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Superintendent details school performance, multilingual learner and graduation data
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Martinez reviewed the New Jersey Department of Education school performance reports and WIDA ACCESS results, highlighting enrollment growth, multilingual learner counts and improvements in graduation metrics.
Superintendent Dr. Martinez presented the New Jersey Department of Education 2023–24 school performance reports and WIDA ACCESS results to the Pleasantville Board of Education on Aug. 12, summarizing district trends in enrollment, multilingual learners, graduation measures and chronic absenteeism.
Dr. Martinez said district enrollment rose by about 175 students over the last three years and that the district served 3,902 students in 2023–24. "Within the district student demographics are the multilingual learners. In Pleasantville public schools, 26 26.3 percent of the students are multilingual learners. Last school year, out of a total student population of 3,902, there were 1,026 multilingual learners," she said. The superintendent also noted that multilingual learners come from at least 30 countries and that the top three home languages are Spanish, English and Creole.
On graduation and assessment, Dr. Martinez told the board the district's state four‑year graduation rate for the 2024 cohort rose by 11.2 percentage points compared with 2023 and that the district's federal four‑year graduation rate was within two percentage points of the statewide rate. She said district assessment participation was nearly 100% in both English language arts and mathematics last year.
Dr. Martinez highlighted that the district met its federal accountability target for math growth and met the district goal for progress toward English proficiency for multilingual students. "The Pleasantville Public Schools met the goal for progress toward English proficiency, as well as the multilingual student population," she said.
The superintendent also called attention to chronic absenteeism as an ongoing challenge and noted differences by grade level. She said the district is increasing staff supports, adding noontime aides and seeking to ensure duty‑free lunch time for teachers while maintaining safe supervision and reasonable lunch scheduling. Dr. Martinez announced three public community partnership meetings to collaborate on a strategic plan: Sept. 23 (6–8 p.m.), Oct. 16 (6–7:30 p.m.) and Nov. 20 (6–7:30 p.m.).
The board recorded no policy vote directly altering state reporting but accepted the superintendent's report by roll call later in the meeting.
