Middleboro principals share school improvement updates

MIDDLEBORO — With the school year now in full swing, administrators from Middleboro’s middle and high school presented their school improvement reports to the Middleboro School Committee at its Oct. 9 meeting. 

Paul Branagan, principal at Middleboro High School, and Timothy McLaughlin, principal at John T. Nichols Middle School, each presented their plans for the rest of the year. 

McLaughlin outlined four areas for improvement at the middle school: data collection, monitoring success, student engagement, and parent and community communication. 

He said student engagement was particularly important to him, as data from the past year showed students did not feel connected to their school. 

“To be perfectly frank, it was heartbreaking,” McLaughlin said. 

The results showed students did not feel a sense of community, did not feel safe and did not enjoy their time at the school.

“It’s not the Nichols Middle School I left in 2015, and my goal is to really focus on the student experience,” the school’s former assistant principal said. 

To address this, he said he plans to focus on improving student experience, especially through celebrating student successes through various awards and recognitions. 

Parent Kimberly Jones said she was glad to hear the principal’s response to the student surveys.

“Your heart breaking over the survey that you received is very heartening to me that you care that much about that. I also think it bodes very well for the middle school,” she said. 

McLaughlin also said he received widespread feedback from parents wanting better communication from the school. To improve this, he pointed to an app the district introduced this year, Parent Square.

He also said he plans to dedicate time to fostering connections with parents, from talking to them during office house or pick-up to ensuring educators communicate through parent-teacher conferences and at open houses. 

Sarah Zigouras, another parent, said she has seen three principals at the school in the past five years and is happy with McLaughlin’s work so far.

“This year has already started off being the best year that I’ve been there, and it’s because of the leadership of Mr. McLaughlin,” she said. “It starts at the top-down.”

McLaughlin said he looks to the work Branagan is doing at Middleboro High School as his model for improving the middle school. 

In his presentation, Branagan outlined six targets for improving the high school: instructional practices, collaboration between educators, a "future-ready" model, well-prepared graduates, school culture and a visit by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, an accreditation organization. 

He said advances in instructional practices are the “big goal” for the year, building off of improvements made in years past. An important approach he plans to use is engagement. 

While past studies of engagement have focused on teachers, he said this year he has instead turned to student engagement, particularly through personalized approaches for each learner. 

“It’s about taking the journey of the student and putting them in the driver’s seat, giving them the menu of options at the high school level,” Branagan said. 

This allows students to choose their entry point into the learning material and gives them opportunities within the classroom to enhance their learning, he said. 

He also said the school’s final goal, its preparation for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges visit, will display the culmination of years of improvement. 

When representatives came in 2013, he said they found over 70 issues they recommended action on. He said the school has currently identified only five areas which are all being addressed.

“We’re really quite excited by this visit, because I think this time we have a school that is in a good spot. We’re not perfect, we’re far from it — but we really have the ingredients for the growth that we need.”