2009 Annual Report.pdf - Town of Milton

REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
AND
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
2008-2009
To the Honorable Board of Selectmen:
The Milton School Committee and the Milton Public Schools are honored
to submit our annual report for the period of July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. We
are pleased to report on many of our highly successful programs and continued
achievement of our students.
As in the past, Milton Public Schools have strived to adhere to its core values:
high academic achievement for all students; excellence in the classroom;
collaborative relationships and communication; respect for human differences;
risk taking and innovation for education.
The school year began under the new leadership team of Superintendent
Mary Gormley; and Assistant Superintendents John Phelan and Paul Hilton.
We were especially pleased to offer, for the first time, full day kindergarten in
all four of our elementary schools, for a total of 14 full day kindergarten classrooms.
MCAS scores at the elementary level remain strong, although a slight decrease
was experienced at the grade 4 level on both the English Language Arts
(ELA) and Math tests. At the Pierce Middle School, MCAS scores in ELA
showed improvement but the Math scores dipped slightly. High School MCAS
scores followed the same trend, showing improvement in ELA but a dip in overall
Math scores.
Many of our students earned local, state and national accolades during the
2008-2009 academic year. In September, Milton High School was named as
one of the Best Public High Schools by Boston Magazine. A combined team
of Future Problem Solvers from Collicot and Cunningham Elementary Schools
won the state competition and competed at the international competition in
Michigan. A Cunningham first-grader won a statewide essay contest sponsored
by Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill and the Massachusetts School
Building Authority. Our students also placed in the top categories for Continental
Math exams and the WordMaster exams. A Pierce seventh-grader competed
at the Regional Spelling Bee and placed fourth out of 25 finalists. Another
Pierce student placed in the top tier at the statewide Mythology Bee.
At the high school level, the number of student participation in the Advanced
Placement Program rose to 248, and the number of AP exams taken
rose to 496. Fifty students in the Classes of 2009 and 2010 earned the distinc-
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