ATHOL – The Athol-Royalston Regional School District is entering the new school year with a three-year strategic plan that will guide work across its four schools.
The School Committee approved the plan at its Aug. 19 meeting, following a presentation by Superintendent Matthew Ehrenworth. Its four priorities are teaching and learning, belonging and partnership, engagement and future readiness, and coherent systems and environments that sustain the other three priorities.
The district’s existing Vision of a Graduate framework, which outlines the skills and qualities it wants students to develop by graduation, serves as the foundation for the plan.
“This strategic plan is the road map for making that vision real in every classroom and every building over the next three years,” Ehrenworth said.
As the plan was developed, leadership teams at all four schools identified many of the same needs, making consistency a central focus.
Ehrenworth said the first year will focus on awareness, building a shared understanding of the plan and establishing baseline data. The second will focus on consistency across schools and carrying out the strategies outlined in the plan, while the third will focus on making the work sustainable by incorporating it into how the district hires, develops, evaluates and improves.
Accountability is also built into the plan, with the district planning to track both implementation and outcomes throughout the three years and report its progress publicly.
“For students, the plan should be felt, not merely read,” Ehrenworth said. “A student should be known by an adult, asked to think deeply, discover purpose, and experience learning that builds year-to-year. The goal is a coherent Pre-K through 12 journey, not isolated experiences by building.”
Committee member Mitch Grosky questioned whether having one trusted adult was enough to make students feel like they belong at school.
“My notion of belongingness is more than that,” Grosky said. “It’s a feeling on the part of a student that they truly belong in that school, that they’re accepted in that school, that they’re included in activities, that they have friends in the school.”
Ehrenworth agreed that having one trusted adult should be considered a minimum.
“I don’t want to sell the plan short and say our goal is one person,” Ehrenworth said. “Our goal is to have everyone feel that they belong as part of the community.”
Restorative practices are one strategy the district will use to help build community within the school. Ehrenworth said the approach focuses on developing shared norms rather than serving as a system of consequences. A ‘train-the-trainer’ model is being used to expand the practices across the schools.
The district will also create superintendent student advisory committees at both Athol-Royalston Middle School and Athol High School.
“We’re trying to get student voice in all of our buildings to the greatest extent that we can,” Ehrenworth said.
Another change coming this school year is the expansion of MyCAP, or My Career and Academic Plan, from the high school into the middle school. The program exposes students to career opportunities and helps them identify the coursework, credentials or college credits they may need to pursue their interests.
“It should start in elementary school, truth be told,” Ehrenworth said. “It is concentrated at the high school right now. We’re moving it down into the middle school this year and we plan on moving it down as far as we can.”
In other business, the committee elected Tammy Duquette as its new chair. Duquette, who had been serving as vice chair, was the only person nominated for the position and was elected without opposition.
Duquette succeeds former chair Lee Chauvette, who resigned from the School Committee in June. A new vice chair was not selected because the position was not included on the meeting agenda, and the committee plans to take it up at its next meeting.