Everett students are showing up to school more often than they were two years ago. Superintendent William Hart told the School Committee on Monday, September 21 that the district’s daily attendance rate climbed from 90.3 percent in 2023-24 to 92.4 percent by June 2026, and that chronic absenteeism fell almost 10 points over the same stretch, from 36 percent of students to 26.7 percent. He added that preliminary MCAS results, officially released the next day, are positive for the district.
Boots and backpacks
The committee voted 9-0 to accept 550 pairs of work boots from BRUNT Workwear, the Massachusetts-based apparel company, valued at about $60,000, for students in Everett High’s advanced manufacturing, carpentry, culinary arts and public safety programs, and 170 backpacks and school supplies worth about $7,500 from Teamsters Local 25. Both votes came with letters of thanks. Six schools, Adams, Parlin, Devens, Lafayette, Madeline English and Sumner Whittier, each received a $5,000 Mass Cultural Council creative experiences grant.
Phones and attendance
After postponing them on September 8, the committee adopted both student handbooks 9-0. The new Everett High handbook sets “bell-to-bell phone-free classrooms”: students put their phones in an assigned classroom cubby on entering, keep earbuds, headphones and smartwatches away until the teacher dismisses the class, and parents who need to reach a student call the main office. A teacher gives one calm directive; a student who ignores repeated directives gets a conduct referral, and an administrator holds the phone for the rest of the day. The only exceptions are accommodations in a health plan, 504 plan or IEP. Hart credited Principal John Braga with the changes, which also include a new class attendance policy with a five-step outreach ladder that moves from automated calls to a home visit by the attendance officer and, after 10 consecutive absences, a possible Child Requiring Assistance filing for students under 16.
The PreK-8 handbook requires phones to be “turned off and stored securely in a backpack, locker, or cell phone storage container during the school day,” with a warning and a call home the first time a device is confiscated and a parent pickup the second. Almeida Barros urged families to read the safety section on shelter-in-place and lockdown procedures and noted the handbook now includes the PROTECT Act policy on immigration enforcement adopted two weeks earlier. Robin Babcock and Hart walked through the cellphone refinements.
Also September 21
- Hart congratulated the EHS basketball players featured by WCVB for helping a motorist on Revere Beach Parkway; the committee would honor them with governor’s citations on October 5.
- The city and the schools scheduled a public meeting on K-8 school space for Wednesday, September 30, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Parlin School.
- The Lafayette School renamed its sub-separate special education program, formerly Cognitively/Socially Delayed, to RISE. The Webster School opened a second co-taught kindergarten classroom for students with autism and their peers.
- The NAN Project and the city hosted a mental health event, “Rise Together,” on September 17. Key Club members and basketball players packed meals with the Everett and Medford Kiwanis Clubs. The Hispanic Honor Society took part in the Pulsera Project.
- Joseph LaMonica was absent. The committee adjourned at 7:15 p.m. into an executive session on DiCicco v. Everett Public Schools. The next meeting was set for October 5.
Previous School Committee meeting (September 9): Everett Approves the Blueprint for a New High School: 2,054 Students, 13 More Trade Programs and a Pool-Sized Cafeteria. Schools Say the City Cyberattack Never Touched Them
