Benjamin J. Phelps Elementary School was one of 55 schools in the state that received a School of Recognition designation for 2025 from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Reminder Publishing photo by Mike Lydick
AGAWAM — Benjamin J. Phelps Elementary School was recently named a School of Recognition by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for demonstrating high student achievement by exceeding accountability targets.
Phelps was among 55 schools in the state to receive this special designation for 2025. Schools receiving this designation have demonstrated meaningful and substantial progress towards accountability targets.
Phelps is one of seven schools in Western Massachusetts that received this prestigious honor.
Schools of Recognition are selected for their progress toward annual accountability targets, with a strong emphasis on improved student achievement in English Language Arts and mathematics. This is the second consecutive year that an Agawam elementary school has been honored as a School of Recognition. In 2024, the William P. Sapelli Elementary School received this designation.
Andy Villamaino, the school’s principal, was notified by DESE in late September that Phelps was a School of Recognition. “It kind of caught us off guard, and it’s like one of those pleasant surprises that you don’t expect. You’re putting in all of that work on the back end, and then to come out and see where the kids scores were is really exciting to see,” said Villamaino at the Oct. 14 School Committee meeting.
Villamaino was at the meeting that evening with the other three elementary school principals and the Early Child Center director to make presentations to the committee about their action plans for students.
Before he made his presentation, Villamaino received a citation for the school from Superintendent Sheila Martin. She presented the citation from the town on behalf of the School Committee and the town’s citizens. The citation was presented to Villamaino to recognize and thank the staff and families at Phelps for their commitment to students.
Villamaino told the committee that after he learned Phelps was recognized for its students’ achievements, he and his staff did a “deep dive” to understand what they did to receive the DESE recognition so they could continue that momentum going into the 2025-26 school year.
Each year after the MCAS test, schools get average scores for different subgroups of students. Based off of those scores, the department sets targets for the next school year, said Villamaino, who has been principal at Phelps since 2021.
Villamaino said he and his staff were excited to see that all students — especially high needs students in its low-income group — exceeded the school’s targets. He added that the school exceeded its overall target in its ELA assessments, particularly with high needs populations. The school also exceeded its targets in math.
MCAS results are viewed through several lenses by Villamaino and his staff. One is identifying specific standards where all or most students struggled. For example, written responses were an area of need, so the school completed a book study on best writing practices and embedded simple, effective strategies into its curriculum.
The school also launched a schoolwide writing initiative for the 2025-26 school year, with both students and staff deeply invested. “We’ve tried to get a little bit creative with our writing scores because that tends to be an area that we’re all struggling with as a district,” he said.
Villamaino added that the school “is trying to get even more creative and thinking outside the box” with how they’re using its special education teachers and interventionists.
Attendance also has been something that the staff at Phelps is proud of, said Villamaino. “We’re getting our overall attendance rate into single digits, with most students attending school 95% of the time. So, the onus, then, is on us to make sure that what we’re doing in classrooms every day meets that standard for the kids who are showing up for us every day. We know that when students are in school, achievement follows.”
But Villamaino said the staff at the school is not done yet and wants to continue its work. He said that what they’ve done to get to this point has been increasing student attendance by making “lots of great opportunities” for students to get them to come to school.
He said the school is starting to get into some more “proactive strategies” by doing a Responsive Classroom Professional Development with its staff. Along with all the other schools in the district, Phelps is starting to conduct some instructional walks.
“We’ve identified some ‘Look Fors’ as a school community, some that students and staff decided on. We actually got some student input for our Look Fors,” said Villamaino. “We’re very proud of what our staff has done, and we’re excited for what more we’re going to do this year.”
