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Metuchen superintendent lays out five 'Every Moment Matters' goals, highlights student projects and AI training
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Caputo presented five district goals focused on engagement, facilities, survey-driven improvement, information literacy (including AI guidance) and social-emotional learning; he cited student food drives, tree plantings, AI training for staff and a voter-engagement highlight.
The Metuchen Board of Education heard a final update on the district’s five strategic goals on June 23, when Superintendent Dr. Caputo outlined priorities under the theme “Every Moment Matters” and described evidence used to measure progress.
Dr. Caputo said the goals center on classroom and community engagement; preparing instruction for new facilities; a broad Sky survey to capture stakeholder input; information literacy (including AI guidance); and social-emotional learning and wellness. “These are goals that are worked on in every school all the time throughout the school year by all our staff,” he said.
Why it matters: the goals frame curriculum choices, professional development and school-level improvement work for 2026–27. Dr. Caputo said the district will review survey data over the summer and fold findings into next year’s targets, with interim updates at Thanksgiving and spring break and a final report later in the summer.
Evidence and examples: for Goal 1 (classroom and community engagement) Dr. Caputo pointed to local programs and measurable outputs — Moss collected 600 pounds of food in a replenishment drive; Campbell’s share-table work expanded food access; Edgar’s farm-stand initiative made snacks available to students; and high-school students led a tree-planting project that added about 70 trees with contractor support. He summarized district food-recovery metrics as well: roughly 3,400 meals served, about 4,300 pounds of food diverted and an estimated 17,000 pounds of CO2 avoided.
On facilities and instruction (Goal 2), Dr. Caputo described preparations to align curriculum and schedules with new spaces at Moss, Campbell and Edgar, and the creation of flexible public-facing learning spaces at the high school. He said the high-school cafeteria is anticipated to finish construction around July 13, while several punch-list items at Edgar, Campbell and Moss still require scheduling.
Sky survey and school actions (Goal 3): the district’s multi-year Sky survey returned actionable school-level findings. Campbell reported strong community participation; Edgar’s teams used results to focus on empathy, climate and tardiness; and the high school piloted a final-exam-exemption incentive that 340 students used at least once.
Information literacy and AI (Goal 4): Dr. Caputo emphasized critical thinking and sensemaking and described district training in prompt engineering and the adoption of an internal language model (“Notebook LM”) in classrooms. He said an AI policy and posted guidance for classroom use are already in place. He also noted a successful voter-engagement highlight for newly eligible 17-year-old primary voters at the high school.
Social-emotional learning (Goal 5): the superintendent described districtwide SEL activities — story time, neurodiversity week, classroom kits and collaborations between the student assistance program and wellness staff. Edgar School received a statewide “No Place for Hate” designation, he said.
Measurement: the district uses a 1–5 scoring rubric (5 indicates highest evidence of impact). Dr. Caputo said averages were generally in the 3–4 range, with Goal 3 the highest-scoring this year (about 4.13). He said leaders will align goal results to ASCD whole-child tenets and school-quality-review indicators to inform next steps.
Board follow-up and next steps: board members were invited to submit ideas via a Google form shared with staff and advisory boards; Dr. Caputo said results will be published on the district website. The board thanked staff and administrators for the year and noted the next board meeting is July 21.
Quotes and attribution: “These district priorities also drive our PD, drive our goals and drive our everyday work here in the district,” Dr. Caputo said as he opened the presentation. The article attributes direct quotes only to speakers listed in the meeting record.
The board did not take further action on the goals during the meeting; Dr. Caputo said staff will continue data review and report back on implementation details.
