WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Lanesborough Elementary School this fall has seen a reversal of a trend that has plagued public schools both locally and nationally in recent years.

 

"This time last school year, we had 635 absences already," Principal Nolan Pratt told the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday. "This year, we only have 506, which is a significant decrease. And I think we've had more days of school than last year. It's got to be pretty close.

 

"That's a great step in the right direction of what we're doing."

 

Chronic absenteeism — defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days in a given year — has been a hot topic in education.

 

According to a report this September from the Brookings Institution, the rate of chronic absenteeism nationally went from 15 percent in the 2018-19 school year to 28 percent in 2021-22.

 

School Committee member Ursula Maloy asked Pratt why he thought the number of days missed at the elementary school dropped by 20 percent in the first 50 days of the 2024-25 school year.

 

"I think there's two pieces at play," Pratt said. "One is, we were adamant about people being at school. Nurse [Kathy] Larson and I have been on the same page about making sure when kids are out we're like, 'Hey, we know that you're out. What's going on? How do we get you back?'

 

"The second is — and I don't want to speak for everyone — I think the fear of being a contagious person has also diminished a little bit. It's not completely gone. There are still some families who say, 'My kid is going to get other people sick.' But I think that's just the way of the world. Getting sick the first two weeks of elementary school is like a rite of passage."

 

Reducing the rate of chronic absenteeism in the three-school K-12 district is one of the goals outlined in the District Improvement Plan the School Committee adopted earlier this year.

 

Later in Thursday's monthly meeting, interim Superintendent Joseph Bergeron talked about the broader approach the district is taking to the problem.

 

"Every school year, principals' offices, guidance offices, reach out to students' families when students are absent and encourage them to get into school," Bergeron said. "That said, this year, we're taking more of an approach of data collection around why a student is absent — trying to get to those root causes a little bit more aggressively and trying to work on a district-wide basis, on a team basis, understanding what works to get students back in school.

 

"When I say 'district-wide perspective,' I just mean we're trying to work as a team across the district to understand, 'This worked for this student. This worked for that student. Here's what we're seeing here. Are you seeing the same thing? What worked? What didn't work?' Ultimately, the data that we hope to share at the end of this school year and the end of the next school year is the declining number within each specific group of students. As well as, I'll be able to share data as to why students are absent."

 

All seven School Committee members were present for its November meeting, which coming on the heels of election day earlier in the month, was the time the committee decides on its new slate of officers.

 

Julia Bowen of Williamstown was unanimously elected to chair the panel, and outgoing chair Christina Conry of Lanesborough moved to the vice chair role. Steven Miller again was elected the secretary of the committee.

 

Several members thanked Conry for her service as the head of the committee, a period that, as Carolyn Greene noted, included the COVID-19 pandemic and the departures of two different superintendents.

 

Coincidental with her stepping down from the post, Conry last Thursday was awarded the Massachusetts Association of School Committee's Division 6 All-State School Committee Award.

 

"During the years I've had the pleasure and honor of working with Christina as the chair of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee, during some pretty stressful times, she really was always the epitome of calm and thoughtfulness," said MASC Field Director Liz Lafond, who joined the virtual meeting via Zoom.

 

In addition to reorganizing the committee and reviewing progress on DIP, the School Committee Thursday approved Bergeron's goals for the coming year, heard that the lines are painted on the school's new track, which will be ready to host meets this spring and reviewed its timeline for fiscal year 2026 budget work that begins in earnest for the committee in December.

 

The committee also authorized an $18,000 expenditure from the Williamstown Elementary School building renewal fund to purchase floor maintenance machines.

 

"Over the course of working on how to best improve, maintain and plan for new flooring eventually … we came to the realization that Williamstown Elementary School has not had the same floor cleaning/maintenance equipment the other two schools have had," Bergeron told the panel.

 

The allocation approved on Thursday will allow the district to purchase a floor polisher/buffer for WES' hard floors and a commercial carpet cleaner for carpeted areas of classrooms.

 

The money will come from the proceeds of a capital gift from Williams College to the then-new Williamstown Elementary School when it opened in 2002. The original $1 million gift resides in the college's endowment, where its value has appreciated over time. Despite being used several times to address "big ticket" items at the school, the gift's value currently stands at about $1.7 million, Bergeron told the committee on Thursday.

 

A $5 million gift to the Mount Greylock Regional School District at the outset of the addition/renovation project at the middle/high school has been spent down, with its final balance going toward the field and track project.