Mountain View Principal Elaine Santaniello presents to the East Longmeadow School Committee.
Photo credit: ELCAT01028
EAST LONGMEADOW — At the East Longmeadow School Committee meeting on March 2, Mountain View School, Mapleshade Elementary School and Meadowbrook Elementary School presented their mid-year status reports.
Mountain View Principal Elaine Santaniello presented first and began with an update on the SMART goals for the school year, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound achievements.
The first goal is to “support the whole child.” This is so students feel valued, connected and ready to learn. The goal is to increase daily attendance and reduce chronic absenteeism.
To see an achievement in this goal, the daily attendance looked at meeting 95% or higher and student reported percentages on belonging would be 90% or higher. The attendance rate is currently at 96.7% with chronic absenteeism at 3.4%, equating to 11 students.
“Last year, our chronic absenteeism rate, at the end of the year, was 4.5%, and we had exceeded our target with [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education],” Santaniello said. “As long as we stay on track where we are now, we should meet or exceed our target this year.”
For the belonging percentage, 90% reported being happy, which is down 4% from the fall, 90% reported feeling welcome, up 1% from the fall and 82% reported they feel as if they can be themselves, down 8% from the fall.
Santaniello said the school’s councilors are able to see the names of students who answer the survey, and meet with them in groups or individually to talk about anything that might be going on.
Forty-seven percent of students are at or above grade level for reading, according to the i-Ready statistics. She said third and fifth grade are in the high performance/high growth quadrants, while fourth grade is in low performance/high growth.
“Not sure why they are there, instead of in the other category with third and fifth,” Santaniello said. “Historically, fourth grade has always been the tougher year for students to adjust to the rigor and curriculum.”
Fifty-one percent of students in math are at or above grade level, with third and fourth in the high performance/high growth area and fifth in the high performance/low growth area.
Ninety-four percent of students reported feeling safe at Mountain View, 93% said they keep trying when work is hard, 91% said there is an adult they can talk to and 91% said the school enforces rules against hurting others. A noticeable change from fall was the reported percentage with “students treat each other with respect.” In the fall, 45% reported always and 52% reported sometimes, which moved to 33% always and 66% sometimes.
Santaniello spoke on the school’s newer and popular chess club, which was initiated by a student in the 2024-2025 school year. She said that around 70 students stay after school to play and even take the boards out to recess. The knitting club is new and was started by a fifth grade student interested in learning. Every Friday afternoon, the student’s grandmother comes to the school to teach students how to knit.
Mapleshade Principal Conor Martin said the school follows a similar goal in supporting the whole child as Mountain View, with an attendance rate goal of 95% or higher and a reported belonging at 90% or higher. Attendance is currently at 95.7% and chronic absenteeism is at 7.7%.
“Unfortunately, we’re not where we would like to be with chronic absenteeism,” Martin said. “With that being said, we do understand the story behind each of the students who are contributing to the absenteeism.”
Martin said that he looks at the data at the beginning of month to see which families may need a little bit of outreach with attendance.
School Committee Chair Greg Thompson asked how students can achieve academic success with chronic absenteeism, and Martin said that is the struggle, especially at the elementary level. Thompson asked what happens longterm for those students and Martin replied that the school tries to catch them up the best they can.
“Some are able to get by with innate talent, and then others, it is a struggle,” Martin said. “We see that reflected in their own scores.”
In the January student survey, 88.3% of students reported feeling welcome, 85.2% said they felt safe and 89.4% said they learned ways to resolve problems with classmates.
Additionally, 82.5% reported feeling safe, 97% said they treat each other respectively, 95.1% said the staff treat students respectfully, 92.4% said they keep trying when the work is hard, 84.8% said there is at least one adult at school they can talk to and 84.8% said the school enforces rules against hurting others.
To reach their teaching and learning goals at Mapleshade, the school has implemented various action steps, such as the new GO Time, where each grade level has additional time built into the schedule for growth and opportunity based on student needs. The school also has 71 students currently in after school assistance across reading, math and Add+Vantage Math Recovery.
Martin said the third and fourth grade is currently outperforming the Massachusetts’ average and national norm in reading, while fifth grade is outperforming in reading the national year-to-date but just below the national norm and Massachusetts average. Similar success is seen in math.
To create an inclusive and supportive climate, the school offers things like clubs and affinity groups, community events, Wayfinder social emotional curriculum and academic adventuring awards.
Meadowbrook Principal Renee Lodi and Assistant Principal Kathleen Leydon presented and showed similar attendance numbers from 2024 and 2025, with a 95.8% rate so far for this year. The current chronic absenteeism rate is at 6.6%, which is down from last year’s 10%.
The school also utilizes the Devereaux Student Strength Assessment to support students in making academic, social, emotional and behaviorial progress. DESSA helps find students that may need additional support. 6% are in need of additional support, 69% are in the “typical” section, and 25% are in the social and emotional strength range.
At the beginning of the year, 14% of students were on or above grade level, which has increased to 40%. Students performing below grade level have decreased from 16% to 5%. As of right now, 41 students are currently receiving math intervention and more than half of each cohort has been able to leave intervention due to progress.
The school has focused on an inclusive and supportive climate, celebrating the diversity of the town’s community. Shandria McCoy, the coordinator of METCO, family engagement and student belonging has been spending time at Meadowbrook to meet with students during lunch to build relationships and foster connections.
