Saugus school dept. slammed in EQA report

SAUGUS – Superintendent Keith Manville said he would like to tell the School Committee it received a glowing report from the office of Educational Quality and Accountability, but he can’t.The independent government agency visited the school last October to check in on how the school system was doing.Manville said the agency doesn’t look at the schools’ history or what it has accomplished. Instead, it is a snapshot of what the School Department looks like now.”And right now they find us as a not very effective school system,” he said.The EQA analyzed student performance on MCAS, leadership, governance and communication within the schools, curriculum and instruction, assessment and program evaluation, human resource management and professional development, student academic support and financial and asset management effectiveness and efficiency.Along with examining documents, the agency also interviewed representatives from all aspects of the department and observed classroom operations.As a result, the agency came up with three recommendations – restore central office positions in the area of curriculum, instruction and assessment; restore support structure grades K-12 in curriculum alignment and place rigor back in the area of instruction; and lastly institute an effective evaluation system compliant with state law to ensure the quality of instruction.At the moment there is no one working in the central office positions area of curriculum, instruction or assessment.”They are all things we had and have taken out because of budget cuts,” Manville explained.Manville said the report was not unexpected. He said a recurring theme throughout the 23-page report was the district’s lack of staffing, lack of support services and lack of curriculum support.With the exception of the high school, curriculum coordinators within the schools were put back in the classroom as teachers due to budget cuts.”The high school comes out the best in the report because (Principal Joseph Diorio) could maintain his curriculum coordinators,” Manville said.Ironically EQA no longer exists, but Manville said it doesn’t make its report invalid. The agency was an independent branch under the government and it was not funded this past January.”It was created by the legislature to see what the district is doing with the money it gets,” he said adding, “It’s tough but it’s an accurate portrait of where we are.”