AMY LEEMAN will be leaving the School Committee. She is pictured at her final board meeting with Supt. of Schools Doug Lyons. (Neil Zolot Photo)
By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — The School Committee approved a new Student Opportunity Act plan for the town as mandated by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, at their meeting Tuesday, April 9.
No related aid is coming from the state, however. “It’s based on a community’s ability to pay,” Business Manager Christine Bufagna said in relation to an SOA’s focus on providing resources for Multi-Language Learners, formerly English as a Learned Language and English as a Second Language students and students from low income families.
“It was meant to address disparities in funding for those students. We don’t get aid, but still have to create a plan.”
“There has to be a plan, but there’s no money attached to this,” Superintendent Doug Lyons added. “It addresses the needs of the most vulnerable students. We update the plan and have it align with the goals of the District.”
As a low poverty community Wakefield is also receiving only the minimum increase in state Chapter 70 education aid, about $30 per student. “Some communities get more aid than others,” Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro explained.
“The overarching goal of the SOA is to ensure every student has access to a high quality public education regardless of their zip code,” reads a presentation shown to the School Committee. “Policy updates every 3 years focus on addressing disparities in learning experiences and outcomes for student groups that are least well served and implementation of evidence-based practices.”
It differs from a District Improvement Plan because it focuses on a subset of students. The SOA plan addresses a subset of a district’s overall initiatives focusing on evidence-based programs and strategies that will improve the educational experiences and outcomes of students, including English Learners, students with disabilities and low income students. In an SOA plan is the selection of Evidence-Based Programs used to drive improvements for selected student groups.
Districts are given guidance from DESE as to which student group should be most impacted by their SOA plans. This year’s guidance establishes an improvement target for districts to include in their SOA plans that focus on the lowest performing student group, along with the option to establish additional targets to support individual student groups as needed based on data analysis.
In Year 1 of the SOA plan, Wakefield will work on introducing high quality instructional material. Year 2 will “be focused on continuing to refine a systematic and aligned approach to intervention,” while Year 3 will “be focused on securing our data meeting process so it is equitable across all levels and informing us as accurately as possible about student needs.”
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In other items, Kathy Scanlon of The Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield addressed the members. “Not a lot of people know about us and we’re trying to get the word out,” she said about the group’s distribution of higher education scholarships.
About $800,000 was distributed last year, with a similar number expected this year. Since 1960, when it was known as the Citizens Scholarship Foundation, they’ve distributed $16.3 million through 12,780 scholarships.
Aid is available for students for varying years of their higher education academic career, not just their freshman year, as is the case with many other scholarship programs. “Any sort of higher education student can apply,” she said. “We also give money for graduate school.”
There are 613 different scholarships, often endowed by families in memory of a deceased loved one. “They have trusted us to distribute money and honor legacies,” Scanlon said.
The only prerequisite is residency. The application period is April 15-June 1. “We really want to help Wakefield kids,” Scanlon said.
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The meeting was the last for Chairman Amy Leeman, since she decided not to run for re-election. “It’s been great and I’ll miss this,” she said. “The years have gone by fast, although some days have been long.”
