District highlights strategic-priority progress: internships, early-college pilot, curriculum reviews and capital planning updates
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Summary
District leaders reported year-end progress across strategic priorities, including a larger junior internship program, a small early-college pilot with Quinsigamond Community College, ongoing curriculum field tests and active capital-planning steps with architects and project managers.
District leaders presented an end-of-year report on strategic priorities, highlighting progress on deeper learning, curriculum work, early-college programming, internship expansion and capital planning.
Administrators said the junior-year internship program expanded from 20 placements last year to 40 juniors this summer, with placements across town partners including local government offices and Clark University; a student showcase was scheduled for Friday, June 13. The district plans to grow this program in future years to serve more juniors as capacity allows.
The district described planned early-college opportunities through a partnership with Quinsigamond Community College. The pilot will offer selected college-level courses (business law and ethics; introduction to psychology) for high-school students; administrators said details on fees and enrollment logistics are still being finalized and that the district will start small to avoid negatively impacting existing course offerings.
On curriculum, the district reported field-testing and review work across ELA, math and science. For English language instruction the district will move to updated K–12 materials aligned to 2020 WIDA standards (elementary: Reach; middle/high: National Geographic/Cengage and LIFT). The math department will pilot two resource options for Algebra I/II and explore embedding data science in secondary courses. Elementary Project Lead The Way (PLTW) modules and student portfolios were also highlighted as growing initiatives.
Administrators described instructional partners and professional learning communities as a strategy to expand instructional leadership despite limited district coaching capacity; the instructional partners model employed eleven staff this year in school-based projects. The district also reported progress on equity initiatives including whole-child reviews, 504 coordination processes (71 students on 504 plans coordinated by nine educators), and a Netmoc- (NetMock) launch program to support incoming eighth-graders.
On capital planning, administrators said the district is meeting with architects and the owner's project manager, conducting site visits, discussing field projects and energy management systems, and coordinating with utility providers on transformer needs. Officials said they had submitted required materials to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and were advancing schematic design and regular OPM/architect meetings.
Ending
The superintendent framed the year as productive across multiple initiatives and said many items will continue as multiyear efforts; committee members thanked staff and noted the capital plan remains a high, ongoing priority.