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Committee hears dropout-prevention plan as administrators report 92.14% graduation rate
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Steve Busier told the school committee the district’s four-year graduation rate is 92.14% and outlined dropout-prevention recommendations focused on early intervention, student engagement and tighter 'co-diploma' eligibility rules.
Assistant Superintendent Steve Busier presented the dropout prevention committee’s findings on May 18, citing historical dropout figures and a four-year graduation/completion rate of 92.14%.
Busier said the committee grouped recommendations around three buckets: early intervention (preK–3 literacy and numeracy; expansion of services for three- and four-year-old special-education students), student connection and engagement (after-school busing, athletics, clubs and mentorship), and stronger 6–12 interventions to ensure freshmen earn credits. He said the district will also revisit policy language governing the ‘‘co-diploma’’ (an educational-disruption diploma) to ensure consistent eligibility after state changes.
Why it matters: the district still faces challenges: low per-pupil spending relative to peers, high student-to-teacher ratios in some grades, and increases in special-education outside-placement costs. The committee heard that some recent dropout figures include expulsions and students who left after hearings; that helps explain year-to-year fluctuations in the raw count (e.g., a rise to 31 in the most recent year).
Supporting details: Busier displayed comparative graduation rates and said the five-year completion rate was 92.16%. He outlined programmatic steps—adding early-intervention special-education services, literacy/numeracy campaigns to get students reading by the end of grade three, and additional intervention staffing across middle and high school grades.
Quotes: "Our graduation rate was 92.14%," Busier said, adding that a tightened state approach to the co-diploma may reduce that figure in future reporting. On prevention strategies he said, "We need to focus on early intervention, student connection, and beefing up 6–12 interventions so freshmen earn credits."
Next steps: committee members requested follow-up materials on grade-level reading and course-level benchmarks; the dropout-prevention committee will refine implementation plans for recommended interventions and return with more detailed metrics in future meetings.
