At its Feb. 10 meeting, the Gardner School Committee recognized the district MTSS/PBIS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports / Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) team and heard a presentation on five years of district work that officials say reduced chronic absenteeism and suspensions across Gardner Public Schools.

Amber Caspant, director of MTSS programming, told the committee the district was one of two Massachusetts districts with gold status in the Northeast PBIS district recognition program and one of five in New England to receive the honor. Caspant said the district has seen a 28% decrease in overall chronic absenteeism and large subgroup improvements: 23% for students with disabilities, 24% for multilingual learners, 30% for Latinx students and 56% for Black/African American students.

"We have decreased chronic absenteeism rate as a district by 28%," Caspant said. "We have also been able to reduce in‑school suspensions by 83% and out‑of‑school suspensions by 36% from the fall of last year to the spring of last year." She added the district reduced use of time‑out/calm‑down rooms by about 75% over three years and reduced elementary school restraints by 9% year over year.

Why it matters: district leaders told the committee those changes reflect combined work on Tier 1 instruction, school‑wide expectations, family engagement and PBIS systems rather than single short‑term interventions. Superintendent Dr. Pellegrino and several committee members credited building‑level teams and staff training for the progress and noted the district has been asked to present its work at state, national and international conferences.

Committee members praised the outcome data and the recognition. One committee member, identified in the meeting transcript as Mr. Fritz, said he was "outstanding" with the progress and noted the district's invitations to present their work. Dr. Pellegrino said the district's MTSS and PBIS work has become a consistent part of how Gardner schools operate.

The update was an informational item; no formal vote or policy change was taken during the MTSS/PBIS presentation. The committee later listed the MTSS/PBIS update among the reports included in the meeting packet.

Ending note: Caspant and district staff described continued work on fidelity of implementation and family engagement as the next steps to build on the reported declines in absenteeism and disciplinary referrals.