Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Performance on Goals
Student Learning Goals - Progress Rating
[ ] Exceeded
[X] Met
[ ] Significant Progress
[ ] Some progress
[ ] Did not meet
The specific Key Actions detailed in my Annual Plan speak to further aligning the curriculum to the Next Generation Science
Standards (NGSS), providing more hands-on investigations for students, and ensuring greater consistency in learning
experiences offered from classroom to classroom. Maureen did some outstanding work with the elementary and middle school
curriculum assistants in selecting and piloting model science units from DESE as well as implementing science lessons from
the online Mystery Science Program and the Inspire Science kits. Additionally, middle school science teachers met on a
quarterly basis for the purposes of ensuring more hands-on explorations in their curriculum, aligning and mapping the
curriculum to the NGSS, and ensuring there is greater consistency in the content and types of learning activities that all
students are exposed to. Ensuring more lab investigations has been a bit of a challenge, as there is no formal lab space at
Miscoe and hence, things like appropriate ventilation, lack of lab equipment, etc. pose a challenge. Nonetheless, they did
increase the number of lab investigations to at least one per week. There is a heightened focus among the teachers,
particularly the 8th grade science teachers, to carefully align taught content with the NGSS. As the spring 2018 Science &
Technology/Engineering Test further transitions to these new standards, I anticipate further improvement.
Attachments:
Superintendent's Annual Plan 2016-17 End of Cycle Progress Report - Aug 31, 2017 4:26 PM EDT - uploaded by Joseph Maruszczak
MURSD 2016 MCAS Results SC Oct 17 - Aug 31, 2017 4:48 PM EDT - uploaded by Joseph Maruszczak
- Aug 31, 2017 4:49 PM EDT - uploaded by Joseph Maruszczak
STE MCAS Spring 2017- Grade 8 - Aug 31, 2017 4:49 PM EDT - uploaded by Joseph Maruszczak
STE MCAS Spring 2017- Grade 5 - Aug 31, 2017 4:50 PM EDT - uploaded by Joseph Maruszczak
I have rated myself as "Significant Progress" and not "Met" for the simple reason that I have not successfully accomplished all
of the Key Actions that I intended on doing during last school year. I did put a great deal of effort in working with Dennis Todd to
revive our district's SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Committee) so families of students with special needs can have
a formal mechanism to network, organize, and communicate issues/concerns about the district's programming to the
administration. Throughout the second half of the school year, the SEPAC met a total of five times and we had success in
recruiting new parents, soliciting their input for helpful programming that parents are interested in, creating a formal structure for
leadership, and actually holding two separate informational sessions on two topics of interest: 1) student transitions, and 2)
strategies to alleviate student anxiety. We hope to build on this positive momentum in 2017-18.
We also started the school year by upgrading the district and school websites. Along with this transition, we also upgraded the
district's mass email/calling system to a newer version with greater functionality. The websites do have a cleaner look and have
information more carefully organized for easier access. We also started to use the new BlackBoard Connect/Parent Link email
system, which has greater functionality/aesthetics for mass emails than its predecessor did. However, we need to ensure that
all four school secretaries have more training in it, as they were inconsistent in its usage.
I believe that the district on a whole and our four schools are fairly effective in proactively communicating to our
parents/families. The next challenge is ensuring greater consistency in communication from classroom to classroom even
within an academic department/team. This past year, I discussed and disseminated specific Family & Community Engagement
Standards with our District Leadership Team. They have also been shared with our District Educator Evaluation Committee. My
vision is to begin to operationalize them, as I am trying to negotiate them into the evaluation process for our professional staff. I
look forward to continuing this work this year.
The district made significant progress in the area of raising the awareness of all stakeholders of student needs in SEL. It was
also a year to take stock of what ongoing resources and programming that are effective and where there are additional areas of
need. As we highlighted during at least two different School Committee meetings, we made SEL a key professional
development priority during the 2016-17 school year. We had presenters like Jessica Minahan (author of "The Behavior Code"),
Rick Lavoie (author of "The Motivation Breakthrough"), and Nancy Clements present on timely topics such as executive
functioning, ADHD, student anxiety, and social thinking. The feedback that we received from our teachers has been
outstanding as we focused on pragmatic tools they may use in the classroom. We also made this a focal point in improving
transition activities for students and their families, particularly at the Grade 4 to 5 and Grade 8 to 9 transition points.
Based upon feedback from the June 2016 K12 Insight Survey as well as surveying that the district did prior to the new District
Technology Plan, the district made improvements in communication and outreach. The district adopted one uniform learning
management platform, Google Classroom, and at present, over 80% of secondary teachers are actively using it. Our new
Director of Technology Integration also spent a great deal of time proving training to teachers in using the Google Apps for
Education so teachers could more effectively communicate with students and their families. The district also continued and
expanded its outreach to families through such programs as Keys to Clough, What's the Buzz at Memorial, and the 21st
Century Learning and Financial Literacy Conferences at Nipmuc.
The district also made significant progress in the ongoing process of reviewing and updating our formal curriculum using the
online mapping program, Rubicon Atlas. Under Maureen's leadership, nearly all classes and grade levels have completed
Stage 2 (Assessment) in detailing the assessments that are administered for each unit. Also accomplished were more
opportunities for vertical articulation (same content area teachers talking to different grade level teachers) between the middle
and high schools. Also of significance was the district successfully promoted more peer observation through such means as
Shadow a Student days, use of a "pineapple chart" and even the use of social media (#observeme) so teachers could highligh
best practices and solicit feedback from their peers.
Overall Performance
Overall Performance
Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Unsatisfactory
Evaluator Comments
Comments and analysis are recommended for any rating but are required for an overall summative rating of needs improvement
or unsatisfactory or Impact on Student Learning rating of low.
After six years as the Superintendent of the Mendon-Upton Regional School District, I am confident that the district is trending
in a very positive direction and that there is a high degree of confidence by our families and the community. Many of the
traditional quantitative metrics show favorable results (e.g., district MCAS scores, SAT and AP participation and results) and
our flagship school, Nipmuc Regional HS receiving accolade as a DESE Commendation School and one of Newsweek's
America's Top High Schools. Also, the June 2016 K12 Insight Survey also gave positive quantitative and qualitative data
indicating satisfaction with the district's programs and services. The coming school year will mark the final year of our current
Five Year Strategic Plan, and we have been largely successful in achieving the overwhelming majority of strategic initiatives
that were detailed in 2013. I look forward to leading a new strategic planning process in 2018, one that will entail all
stakeholders. My view is that the MURSD is already a very good district; how can we take it to the take level and make it truly
great? I look forward to working with the Regional School Committee, the District Leadership Team, and MURSD families and
staff in pursuing this new plan and vision. I am excited by the possibilities for our collective learning and will continue to
represent the district and our communities in the most professional manner possible.
Signature of Administrator
Joseph Maruszczak (signed by Joseph Maruszczak on 2017-08-31 18:09)
Signature of Evaluator
- no signature -