Beach Street staff outline attendance, behavior and curriculum goals as enrollment rises

Beach Street School staff presented a new school report card to the Manchester School District Conduct Committee on Sept. 17, saying the school has seen a recent enrollment increase to 528 students and laying out attendance, behavioral and curriculum goals for the year.

"Our mission is to help every student become persevering, resilient, optimistic, understanding, and dedicated," said Kelly, who introduced the materials and identified themself as principal of H Street during the presentation. Staff told the committee that more than half of families come from diverse backgrounds and that 86% of students are designated economically disadvantaged — a figure presenters said may be undercounted while free-and-reduced-lunch paperwork is finalized.

The school set a district-aligned attendance target of a 3 percentage-point increase by June, aiming to raise the share of students attending at least 90% of school days from 74% to 77%. Tactics include using interpreters and family liaisons for outreach, sending targeted "positive attendance" letters and running schoolwide incentives and weekly communications on the bobcat bulletin.

On behavior, staff described work through the district MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) structure to raise fidelity on individualized student success plans from roughly 50% to 75% by the end of the year. Michelle Casselhoff, who said she developed the school’s simple behavior-support tool, explained it is not written in special-education language but is designed to help teachers set measurable goals, record strategies and track progress with the Tier 2/3 team.

Curriculum goals are modest in part because presenters relied on earlier baselines while 2024 state assessment data are not yet public, the team said. Staff described weekly PLCs (professional learning communities), the use of grade-level leaders supported by Tom LeDoux from Demonstrated Success, and plans for monthly assemblies to recognize gains.

Presenters also highlighted community-school services at Beach Street — a pantry, Katie’s Closet and success-kit backpacks — and a "parent university" program staffed by the Title I team that provides take-home materials and workshops for caregivers. Committee members asked about translation for family communications and class sizes after the enrollment increase; presenters said class sizes remain about 20 and that some state-reported staffing numbers do not match the building’s internal data.

The committee thanked the presenters and suggested publishing non-identifying resources such as flowcharts and guidance documents alongside the presentation. The school agreed to share materials where student-identifying content (videos) is excluded. The committee did not take formal action on the presentation.

The Conduct Committee will hear additional school presentations in the coming months as part of its regular agenda.