Sargent Elementary reports high family engagement, flags science scores and expands SEL 'house' system

Principal Beardy told the Beacon City School District Board of Education on Dec. 15 that Sargent Elementary saw unusually high family engagement this year and is using a mix of curricular and extracurricular measures to improve student outcomes.

Beardy said 94% of parents attended caregiver conferences and reported that targeted outreach for incoming kindergarten families produced personal contacts for about 82% of that cohort. "We were really proud that 94% of our parents attended our caregiver conferences," Principal Beardy said, and described a tote-bag resource kit given to incoming kindergarteners that included reading activities, manipulatives and a book to encourage at-home literacy practice.

The principal flagged areas for improvement and described steps the school is taking. She said 43 students had been identified as struggling in ELA or math and noted that only four students at Sargent were receiving English as a new language services (one of four, or 25%), which she called an area for growth. On diagnostics, Beardy presented beginning-of-year iReady results showing about 80% of students on a grade-level trajectory in reading and 73% in math under a "typical growth" projection; she emphasized the school’s aim to move students from lower bands into grade-level proficiency by the end of the year.

Beardy also reviewed curriculum and programming changes: Sargent has expanded HMH Into Reading across K–5, continued foundations and phonemic programs at the primary level, and is deploying coaching to support teachers. She described extracurricular pathways and a recent mini grant from the Foundation for Beacon Schools that funded makerspace additions in the library.

On science, the principal said the fifth-grade New York State science exam results were disappointing: 53 students took the test last year and just two scored at the top level. "We had way too many ones," she said, and described plans to marry hands-on Science21 curriculum work with additional practice questions and related field trips to better align classroom inquiry with the computer-based state test.

Beardy outlined a new social-emotional learning approach called "houses," an idea drawn from a national SEL conference and implemented schoolwide: mixed-grade house meetings, gamified competitions and a schoolwide star-jar feed into house tallies. The school was also designated a Green Shield School under the Positivity Project, a recognition Beardy said is given to a small percentage of implementing schools.

Board members commended the presentation and several praised the data-driven framing. The presentation closed with short remarks from student representatives and the board moved on to other agenda items.