Board of Education (BOE) members listened to presentations covering district strategic goals, in addition to discussing the district's student transportation contract, at their Wednesday, November 4, meeting.

Newtown Middle School (NMS) Principal Jim Ross and Newtown High School (NHS) Principal Dr Kimberly Longobucco presented strategic plans for their respective schools. These presentations continue the BOE listening to district-wide goal setting work around the start of the school year; the principals of Newtown Public Schools' elementary and intermediate schools discussed their goals at the BOE's October 20 meeting.

Ross delivered his presentation first, noting that there are "a lot of great happenings at [the middle school]." At NMS, he said they often talk about their "Rise Up" model — a growth mindset encouraging students and staff to always look for continuous improvement and to be the best versions of themselves. This pairs with the first goal of the district's strategic plan, which focuses on cultivating a dynamic learning environment.

In turn, NMS staff have focused on implementing the Portrait of a Newtown Graduate, which describes the skills and disposition every student should demonstrate upon graduation. Ross said implementing this started over the summer, and that it got their staff excited about the Portrait of a Newtown Graduate and all its characteristics.

Currently, Ross said they are working on introducing these characteristics to their staff and will move towards introducing them to their students.

"It is something that we're experiencing all the time when we look at quality instruction," Ross continued. "It's now really just making teachers and staff and students just more aware of when we're doing these activities and we're having these great experiences ... and tying them to the characteristics."

Their second strategic action is focused on providing effective feedback to teachers aimed at continuous improvement in pedagogy. As the district is in the second year of its Newtown Educator and Administrator Evaluation and Support Plan, Ross said this gives teachers a chance to look at their own practices, engage in professional learning, and apply new methods to see what will impact and benefit students.

Ross said NMS has been integrating technology to enhance teaching, learning, and assessment, including the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). To that end, NMS has an AI team with the district and partners with its consultant from EdAdvance to lead AI training and support staff in using AI effectively.

"Part of what we're going to be doing is taking time at staff meetings where our AI team can show some effective usage of AI and tools, and how we can make some of the stuff we do more efficient," Ross explained.

For developing a consistent and uniform process for data analysis, Ross said they will review school-wide data with the NMS Leadership Team, staff, and departments on a regular basis. This is in addition to participating in district data team meetings to review student performance data and maximizing the use of eduCLIMBER, a data warehouse that manages student data and monitors academic and behavior progress.

Ross also talked about implementing professional development strategies to reduce the number of chronically absent students, supporting the NMS School Climate Committee and its efforts to improve the school's atmosphere, training staff in restorative practices, promoting inclusivity to students and community members, growing the school's English Language Learner (ELL) programming, enhancing communication with families through newsletters, and more.

High School Strategic Goals

Longobucco's presentation followed afterwards. She said it had been a "very busy fall" at NHS, with a lot going on in a variety of areas across the school. Longobucco briefly discussed the school's visit from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) representatives; while they do not have the draft or finalized report yet, she did say they had a nice debrief session with the six members of the visiting team, which consisted of educators from throughout the state.

She highlighted the feedback from the NEASC representatives in certain areas of her strategic plan presentation, areas which she said NHS intends to work on between now and its 2028 decennial visit for the second half of the NEASC accreditation process.

Longobucco moved on to discuss how NHS has implemented the Portrait of a Newtown Graduate. She said they committed to putting three characteristics in front of students last year; they broke the year into thirds and told students which characteristic was being focused on at which time, leaning into the language school-wide.

This left NHS with four characteristics to cover in the 2026-27 school year, according to Longobucco. They built off of staff feedback received last year for the rollout of the remaining attributes, focusing on the first two in the first semester and the remaining two in the second semester. This way, Longobucco said, teachers have flexibility on which of the traits they want to focus on.

Part of the feedback she received from staff last year was that it was challenging for them to take a characteristic and stick it in the time slot that administrative staff were telling them to.

Longobucco said they are also expanding the high school's learning walk protocol, in which school staff walk through the school to observe Portrait of a Newtown Graduate characteristics and debrief based on what they saw. To that end, she said they will create learning walk groups including staff from different departments and schedule one learning walk for every certified staff member before January.

NHS is also working to streamline its math and science courses, specifically through de-leveling, according to Longobucco. She explained that NHS used to have three levels of math students could fall into: honors, CPA, and CPB. De-leveling, she said, means they collapsed the courses into college prop and honors.

The school will continue its de-leveling process with other mathematics courses such as geometry, and begin de-leveling in science courses such as chemistry and physics.

Beyond that, Longobucco said NHS will continue to: use its SAT data teams for English/language arts and mathematics to analyze state assessment results and identify the best instructional strategies moving forward, identify and address low enrollment in the school's art classes, use the Attendance Review Board to connect chronically absent students with school and community resources, support restorative practices as an intervention regarding student behavior, and take other measures.

Transportation Contract

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia spoke to BOE members about the district's student transportation contract, as its five-year contract with All-Star Transportation as its service provider will end on June 30, 2027.

With the size and complexity of the contract, she wanted to bring forward some relevant information and some facts to the Board so its members can make an informed decision on what option they would like to take moving forward.

Gouveia presented two different plans and strategies to the BOE's CIP/Facilities/Finance (BOE CFF) Subcommittee at its October 20 meeting; much of this information was featured in The Newtown Bee's article "BOE CFF Discusses Transportation Contract."

In her presentation, Gouveia outlined two options: negotiate a contract with All-Star or go out to bid.

The first option requires the board to suspend Purchasing Policy 3320 under Bylaw 9510 via a majority vote, as it would allow the BOE to forego the formal bidding process. Gouveia said the biggest advantage of negotiating a contract with All-Star is a lower percentage increase, as there is less risk for a vendor, therefore they provide a lower rate. It would also mean keeping the current transportation system's routes, drivers, bus lot, and routing software.

Its cons would be missing out on another potential vendor with a lower price increase, as well as criticism from those less familiar with the transportation market, according to Gouveia.

The second option would require the BOE to publish a request for proposal (RFP) by the end of November and finalize its vendor selection around February/March of next year. While they could receive a lower rate, Gouveia said this would require them to rebuild the district's current transportation system.

After considerable discussion on the topic, many BOE members supported the district entering contract negotiations with All-Star, while remaining open to a formal RFP process if the terms proved unsatisfactory. The BOE will continue discussion on the transportation contract at its next meeting on November 17.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.