for grading practice alignment, climate and attendance, and expanded career-pathway programs at the high school.

Principal Pinault and Principal Ward, presenting jointly for the elementary schools, described three primary goals: strengthening early literacy and foundational math; piloting a more robust writing curriculum and developing rubrics and graphic organizers to improve comprehension and written responses; and rebuilding family and community partnerships with a baseline year of work to increase purposeful parent engagement and two new community partnerships annually.

Principal Nicole Sullivan (George R. Austin Intermediate School) described upper-elementary goals emphasizing academic discourse, writing conventions and writing stamina, and math precision assessed with three district performance tasks per year.

At Freetown-Lakeville Middle School, Principal Brian Olivera summarized goals to align grading, assessment and homework practices across the building; to reduce chronic absenteeism through family engagement and a staff-to-student mentor program; and to study advisory or “wind” block options to improve student belonging.

At Apponequet Regional High School (ARHS), leaders discussed a “portrait of the graduate” process and three-year goals to expand career pathways, pilot a health-care pathway, pursue internships and industry credentials, and revise competency determination in line with state changes that removed MCAS as the sole competency gate. The high school plans also include a focus on on-time attendance and reducing excessive absenteeism.

The presenters identified measures for progress: benchmarks and rubric calibration for writing; three annual math performance tasks; surveys and partnership counts for family engagement; and identification of at-risk students this fall as part of competency-determination work. Administrators repeatedly requested additional common planning time and targeted professional development to support rubric calibration, vertical alignment and writing and math instruction.

The school committee approved the SY 2026–2028 school improvement plans by majority vote during the meeting. Committee members thanked administrators for cross-district alignment and for outlining measurable action steps.

Several new administrators were introduced at the start of the meeting: Brian Olivera, principal at FLMS; Jennifer Gargiulo, assistant principal at FLMS; Nicholas Pilla, new administrator at ARHS; and Justin W. Smith, special education administrator for the district. Those introductions preceded the school improvement presentations.

The committee’s approval authorizes the administrative team to implement the first-year actions and to bring updates to the committee as benchmarks are met.