Superintendent gives overview

The Shelton School District developed a five-year strategic plan relying on comments from more than 1,000 people, and students are benefitting from earlier recruiting and hiring of quality teachers.

At the same time, student test scores in math and language arts are low compared with students statewide.

Those are some of the takeaways from Superintendent Wyatt Jessee's state-of-the-district presentation Tuesday evening at the Shelton School Board meeting in the Mountain View Elementary School cafeteria.

The superintendent lauded the district's five-year plan, formulated after 570 people responded to a district survey and 462 staff members offered their thoughts, as well as 23 parents and 27 business and community leaders in focus groups. A major theme that emerged is the need for higher expectations for all students, Jessee said.

The comments from 85 students in focus groups revealed they want to feel respected, safe and comfortable at school, and that most of them did not feel prepared for high school or for the transitions between grade levels and schools.

The strategic plan survey also revealed that students feel more successful when teachers give them a lesson plan to help keep them on track for what they are learning versus assigning worksheets.

Math scores are low and dropping, the superintendent said. This year, only 15.5% of seventh-graders met the standards in math proficiency compared to 35.4% statewide. Only 33.2% of third-graders are math proficient compared to 49.1% statewide, and 13.1% of 10th-graders compared to 30.8%.

Student proficiency in language arts this year is also low: 25.4% of district third-graders, 36.8% of seventh-graders and 49.9% of 10th-graders.

"We've got to go up," Jessee said. He added, "If you can't read or write, that will make it hard to get a job."

The percentage of students in the district who graduated on time was 84.9% in 2020, 78.1% in 2021 and 78.3% in 2022.

The percentage of students who received at least one "exclusionary action," such as a suspension of expulsion during the school year, was 5.7% in 2000, 3.5% in 2021 and 7.6% in 2022.

The superintendent said the district is pairing professional development with monthly instructional focus at each school, pushing monthly data reports to school and central office leaders, and "building a positive culture of rigor, inclusiveness, respect and relevance." This winter, the district will begin developing a literacy model for students in grades seven through 12, make midyear adjustments as needed, and begin the budgeting and recruiting processes for the next school year. This spring, the district will host celebrations and make revisions to the school improvement plans for the 2023-2024 school year.