Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/29/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Superintendent Gordon Smith, members of the School Committee and leaders of the school district underwent an end of the school year assessment during their June 21 meeting.
Before presenting, Smith expressed his gratitude to the staff and administration for ensuring a smooth school year. Schools continued to deal with spikes in COVID-19 cases due to the advent of new strains while also accounting for learning loss accrued during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I can’t say enough about the group in this room and our staff as a whole…this is a team effort,” said Smith.
The superintendent highlighted how the school district is preparing students to meet “the challenges of tomorrow.” He also discussed the district’s SMART Goal of supporting students in their academic and personal avenues.
“All of our goals are interconnected. But this is where all of the things we do come together, because it’s integrating the academic, the social and the emotional. We’re continuing to improve on how we do that and how we continue to integrate that. We know we have strides that we need to continue to make and I think we will do so,” said Smith, who shared the district either exceeded or was at the level of most SMART Goal benchmarks.
In the presentation, a student-centric survey featured a similar breakdown of students’ social/emotional satisfaction between Grades 3 through 5 and Grades 6 through 12. Smith said the staff expressed similar contentment with their positions in a staff survey.
“We were happy to see similarly that our staff is feeling in a positive way. They felt like they belong in our schools,” said Smith, who shared that 91 percent of staff felt they belonged within the district.
The leadership team then focused on the district’s connected action steps.
Each principal discussed how their schools are working to ensure positivity and sufficient resources for students. On a district level, Smith discussed how East Longmeadow schools advanced their diversity and inclusion hiring practices.
“We worked specifically on our hiring processes. That would be recruitment – which really had not been a focal area before for East Longmeadow Public Schools but now is becoming one – [and] what we do during the posting, interviewing and hiring process,” said Smith.
The presentation also highlighted ways to curb chronic absenteeism and supplement teachers with additional resources
The East Longmeadow School Committee will reconvene in August.