NORTH ANDOVER — Close to 100 parents showed up for a meeting at the Thomson School last night to rally around their neighborhood school.
Many parents said that despite not meeting MCAS improvement goals for a second year in a row, the Thomson is far from a troubled school.
"We didn't fail. We didn't get F's. We improved, just not as much as we had to," parent Laurie Burzlaff said. "We just didn't meet the criteria."
After waiting for weeks, school officials found out Monday that the Waverly Road school did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for the second year.
Under the No Child Left Behind law, if a school receiving federal Title 1 funding does not meet AYP two years in a row, the district must offer the choice of moving to another school.
Twenty-nine families have chosen to send their children to the Atkinson, Franklin and Kittredge schools this year.
Despite the wave of children entering those schools, class sizes should stay below 26 students in most cases. A few classrooms currently are slated for 27 children, but that could change before school starts.
The average Thomson class will have about 22 children.
Assistant Superintendent Kevin Hutchinson explained to parents that the state expects historically low-performing schools to make more progress every year in MCAS than a middle or high performing school.
Thomson's scores were not bad, he said.
While the school did not meet its improvement goals for the 2006-2007 year in English language arts, its rating was 83.7, considered in the "high" category.
"You have to make more progress every year to make AYP," he said, adding that the goal is to have every child proficient by 2014.
Hutchinson said parents will be able to transfer their children out of Thomson School every year until the school has made AYP for two years in a row.
Thomson will not lose its Title 1 money, which is given to schools that have some low-income students.
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. Several members of the community have also volunteered to help.
Parents last night said they were excited to have a new principal who is doing so much for the school in such a short time. Burzlaff, the school's PTO co-president, said there has been a lot of transition at the school, yet both the staff and children have pulled through.
"We've survived," she said.
Maria Rodgers added: "This is the 10th year I've had a child in the building. This is a great school. ... Fail is a horrible word. "
