Southbridge superintendent outlines hiring, academic targets and student supports ahead of school year

SALFORD — Bill LaBarbera, superintendent of Southbridge Public Schools, briefed the Salford School Committee on staffing, professional development and academic targets for the 2025–26 school year at the committee’s Aug. 12 meeting in Council Chambers.

LaBarbera said the district has hired 47 people since July 1 and is actively onboarding candidates for about 16 remaining vacancies; 11 of those openings are “in some stage of the onboarding process,” he told the committee. He said the open positions include elementary teachers, educational assistants, a resource-room (special-education) teacher, a computer science teacher, a unified arts teacher, a science teacher and an applied-behavior-analysis (ABA) technician.

Why it matters: staffing and teacher preparedness affect classroom coverage the first day of school and the district’s ability to meet its student-learning goals.

LaBarbera described contingency plans if vacancies remain as the year begins. At elementary schools the district would redeploy building or district staff and, when necessary, use staffing-agency arrangements; at middle and high schools contractual language and stipends are available for teachers who take on additional assignments, he said. On minimum qualifications, LaBarbera said educational assistants require at least a high-school diploma; the district prefers candidates pursuing additional college credit or an associate degree but will consider relevant experience.

LaBarbera reviewed summer professional development for the district leadership team and the new-teacher institute, which he said began the Monday before the meeting and runs through the following week. The goals for the new-teacher institute, he said, are to “equip [new teachers] with the tools they need to be successful, specifically in the first six weeks on the job,” and to ensure they are prepared for day one.

He also presented district academic and behavioral goals for 2025–26. By June 2026 LaBarbera said the district intends to:

- Increase by 20 percentage points the share of elementary students performing at or above grade level in math and English language arts on the i-Ready diagnostic (fall 2025 to spring 2026). - Increase grade 8 MCAS proficiency by 20 percentage points and raise overall middle-school MCAS proficiency by 10 percentage points (specific benchmark data pending release of state MCAS results). - Keep the high-school course-failure rate at 5% or below and increase the number of students meeting SAT benchmarks in ELA and math by 20 percentage points.

LaBarbera said the district set ambitious targets intentionally: “I would rather set lofty goals for the district and for our students and learn a lot in the process,” he said.

On social-emotional learning and student supports, LaBarbera said the district will further implement a cohesive, academically focused MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports) model. He described Tier 1 as universal supports for all students, Tier 2 as targeted supports, and Tier 3 as very personalized interventions that may lead to special-education evaluation. He said building-level student-support teams (classroom teachers, a school psychologist and a building administrator) will meet to design six-week intervention trials and monitor multiple data points.

LaBarbera added a districtwide goal to “increase their daily attendance rate by a full percentage point over the course of the year.”

The presentation also covered English-learner instruction and the district’s Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). LaBarbera said administrators received training emphasizing lesson preparation and building background, and the district will communicate expectations for posting and working on specific language and content objectives during instructional blocks.

Other items covered in the presentation included:

- Student mental-health services: the district makes online counseling available through a service called Cartwheel and can provide school space for students to access sessions during the day. - Social-emotional screening: the district is using a tool LaBarbera called Dessa to assess students’ social-emotional strengths and areas for growth. - Legal and compliance refreshers: the district reviewed Title IX and Title VI obligations, suspension law and due-process rights for students excluded from school. LaBarbera said the district will “keep a close eye” on a pending court case referenced in the meeting transcript (named there as “Mahmood Verdi Taylor”) dealing with parental rights and curriculum opt-outs and will walk parents through the district’s opt-out process while the case is pending. - Teacher-evaluation rubrics: the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has new rubrics available; the district will not implement them this year and will continue using the 2012 rubrics for one more year while partnering with the union on any changes.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about staffing and qualifications. When asked what would happen if vacancies were not filled before school begins, LaBarbera reiterated that principals have contingency plans and that many candidates are in the onboarding pipeline. When asked about “general EA,” he clarified that educational assistants include general-education assistants who support whole-class learning and self-contained EAs who work specifically with students on special-education caseloads.

Chairwoman announcements and schedule: the committee chair announced community and school open-house events ahead of school start dates. The district calendar items given at the meeting included first-day dates of Aug. 25 for grades 1–12, Aug. 26 for kindergarten and Aug. 27 for pre-K; open-house dates for Eastford Road, Charlton Street and West Street elementary schools; and tentative open-house dates for the middle and high schools in September.

Votes and formal actions: the meeting record in the transcript includes a motion to approve minutes from the July meeting (moved and seconded) with a request to correct committee member Carla Dela Cruz Divila’s last name; the transcript does not record the committee’s vote on those minutes. The meeting adjournment motion was moved and seconded and the chair called for a voice vote; the transcript records “All in favor? Aye,” and the meeting was adjourned.

LaBarbera closed his presentation by stressing preparation and consistency for teachers: “Prior planning prevents poor performance,” he said, summarizing the focus of the new-teacher institute and the district’s early-year priorities.

The committee scheduled a Robert’s Rules training for its next meeting on Sept. 9 in Council Chambers, with the regular meeting to follow at 7 p.m.