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Date: 12/15/2022
CHICOPEE – Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Accountability Matthew Francis continued his State of the District report during the School Committee’s Dec. 7 meeting.
Part two of the report focuses on the school district’s road to recovery following the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Francis emphasized that literacy in the elementary grade levels and mathematics scores at the middle and high school levels remain areas of concern.
“As the math becomes more complex, the years of COVID-19 there were gaps that were missed at the upper middle school levels into high school,” said Francis.
Chronic absenteeism represented another challenge for Chicopee Public Schools. Francis said the school district featured 41.8 percent of students who missed 10 percent or more of the school year. The arrival of COVID-19 variants played a factor in the high absentee total, including 625,000 school days missed in January during the peak of the omicron variant.
To address the lingering issues, Francis shared that Chicopee Public Schools is planning several educational initiatives. Francis stressed that early literacy will be further addressed by the school district’s expansion of free preschool.
Francis said the district is in its second year of free preschool after moving to offer free full-day preschool education for the first-time last year. This year’s expansion included new preschool classrooms in Belcher Elementary School and Fairview Elementary School.
“I am extremely excited and proud by the efforts and steps that have been taking towards this area of improvement,” said Francis. Chicopee Public Schools is dedicating $3.5 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to pay for the expansion.
Francis said the school district has physical space for more expansion efforts, but they are currently debating whether more preschool resources are needed. An outside third party, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, is currently completing a needs assessment for preschool education, according to Francis.
“They are continuing to do that needs assessment … We can have the decision whether we continue to expand to other areas of the city and other buildings as well,” said Francis.
Early education instructors are also undergoing the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) program for more extensive training. The training will be a part of a remodeling of the school district’s preschool education.
“Our preschool program is a little bit antiquated and needs to be updated,” said Francis.
For other early literacy improvements, the newly adopted Amplify curriculum is in its first year of operation. Chicopee Public Schools paid $1.25 million to acquire the program, according to Francis.
“It is a very big lift for our teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals. I am extremely proud of the efforts that have been put in thus far and the progress I am beginning to see within this program,” said Francis.
Additionally, Chicopee Public Schools is adopting several offerings to address mathematics. New educational offerings are providing accessible tutoring sessions for students and teachers, while future programs set for the 2023-2024 school year will adopt a modernized math curriculum.
Francis described a holistic approach for addressing chronic absenteeism in Chicopee Public Schools. The school district is focused on expanding student and parental services, along with increasing emotional and mental health professional development programs.
The School Committee will meet again on Dec. 21.