Everett Public Schools will write its first strategic plan this spring, Superintendent William Hart told the School Committee on Monday, April 6, and the state will send another $329,000 to continue its reading overhaul. Hart also put a number on the enrollment slide behind the coming budget: 339 fewer students on October 1 than a year earlier.
A plan “long overdue”
Hart said he tried to start the planning process last year but the contractor could not meet the timeline. “Most school districts do this, and I don’t think that Everett has done this in any meaningful way over a number of years,” he said. Residents, parents, business owners and people who work in Everett can sign up on the district website to join three facilitated evening sessions in the Crimson Cafe at the high school, on April 30, June 4 and June 22, from 4 to 7 p.m. with dinner served. Participants must commit to all three. Principals and the executive team will attend six sessions, three by day and three with the public. A report with action items is due shortly after June. Robin Babcock asked that the social media posts go out in multiple languages; Hart said that is the intention. Millie Cardello said the plan “is going to bring us above and beyond.”
Enrollment and the budget
Joanna Garren said she had heard Chelsea’s enrollment was down “due to, like, immigration issues” and asked whether Everett saw the same. Hart said the district reports enrollment to the state each October 1 and was down 339 students from the prior year, after two years at its highest count ever. Over 20 years, he said, “there are, you know, kind of peaks and valleys,” and the shift is “probably just normal.” But he added: “Anecdotally, we know that things have changed in our nation. And, because of those changes, it has caused shifts in where people choose to live.” He said some classrooms that had 22 students two years ago now have 10, and the budget will look at whether schools are staffed to the students they have. The committee referred the proposed fiscal 2027 budget to a committee of the whole on April 16.
Parlin ambassadors
New Parlin School principal Darlene Pugnali said she replaced a president-and-vice-president student council with 14 ambassadors chosen from 27 applicants because “we really, really believe in student agency.” The eighth graders, in matching uniforms they spent three weeks choosing, described a school of 894 students speaking 16 languages from 24 countries, and Harrison Adu-Fori recited the Albert N. Parlin character engraved on the school’s front wall. Their plans include a petition to revamp the Parlin stage, a State House visit and attending a City Council meeting. “I hope that you are all seated here in the future replacing us,” Vice Chair Marcony Almeida Barros told them. Cardello, who said she left Everett for the Air Force and college and came back to raise her family, told them: “Someday you’ll be in politics, you’ll be the city leaders, you’ll be government heads, and bank presidents.”
Also April 6
- The $329,000 is Everett’s share of a $4.3 million Partnerships for Reading Success continuation grant from the Healey-Driscoll administration for high-quality instructional materials and coaching. “Everett did what they were told they were going to,” Hart said.
- The committee accepted a $25,000 Middle School Exploration Policy and MyCAP grant 8-0 to build a districtwide My Career and Academic Plan curriculum starting in grade 6. Jeanne Cristiano and Joe D’Onofrio were absent.
- Hart said attendance is up more than a percentage point and a half over last year at this time and chronic absenteeism is falling; home visits begin after April vacation.
- Santiago Escotia and Nathalie Romero Velasco won the Spanish-language debate city championship at the Museum of Science on March 20, arguing over Arctic rare earth exploration. Twenty-two students entered 10 projects in the Region 4 science fair at Tufts.
- Hart said a former Everett High science fair participant, Dr. Wilding, now a wealthy scientist living out of state, is funding a paid Tufts internship for a recent graduate and wants to sponsor summer programs.
- Student representative Emma Perry reported the Crimson Tide percussion ensemble is ranked first in New England ahead of the NESBA championship at Fitchburg High, the winter guard placed fifth, juniors wrapped Dr. Braga in plastic wrap at lunch, and Tide Council members met Rep. McGonagle, Sen. DiDomenico and the governor on the Massachusetts Association of School Committees’ day on the hill.
- Business partners filled the Crimson Cafe for the twice-yearly CTE program advisory committees. Next year the high school adds multimedia production and broadcast and public safety programs. The next meeting is April 28.
Previous School Committee meeting (March 17): Everett Schools Will Send Staff to Students’ Homes Under a UCLA Attendance Grant as Full-Day Pre-K Registration Opens; Adams School Cubs Steal the Show
