Pelham board hears midyear update and public launch of strategic-plan dashboard

The Pelham Union Free School District Board of Education on Jan. 22 received a midyear update on the district’s strategic plan and a first public look at a new online progress dashboard administrators said will make performance data more accessible to the community.

Superintendent Dr. Champ and Assistant Superintendent Claire presented the dashboard, which the district built with an outside consultant to align publicly visible indicators with the district’s strategic priorities. The rollout includes metrics on enrollment, student participation in athletics and clubs, AP performance, graduation and attendance; administrators said more academic charts are being finalized.

District leaders said the dashboard is a work in progress and described steps to refine the data and measure use. "We launched some new pieces of the dashboard, just yesterday," Claire said, describing recent additions and additional tiles that remain in development. Administrators said many values come from the 2023–24 publicly published datasets and that several new indicators—such as participation counts and program inventories—were populated by district staff.

Why it matters: Board members said the dashboard could improve transparency and community engagement around the strategic plan’s three priority areas — personal growth and achievement, belonging and wellness, and facilities. Members urged the administration to track public access metrics and to make the dashboard link easier to find from the district home page.

Key details and next steps - What’s on the dashboard: enrollment and demographics (including English learners and students with IEPs), number of student athletes (557 at the high school at the time of reporting), number of student clubs (48 at the high school, 22 at the middle school), AP average score (3.5), attendance and graduation rates, and other indicators tied to the strategic plan. Administrators said AP participation and scores exceed state and national averages in several courses. - Data limitations: presenters acknowledged gaps in rosters and club-tracking systems and said the district is working to improve methods for counting extracurricular participation to better inform outreach to less-connected students. - Use and outreach: the administration will ask the dashboard provider for analytics (unique visitors, repeat visits) and plans to publish a prominent link on the district website and to promote the tool in district communications. Board members recommended targeted outreach to new residents and prospective families.

Quotes "We've launched some new pieces of the dashboard, just yesterday," Claire said, describing the incremental additions that made more academic indicators available to view.

"This is the first presentation, and I do foresee you continue to work on this with your team and improving it," a board member said, urging continued public promotion and easier navigation to the dashboard.

What the board directed: The board asked administrators to (1) request visitor analytics from the dashboard vendor, (2) make the dashboard link more prominent on the district website, (3) continue to refine indicators (particularly club and extracurricular participation), and (4) return with additional academic graphs once finalized.

Ending: District leaders said they will present further updates at regular board meetings and at a February work session; they also plan to post the dashboard publicly and to solicit feedback from parents and staff to guide additional refinement.