Malta Avenue reports strong belonging scores, academic growth indicators and new attendance protocols
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Summary
Malta Avenue Principal Mrs. Johnson presented a year-end report noting about 80% of students in grades 3–5 report a strong sense of belonging, progress on I-Ready and DIBELS goals, and a newly codified attendance protocol tracking absences through 20 days with tiered interventions.
Malta Avenue Principal Mrs. Johnson told the Board of Education on June 4 that her building’s year focused on the ‘‘Malta Way’’ character program, sense of belonging, academic growth and establishing an attendance‑protocol document to address chronic absenteeism.
She said the building’s culture work includes explicit teaching of schoolwide expectations, monthly character-education words and ‘‘you’ve been spotted’’ recognition tickets for positive behavior. A multi-week display of student photos and a ‘‘We All Belong at Malta Avenue’’ hallway bulletin board were among efforts she cited to increase belonging.
Mrs. Johnson reported district culture and climate survey results showing roughly 80 percent of students in grades 3–5 feel a strong sense of belonging; staff and the building leadership team plan follow-up to identify actions for the remaining roughly 20 percent.
On academics she said middle-of-year I‑Ready reading data showed four of five grades in the high‑performance/high‑growth quadrant and that 42 percent of second graders had already met their end‑of‑year I‑Ready reading growth target by midyear. For first grade the building focused on DIBELS and oral reading fluency; for grades 2–5 the focus was on typical growth targets in I‑Ready.
For chronic absenteeism, Mrs. Johnson said the school convened an attendance committee that meets twice monthly. The committee identified students who were chronically absent the prior year, determined reasons for absences, and developed individual attendance plans with families. The principal said the building produced a written protocol outlining progressive steps and responsibilities at different absence thresholds (the protocol extends through 20 absences and specifies who does outreach at each stage).
Mrs. Johnson invited the community to Malta and Beyond, a multicultural evening with student artwork and music scheduled for the coming Friday; she said every student has a piece of artwork in the show.
The board received the report and thanked staff and volunteers; Mrs. Johnson said the building will continue to refine its goals based on end‑of‑year academic data and student feedback collected through focus conversations with fifth graders.