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Date: 10/18/2023
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea presented the School Committee with an overview of results from the 2023 MCAS tests during the Oct. 11 meeting. O’Shea highlighted the progress made by students across various grade levels. In some cases, students outperformed pre-COVID-19 scores.
O’Shea pointed out that MCAS is a tool that provides a snapshot of how students perform at a single point in time, however, he said it is also a good indicator of how Longmeadow Public Schools has rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic.
Using a graph showing the percentage of students that met or exceeded expectations on the English language arts assessment in 2019, 2022 and 2023, O’Shea pointed out that while there was “a ways to go” to reach 2019 scores, students in all grade levels showed an improvement over the scores from last year. He also noted, “Our recovery has been more pronounced” than the state average, with each grade showing an increase of at least 19 percentage points over the state aggregate.
The recovery in the math MCAS was “even stronger,” O’Shea said. The data from some grades reflected higher scores than in 2019, before schools were forced to shut down and turn to remote instruction, widely resulting in a loss of academic progress. Like the English language arts assessment, Longmeadow Public Schools student scores were significantly higher than the state average.
The one area the rebound was not seen was in the science assessment, which O’Shea said was “a little flatter” than the other tests.
School Committee member Julie Morgan asked about the difference between various elementary or middle schools. She also noted students who were older during the COVID-19-related shutdown will have had less time to recover the learning loss before graduation than younger students. O’Shea said he would gather more complete data for a future meeting.
Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Thomas Mazza recapped the status of the school department’s finances at the end of fiscal year 202 in June. He told the School Committee that there were no funds to return to the town, partly due to special education costs and collective bargaining agreements that had been settled.
Mazza also reported that the Finance Subcommittee found the cost of athletics outweighed fees, as expected. Despite a decision in June to raise athletic fees for the 2023-24 school year, Mazza said athletics financing will have to be reviewed when crafting the fiscal year 2025 budget.
O’Shea announced that there would be a signing ceremony on Oct. 20, officially recognizing a relationship between Longmeadow and Takikawa, Japan. Longmeadow High School and Takikawa High School have had a relationship, which has included exchanging delegations of students, for about 15 years, but O’Shea said the agreement signing is “taking it to a new level.”
The middle school project is “chugging along,” O’Shea reported. The Massachusetts School Building Authority approved the School Building Committee’s selection of the firm Colliers as its owner’s project manager. The firm will act as a liaison between the committee, designers and contractors. A designer selection subcommittee will move into evaluating project proposals from various firms before a designer is chosen. O’Shea said that Colliers and the School Building Committee will host “visioning sessions” in early 2024 to gather information ahead of creating a design.