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Superintendent Marcus Ware outlines midyear priorities, seeks uniform metrics before formal evaluation
Summary
Superintendent Marcus Ware presented a midyear check-in to the Chicopee School Committee on March 5, reviewing seven priorities — including English language arts, math, attendance, student conduct, mental health, HR and finance — and said the district needs more time to align measurement systems before setting uniform metrics.
Superintendent Marcus Ware presented a midyear check-in to the Chicopee School Committee on March 5 at Chicopee City Hall, calling for consistent district systems and shared benchmarks before a formal evaluation of his first-year initiatives.
Ware told the committee he was focusing on five initial priorities — English language arts, mathematics, attendance, student conduct and mental health — with two additional priorities tied to management and operations, specifically human resources and budget/finance. He said the district needs aligned procedures and data systems before setting district-wide performance targets and asked for more time to present evidence-backed metrics at a later evaluation.
On curriculum, Ware said Chicopee remains in year three of the CCal Amplify English-language-arts curriculum and will not change the program this year so leaders can evaluate implementation fidelity. He said the district is developing benchmarking tools that correlate with MCAS expectations so the district need not wait for fall state results to measure progress.
On mathematics, Ware said the district will keep current curriculum materials in place for one more year to ensure consistent implementation and gather teacher and paraprofessional feedback about fidelity and effectiveness.
On attendance, Ware said attendance teams have been rolled out in all 15 schools with administrators, unit A and other members reviewing data on weekly to monthly cycles to identify causes of chronic absence and design incentives and interventions. “If students are not in the seat, we can't get their education,” Ware said, explaining teams are monitoring attendance patterns and performing home visits when needed.
On student conduct and discipline reporting, Ware said the district digitized conduct reporting to collect consistent data across schools and is piloting a rethinking-discipline module in three schools to document alternatives to suspension. He said the district is working with legal counsel and counseling staff to ensure the approach follows law and collects evidence that alternatives were tried prior to suspension.
Ware described mental-health work centered on Panorama student and staff surveys and a mental-health task force led by district counseling leadership. He said participation in the survey is not as high as desired and the district will take steps to increase participation so results become an accurate measure of need.
On management and operations, Ware described HR system upgrades — including use of Frontline for time/attendance, expanded Munis usage, position-control numbers (PCNs) rollout and the platform Droplet for hiring and professional-development sign-ups. He said PCNs will assign a unique identifier to each city position and support needs-based staffing decisions tied to budgeting.
Ware said the district is working with CES on a strategic plan and will continue stakeholder engagement through surveys and forums. He told the committee he will return in late spring or early summer with evidence to support specific, SMART goals that the committee can use for a formal evaluation.
Committee members commented and asked questions. School Committee member Dr. McCarthy, a literacy educator, commended the decision to maintain the current ELA curriculum and asked whether pre-K attendance is included in the district's attendance metric; Ware replied that pre-K is included in local attendance efforts even though it is not a required state metric. Jay Dowd asked about staff and teacher job-satisfaction data; Ware said HR collects exit and satisfaction data and the district is exploring ways to improve confidentiality and HR visibility by increasing school-based HR contact.
Committee members thanked Ware for the presentation and for following the entry plan he presented last year. Ware said he would return with more specific benchmarks and evidence to support ratings at the annual evaluation.
No formal committee action was taken during the presentation; the item was a report and Q&A.
