North Middlesex school leaders give midyear update on five‑year strategic plan; family literacy night set for March 4

At its Feb. 24 meeting, the North Middlesex Regional School District School Committee received a midyear report on the district’s five‑year strategic plan and was told the district will host a family literacy night on March 4 at North Middlesex Regional High School.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gary Reese told the committee the plan has three broad initiative areas: curriculum and instruction; meeting the needs of all students (including multi‑tiered systems of support); and climate, culture and community. He cited recent work to adopt evidence‑based elementary materials, continued implementation of illustrative math and open sci‑ed in middle school, and a Democratic Knowledge Project grant to support grade‑8 instruction.

“Some of the my major milestones that we had identified for each area,” Reese said while reviewing progress and outstanding tasks. He listed progress on professional development, pilot programs, and said the district will continue work on curriculum evaluation and formation of task forces for gifted and talented services and counseling expansion.

Reese also flagged work to strengthen family partnerships and engagement, and said some items will be reported in greater detail in a summer summary the administration plans to provide to the committee.

The district will hold a second annual family literacy night March 4 in the high school commons and annex, with hands‑on activities, readings and stations for families and children. Reese described last year’s event as “a really great success” and encouraged outreach to encourage attendance.

Committee members pressed for more tangible data tied to plan goals. “It would be wonderful if we can see, like, progress of what the IXL is showing,” one member said, asking the administration to provide comparative numbers and clearer metrics at a future meeting. Dr. Reese said that level of reporting is his goal for the summer summary.

The presentation included a request for assistance identifying grant opportunities; members offered to help track grants and outreach that could fill identified program gaps.

The update concluded without a committee vote; members thanked the administration for the work and asked that the more detailed summer report include benchmarks and outcome data.