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Superintendent frames —Safe and Supportive Schools— push as chronic absenteeism falls
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Jordan told the Holliston School Committee the district has shifted to an integrated "safe and supportive schools" model combining MTSS, PBIS/RULER and new student feedback loops. He said chronic absenteeism fell from about 16.7% to 9.7% and previewed a district data-congruence event and mental-health partnerships to expand counseling access.
Dr. Jordan said the district is consolidating multiple initiatives into a single "safe and supportive schools" framework aimed at integrating MTSS, PBIS/RULER and student voice across all buildings. "Every school in this district has its own reality," he said, describing a "stew" metaphor for combining programs so each school tastes the same intention while retaining local autonomy.
The superintendent said chronic absenteeism has declined sharply since the post-COVID peak: "Last year we went from 16.7% to 10.7%. As of May 18 we are at 9.7," he told the committee, adding that pushing below 10% presents increasing difficulty because fewer students remain in the chronic-absence pool.
Dr. Jordan credited counselors, administrators, teachers and families for the decrease and said the improvement reflects coordinated MTSS interventions, not a single fix. He also described new student engagement work: a Student Impact Council, created this year to provide a regular feedback loop so students act as "taste testers" for district plans.
On mental-health access, the superintendent highlighted partnerships the district has made with community referral platforms: "Care Solace" and "Cartwheel" (sister services he described). He said Cartwheel connects students to counselors with typical waits of under 10 days and offers multi-language telehealth and psychiatric follow-up when needed.
Dr. Jordan also previewed a proposed district data-congruence conference to bring school leaders, community partners and students together to review new Metro West Health Survey findings and other indicators. He said the goal is to make community stakeholders co-owners of the data and to align next year's school improvement planning with those results.
The committee asked about implementation and measurement: Dr. Jordan described district learning walks and fidelity tools (e.g., TFI/PBIS fidelity inventories) as the primary ways to observe practices in classrooms, and said curriculum and schedule changes at the high school are being used to align executive-function instruction with course standards.
Next steps: Dr. Jordan said the Student Impact Council will continue into the summer and the district will share more details about the proposed data-congruence event this fall.
