The North Andover School Committee voted 5-0 Oct. 9 to accept school improvement plans for North Andover Middle School and North Andover High School after presentations by each building's principals.

The plans set measurable targets tied to state assessments and local progress measures, prioritize the districtwide implementation of high-quality instructional materials and call for expanded multi-tiered academic and social-emotional supports. School and district leaders said they will monitor interim data and may bring staffing or resource requests to the committee during the budget process.

Principal George Gonsalves told the committee the middle school’s top academic aim is a 3-percentage-point increase in students meeting or exceeding MCAS expectations in ELA, math, science and civics from 2025 to 2026. “We started with 5% and then I looked at the data over the last 10 years,” he said, characterizing 3% as “bold, but within range” given enrollment and historical variation. The plan also calls for a 2% bump on MAP measures for students scoring in the top bands from fall to winter.

Gonsalves said the middle school will continue use of the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum in math, adopt two units from the Investigating History (social studies) and two units from Arts and Letters (ELA) as part of a multi-year adoption, and continue to explore a science HQIM option. He described a literacy task force, increased morning meeting frequency for SEL, and progress monitoring protocols to identify students needing tier 2 and tier 3 supports. “Identify the what we have, identify the needs of our students, identify how we can provide supports with our current structures and resources, and then make recommendations for what we might need in staffing and resources,” Gonsalves said.

High-school Principal Deb Holman said the high school’s plan focuses on operational changes to improve student attendance and in-class focus, strengthened adult learning through extended professional-development days, and a redesign of the library into a learning commons. Holman said the library’s new librarian has raised circulation “already around 600 books” since the start of the year and that the school is pursuing makerspace funding from a state earmark for communications and media work.

Holman also described a department-level process to evaluate and pilot HQIM (for example, Odell Education in English and OpenSciEd in science) and to develop common midterm and final assessments. “Where HQIM exists, teacher teams will evaluate products and publishers with the intent to propose adoption to the district and to the school committee,” Holman said. She added the high school will draft the state-required competency determination and submit it for approval.

Committee members pressed administrators about how targets tie to subgroup and longitudinal data and how teams identify and serve students who arrive below grade level. Gonsalves said staff track cohorts across grades to see class-by-class trajectories and that the team model allows teachers to collaborate on individualized interventions. Holman said the high school provides targeted reading instruction for students on IEPs and continues to monitor growth with special-education staff and literacy specialists.

Both plans included language that any implementation requests with cost implications would be presented to the committee as staffing or resource recommendations. The committee accepted the middle-school plan by motion and vote (5-0) and accepted the high-school plan the same evening by separate motion and vote (5-0).

Committee members and administrators said they expect additional updates: a full MCAS data presentation is scheduled for Nov. 6; principals said they will return with staffing or resource recommendations as the year’s benchmarks and MAP windows produce clearer projections.

The accepted plans will guide curriculum work, professional development and the district’s budget priorities for FY27.