Saugus OKs upgrade plan for schools

SAUGUS – Saugus Schools Superintendent Richard Langlois and education consultant Irene Ladd presented their District Improvement Plan to the public at a special early School Committee meeting on Thursday night.After an executive session, the School Committee reconvened and voted to approve the plan.Work started on the DIP in January with help from parents, teachers, faculty and elected officials referred to as the Steering Committee.Under Massachusetts law, school districts are required to develop an improvement plan of no less than three years.The plan laid out on Thursday will look to improve district performance using six standards: leadership and governance, curriculum and instruction, assessment, human resources and professional development, student support and financial management.”It’s not just a set of all our objectives and goals because it’s mandated,” said Mike Hashem, a Steering Committee member. “There are things in there that are where we want as a district to be in three years. None of these (standards) are in a vacuum, they’re all intertwined and they’re all intended to promote student learning. Every objective there has four, five or six action steps that are hopefully going to get us there.”According to the plan, these improvements will “create a system to ready Saugus students for the complex, competitive world we live in, and to shape their skills, values and ability to be successful.” The DIP’s goal is to meet these requirements within three years.”As a parent of a Belmonte student, I know the future of what my child is going to get,” said Corinne Riley, who helped shape the curriculum and instruction portion of the plan.Data-driven decision making will be one of the keys to the plan and one of the new tools the school district will use is software that will be able to track student progress on a district-wide basis.”This is a very comprehensive plan and we’re very proud of it,” said Langlois. “The only way you’re going to improve things is to watch how your students perform, not just the teachers.”Faculty and staff will be trained in the use of this software, and the data collected will be made available to parents through mailings, websites and public presentations.