Colchester High principal highlights accreditation, student supports and attendance as the district’s primary challenge

Colchester High School Principal Dr. Andrew Conforti told the Colchester School Board on May 6 that the high school completed its decennial NESC accreditation visit and received recommendations and accommodations while meeting the priority elements the visiting team reviewed.

The accreditation visit, Conforti said, validated the school’s work on “student learning, professional development and school culture,” and the team’s recommendations focused on deepening existing strengths — for example, greater use of the library for student inquiry and stricter implementation of the school’s cell phone policy. Conforti said the school will prepare a response and an implementation plan with student leaders and staff in the fall and file a progress report in February 2026.

Conforti said the school’s professional learning plan prioritized "collective efficacy" among faculty and staff and noted new cross-level collaboration with Colchester Middle School, where he and middle-school leadership meet biweekly to align curriculum and standards. He described several classroom and extracurricular highlights this year: a faculty-vs-students basketball game, increased participation in career and technical education, 52 students taking Advanced Placement calculus and statistics, and two students — Naomi Schopner and Jaylee Young — who earned certificates of merit on a University of Vermont mathematics exam.

The principal highlighted partnerships that bring outside expertise into the school, including the Vermont National Guard for CPR training, University of Vermont (UVM) for hands-on science learning, and community organizations such as Steps to End Domestic Violence and MELA Care for student-facing programming. He also described new and expanded in‑school supports: an Academic Support Center (referred to as "SOS") created to follow up with students after substance-related offenses, an evolving Student Support Success Team that meets biweekly to place students into interventions, and an onboarding of DESSA (a social-emotional screening tool) and STAR assessments to track literacy and math progress.

Addressing the school board’s questions about cell phones and travel, Conforti said the district has a classroom-level cell phone practice (teachers manage exceptions) but has paused a local policy change pending possible statewide legislation and that regionwide superintendent groups had similarly paused local action. On travel, he described the district’s process of close adult supervision, bag checks and pre-trip planning for international and overnight trips and said district staff are evaluating whether planned out-of-country trips will proceed given changing global conditions.

On the final, most significant challenge, Conforti said, “Attendance. Attendance. Put them in front of us and see what happens.” He told the board that when students are present the staff can deliver instruction and supports, but chronic student absence creates repeated disruption and makes it difficult for teachers to sustain instruction. Conforti said staff are using ParentSquare, trusted‑adult outreach and classroom-level calling to try to reconnect students and families and that teachers have volunteered extra outreach time focused on re-engagement.

Conforti closed by describing next steps after the accreditation visit: a formal response and work plan in the fall with a progress report due February 2026. He also said the school will continue to expand data use (STAR 360 and DESSA) and tie assessment data to measurable instructional goals and interventions during professional learning next year.

The presentation included a photo slide show of student activities, the new Academic Support Center, and renderings of student work tied to professional learning achievements.

Board members asked follow-up questions about numbers and data systems; Conforti said specifics on districtwide software and assessment rollouts will be brought back as the district refines reporting plans.