By Crystal Bozek
Staff Writer
August 26, 2008 12:14 am NORTH ANDOVER — School leaders expect more than two dozen children to transfer out of the Thomson School, after learning yesterday the elementary school did not meet its MCAS test improvement goals for the second consecutive year. Under the No Child Left Behind law, if a school receiving federal Title 1 funding does not meet its adequate yearly progress (AYP) two years in a row, the district must offer the choice of moving to another school. Superintendent James Marini said he does not have any specific details from the state yet. But he said 29 families had expressed interest over the past couple of weeks in moving their children if the school did not meet its testing benchmark. If that happens, the school will be losing about 7 percent of its 425 students. "We'll do our very best to make this work," Marini said. "It's a balance for us. We don't want to overload any other school. It's important for us to respond positively to parents' requests to move and do this in a way that doesn't have a negative impact. "It's a challenge," he added. Thomson has had the lowest Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System scores of the town's five elementary schools. The school did not meet its improvement goals for the 2006-2007 year in English language arts. Thomson is one of two schools in North Andover that receive federal Title 1 funding, which is given to schools that have a certain number of low-income students. Twenty-one percent of the students at Thomson last year were considered low income. The Atkinson School is also a Title 1 school. Now parents can request to send their children to the Atkinson, Franklin or Kittredge elementary schools. Marini said he will try to comply with parents' first requests of schools they want to transfer their children to, but it will depend on class size. He does not want to place students into a class where there are already 25 or more students. "It's a balance for us," he said. "We don't want to overload any other school." School officials need to make sure parents who requested transfers still want to move their children out of Thomson. Then they will spend the days leading up to the Sept. 3 school start shuffling busing schedules and classroom lists. The district is obligated to pay for busing students to schools that are more than two miles from their homes. Marini said he was not sure how many people would want to transfer. "I didn't have any way of measuring the first time through," Marini said. The superintendent sent a letter to parents yesterday afternoon about the Thomson not meeting the requirement. School officials will meet with Thomson parents Thursday to discuss the district's next steps and answer any questions people might have. They're waiting for specific data on how close the school came to meeting it annual yearly progress goals. "I think Thomson will be a great school. It has terrific leadership, programs and initiatives," Marini said. Thomson's new principal, Greg Gilligan, has said with several new programs in place, he is confident the school will meet its MCAS goals the next time around. Besides a new summer school piloted last month, Thomson will add new reading, writing and math programs, bring in more tutors and a social worker, and start a homework club. Gilligan is setting up common planning time for teachers, where they can look at students' work together — pinpointing where a student may be having trouble and quickly remedying the situation. "We want to exceed the benchmark, to surpass it," Gilligan said in an interview last week. "The key thing here is there's a sense of feeling among parents and staff to push forward."
Thomson School meeting When: Thursday, 7 p.m. Where: Thomson School, 266 Waverly Road
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