With an influx of students and shifting student needs, it is clear that the McCarthy Elementary School is in need of as much support as it can get from the School Committee this budget cycle, and committee members vowed to make the school a priority.
The school’s principal, Michelle Zottoli, was one of three elementary-school principals to present to the School Committee last week, during its first meeting of 2024. As it prepares to review a fiscal year 2025 budget, the committee is hearing presentations from principals of each of the district’s schools, addressing both successful initiatives and areas that require additional support and specific budget requests. At the McCarthy, which is taking on students from the Center School, will be shuttered for the 2024-25 school year as repairs are made to the building, and is dealing with an influx of new students from migrant families living in emergency shelters, the requests are especially numerous.
The school has a higher percentage of students classified as “high needs” than both the rest of the district and the state, with high populations of English-language learners, disabled students, and low-income students, according to Zottoli. But, with the Peabody Integrated Preschool moving out of the McCarthy next year, those demographics will change. In 2024-25, the school is anticipating an increase in the number of students who are English-language learners, and slight dips in low-income students and disabled students, though Zottoli said those figures could rise as the year draws closer.
“When you hear about the McCarthy, (we) want you to see a picture of who we are now, not who we were last year,” Zottoli told the committee.
The McCarthy is set to add an additional class at each grade level, with a projected student population of 400 in FY25. As a result, the school will also add additional specialty classes like physical education, art, music, and health.
Zottoli pointed to the continued implementation of HMH Into Reading and ST Math curriculum and the addition of weekly social-emotional learning lessons for all students as positive initiatives at the school.
Still, there are a “lot of things we need moving forward,” Zottoli said, with the school’s population to rise from the 338 it was budgeted for in FY24 to a projected 421 in FY25. As a result of that influx, Zottoli said a major focus would be on building a sense of belonging for staff and students alike at the school.
The school needs at least one additional teacher for reading, English-language learners, and special education, as well as a math interventionist and a guidance counselor. With the preschool departing, the McCarthy will have numerous open classrooms, but Zottoli said it does not have the furniture to support the addition of an art room, a music room, dedicated spaces for reading, English-language-learner services, and special education.
But, Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala told the committee the district already planned to add an additional teacher at each grade level, plus a dedicated teacher for reading, English-language learners, special education, and a guidance counselor — 10 new full-time equivalents in total. Most of those teachers will be reallocated from the center while that building is shuttered.
Committee member John Olimpio said the “unprecedented situation” the school is facing was not lost on committee members.
“You have our full support,” he said.
Committee member Jarrod Hochman said he felt Zottoli actually underestimated the school’s needs.
There are “a lot of moving parts there and a lot of need,” he said. “We need to make it a (place) where students are thriving.”
