FY24Strategic Initiatives

Embedded in this budget are the costs for implementing strategic initiatives memorialized in the NRSD strategic plan. Some highlights of those activities include professional development for faculty and staff pertaining to multi-tiered systems of support, conducting a k-12 equity audit, curriculum curation based on Massachusetts state frameworks, and connecting our work to the Portrait of a Nashoba Graduate competencies These activities will be critical for building instructional strategies to address the learning gaps that arose during the hybrid/remote learning days of the COVID-19 pandemic We will emphasize best practices referred to as “Professional Learning Community” activities to examine learning data and the impact instruction has on student learning. Those efforts will have an immediate impact as we strengthen our practices year after year and set a new benchmark for achievement in our school system.

Knowing we have important work to do in accelerating learning for our students, we also need to staff the schools with a lens of fiscal responsibility. This year we applied classroom size standards across the school system to determine how many teachers are needed to teach our students. We operate under the assumption that we will not begin the school year with more than 22 students per class in grades kindergarten through second grade and no more than 24 students per class in grades three through twelve. By applying those standards we were able to reduce six positions in grades K-8 (Mary Rowlandson Elementary-3, Hale Middle School2, Florence Sawyer School-1) while maintaining a robust educational program.

In 2022 the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education conducted a targeted review of the school system and recommended that we increase social-emotional support in the school system. This budget will fund Dean positions at each of our middle schools and the high school to address aspects of student life and code of conduct responsibilities that will free up our counselors and administrators to proactively serve students. Each town and the high school will be supported by a Dean at an approximate ratio of 800 students per dean.