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River Oaks and Austin Bailey principals report early progress on turnaround plans; Somerville High honored for 100 years
Summary
District leaders presented 30-day progress updates for River Oaks Middle and Austin Bailey Elementary, citing teacher PD, MTSS/MTSS updates, LETRS/UFLI phonics adoption and measurable growth goals; Somerville High School was recognized for 100 years of accreditation by Cognia.
Dorchester School District 2 on April 28 heard school-level updates on turnaround plans for River Oaks Middle School and Austin Bailey Elementary and a centennial accreditation recognition for Somerville High School.
Cognia senior director Annette Melton commended Somerville High School’s 100 years of accreditation and presented a banner and framed certificate recognizing the school’s continuous-improvement legacy. Brian Bohannon opened the district highlights and named students and musicians receiving recognition across district schools.
Chief Academic Officer Katie Barker introduced the turnaround-plan progress-monitoring requirement and invited the two principals to report. River Oaks principal Tracy described efforts to improve staff morale (quarterly pulse checks), targeted support for multilingual learners (ML Monday PD, ML tutoring), increased professional learning communities meeting twice weekly, and use of data to drive instruction and small-group interventions. She said roughly one-third of River Oaks’ students are multilingual learners and that spring MAP data shows promising growth in ELA and math.
At Austin Bailey Elementary, principal (identified in discussion as Mrs. Boddessin/Bodison) outlined four goals with numeric targets presented to the board: increasing K–3 foundational reading proficiency from a baseline reported as 21.4% toward the stated target (presentation language referenced a goal figure), a multilingual-learner progress target (45.1% to 47.1% on ACCESS), raising the share of students with disabilities meeting progress points in ELA and math (from 19.4% to 21.4% on SC Ready), and improving grade 3–5 AVTs. The principal and assistant principal credited district PD coaches, LETRS training, UFLI phonics materials and MTSS implementation with observed growth.
Board members praised staff efforts and asked how the board can support ongoing work; responses emphasized continued school visits, in-district supports and data reviews during six-week monitoring cycles. The board did not take immediate personnel actions tied to these reports at the meeting.
