Melrose Officials React to High School's Reaccreditation Warning

Editor's note: This article was updated on Monday at 2:30 p.m.

In a little less than six months, Melrose High School must submit a progress report to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) addressing the critical areas that resulted in the , and some Melrose officials expressed the need for urgency and quicker progress at the school.

NEASC's letter informing school officials of Melrose High School's reaccreditiation listed seven recommendations that must be addressed and, if not resolved by Dec. 1, will keep the school on warning status.

School Committee Chairwoman Margaret Driscoll, in an email to Melrose Patch, said that the NEASC's letter informing the school of its reaccreditation and warning status is consistent with the self-study prepared by the school's reaccreditation steering committee, the NEASC visiting committee's report and the .

"There were no surprises, which shows that the high school knows its strengths, challenges, and what needs to be done to improve," Driscoll said. "In fact, my understanding is that many, if not all, items that were noted for review by December 1, 2011 are well on their way to being addressed. This fact is particularly impressive given the difficult economic climate. It’s important to note that the letter began with 23 commendations, many of which reflect the climate of collaboration between and among staff, students, families, and local businesses."

Committee member Christine Casatelli said she looked forward to working with incoming Principal Dan Richards to address the recommendations NEASC wants an update on in six months.

“I'm proud of the progress that Melrose High School has made, but I'm realistic about the challenges that still lie ahead,” Casatelli said. “We need to continue the hard work that the teachers, administrators and students have started as part of the NEASC self-evaluation process to make sure that our flagship school makes the urgent improvements it needs, especially in the areas of curriculum and facilities. We must make our high school a top priority.”

How quickly are issues being addressed?

During Dillon and Conis' presentation last month, Casatelli noted that the school received warning status during its last accreditation process 10 years ago and said that this most recent process "was a much more positive, enriching result."

This week, Casatelli said that the positive result she saw was MHS officials working on problems they identified before NEASC's committee has submitted its final report. Because of that, Casatellli said she believed school officials' response to correct those problems was quicker this time than it was during the previous NEASC process.

"In the self-study that the educators at MHS completed, they identified some areas of weaknesses—in particular that not every course has a syllabus," she said. "So even before NEASC came back with their results, administrators and teachers at the high school were working to address (those areas of weaknesses)."

Whether the school has turned around quickly and begun addressing the problems cited by NEASC is a question that led to some blunt criticism last month from committee member J.D. LaRock, who that the "main piece of work since getting the report back is to create a definition of a leadership team—that does nothing for me."

In a memo LaRock wrote to Casey and the School Committee, which he provided to Melrose Patch, LaRock said that 10 years ago, Melrose High School earned reaccreditation from NEASC, but was placed on warning for four out of seven standards: Mission and Expectations for Student Learning; Curriculum; Instruction; and Assessment of Student Learning.

This year, the school is on warning for two out of seven standards: Curriculum, and Community Resources for Learning.

LaRock also noted that according to NEASC's website, out of the approximately 655 schools that are members of NEASC, at any given time approximately 100 to 110 schools are on warning, which is not a public status, while 20 to 25 schools are on probation, which is a public status. NEASC's website also states that the most common time that schools are placed on warning is coming off the decennial visit.

In light of that, LaRock calcualted that 15 to 17 percent of NEASC member schools are under warning at anytime, 3 to 4 percent are under probation, and 79 to 82 percent of high schools are not under warning or probation status at any given time. He said that parents and taxpayers may want to ask whether NEASC's most recent report on Melrose High School is an acceptable level of progress over the past decade.

"I believe it isn't. I know we can do better, and at a time when our students are facing higher academic standards and more competition to get into college, we must do better, for their sake," he said in an email to Melrose Patch. "MHS can accelerate its progress. In order to do it, we need, strong, clear leadership from the entire School Committee, the superintendent, and our new MHS principal. I'm prepared to do everything I can to contribute to this effort. But defending these results is not the answer."

School-wide curriculum plan tops list of critical items

At the top of the list of recommendations that need to be addressed in the progress report due on Dec. 1, if Melrose High School is to have its warning status removed, is "submit the school's formal plan and timeline to align the curriculum with the academic expectations for learning."

Superintendent Joe Casey said that the high school currently has curricula in each subject area, but lacks an "overarching shell" that shows how those align both across and between grade levels. For example, the curriculum map would show how project-based learning, open response questions and other teaching strategies and assessments are used in each subject and at each grade level, while also ensuring that each student is exposed to the same curriculum.

"It’s about taking honors English and getting this much information," Casey said. "If you’re taking college prep, it's not like you’re not getting the same information. If you’re in the honors class, we’re going to go deeper into it."

The curriculum plan would tie in with the district-wide Atlas Curriculum Mapping process currently underway, Casey said, and the responsibility for creating and submitting the formal plan and timeline to NEASC falls to incoming Principal Dan Richards, who will be supported by district Curriculum Director Pat Muxie. 

Mayor Rob Dolan said the missing overarching curriulum at Melrose High School is a long-standing issue that the four past principals have dealt with and must be addressed immediately.

"I’ve heard this now for a long, long time and I think it’s about time that the people we pay to lead the district lead on this issue," Dolan said. "Let's get it together. If they can do the job, good. If they can’t do it, they need to be replaced. I don’t know if it’s department heads or administrators ... that doesn't mean progress hasn’t been made, but enough’s enough on that issue."

Repairing the building

Another recommendation that must be resolved within the six months to remove the school's warning status is "provide a timeline to resolve all facilities issues identified in the evaluation report."

In 2007, Dolan announced a two-phase plan to renovate Melrose High School. The first phase was completed before the start of the 2008-2009 school year and upgraded the school's electrical and data wiring, installed a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system that put a phone every classroom, and installed SMARTBoard interactive whiteboards in each classroom, which were listed as commendations by the NEASC team.

However, the second phase that called for physical renovations to the building stalled when the economy bottomed out, except for the roof replacement of borrowing, a green grant and funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Dolan said that the renovations have to be done "without a debt exclusion or override, and that's hard. So it has to be done methodically." He pointed to the roof replacement, cited as a critical need by NEASC, as an example of approaching the problem methodically, and added that money spent on the building cannot take away from "direct services to students, which would include teachers, textbooks, etc.

"Are we going to fix Melrose High School? Yes," he said. "We’ve come a long way. We are over the next four or five years going to continue to improve that school. I’m concerned about that, but I’m confident I can do that work as a mayor."