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Superintendent warns federal grant uncertainty; outlines ELA instructional changes and student-growth examples
Summary
In the superintendent's report, staff reviewed uncertain federal grant funding for FY26 and presented an ELA plan focused on stronger Tier 1 instruction, daily short writing practice and specific classroom routines to boost proficiency and growth.
During the April 3 superintendent's report the district superintendent briefed the school committee on federal grant uncertainty for the coming fiscal year and presented a detailed review of English language arts (ELA) instructional work across the district.
On grants: the superintendent told the committee that a full-year continuing resolution passed by the Senate on March 14 kept many entitlement grants level-funded but did not designate amounts for all grants and that district allocations for FY26 remain unclear. "We don't know what the FY 26 numbers will be yet," the superintendent said. The presentation listed Title I funding for Hopkinton at $117,218, Title II-A at $47,294 and Title III at $35,842; the superintendent said funding targeted by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) supports paraprofessionals and is "just under a million dollars" for Hopkinton, meaning changes there would be impactful to the district.
The superintendent said allocation notices typically arrive around July and that the district is watching developments closely as they plan FY26 budgets.
On ELA instruction and student growth: the superintendent described the ELA team's year-long review of data, student writing samples and classroom practices and said staff concluded that modest adjustments to Tier 1 instruction (the core instruction every student receives) could raise district proficiency. "We believe this is a community that could hit 85% proficiency if we just made those adjustments to our practice," the superintendent said.
Recommended classroom practices described in the presentation included: clearly stated dual lesson goals (a literacy goal and a disciplinary-literacy or content goal), explicit whole-group instruction with "I do, we do, you do" modeling, frequent small-group instruction aligned to Lexile or benchmark levels, and daily quick writes (3–5 times per week) to build writing fluency and support reading. Staff also noted the importance of formative assessments and teacher-led listening to students read aloud to observe fluency and comprehension.
The superintendent provided a student example to illustrate growth: a student with a Grade 9 Star assessment at about a 4.6 grade level in September later progressed across assessments to an 8.1 grade-equivalent over roughly 18 months; committee members used that example to show the potential impact of targeted instruction and writing-in-service-of-reading strategies.
Technology and procurement references in the report included pursuing E-rate funding for network components and planning a classroom-technology procurement to return to the committee in April for approval.
