Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti presented an overview of the Next Generation Accountability Report to the Board of Education during its Tuesday, December 3 meeting.

The Next Generation Accountability Report is a series of indicators that takes a more holistic view of a district’s performance in a given year, and a natural extension of Uberti’s previous performance report. Uberti said that part of the thinking behind the report was to not pigeonhole viewing the district exclusively based on one indicator, in this case being achievement.

The report covered a variety of indicators throughout the district’s school: academic achievement, academic growth, participation rate, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, performance on college and career readiness exams, four-year and six-year graduation rates, post-secondary entrance, physical fitness, and participation in the arts.

Uberti told BOE members that these topics are “probably starting to feel familiar” since many of them have been discussed at length throughout the district development presentation series. Those presentations highlighted the work being done in Newtown Public Schools to support the district’s Strategic Plan, with the last of these delivered to the BOE in its November 19 meeting.

As part of that series, each principal in the district delivered their school’s Strategic Plan and highlighted their goals moving forward. Uberti said some of their desired outcomes were based on indicators from the Accountability Report, as some indicators were released before the report was fully completed.

Uberti said that the district’s performance compared to last year is ultimately “very steady.” The district continues to perform at a consistently high level, showing gradual improvement over the past three years according to Uberti.

The biggest gains they saw in performance came from K-8 math. Uberti said that last year the district was in year three of the new K-5 math curriculum “Bridges” and year 2 of the new 6-8 math curriculum "Into Math," and that it seems to be working very well.

“When we were in the classrooms, we kept saying there’s no way this can’t make a difference,” Uberti continued. “The quality of instruction compared to what was occurring before is a notable difference.”

Uberti said that a lot of the improvements can be attributed to student engagement and student independence, and that teachers are frequently noting how much their students love being engaged with math. She also said that they were in year two of the new 6-8 math curriculum last year, and that they are still “working out some kinks” with its implementation.

She added they need to keep bolstering teachers’ instructional practices, particularly for students in grades six through eight. Uberti said students in those grades have seen a drop-off in scores over the years, as that is when math becomes more challenging and conceptual.

There was also a marginal decrease in English Language Arts (ELA), which Uberti said “was not surprising” given the shift of reading instruction currently underway.

She said that they were in year one of the new K-5 language arts curriculum last year, and they were also piloting two new 6-8 language arts curriculums last year.

Uberti continued by saying that, going back around seven or eight years ago, the district’s performance for math and language arts has since flipped.

“We were traditionally much stronger in language arts and lagged behind in math,” Uberti explained. So I think it’s harder to improve in math, and the fact that we’re improving in math really tells me that we can improve in language arts. I look forward to seeing those results happen.”

As far as other action steps, Uberti said that they want to build consistent practices to better analyze what is working throughout the district, and to work with administrators to link their strategic school plans and action steps to specific indicators noted in the report.

Reports

Uberti delivered a facility update for her Superintendent’s Report. She said that Facilities Director John Barlow attended the December 2 Board of Selectmen meeting to discuss the BOE’s emergency request for an appropriation to repair a specific part of Newtown High School’s roof.

As discussed at the November 19 BOE meeting, Barlow recently went up onto the high school’s roof and discovered a 180-foot long spidery rip in the roof over the auditorium. After Barlow got several vendors to investigate, they all told him that the roof “will not make it through the winter.”

The BOE planned a comprehensive roof replacement for the high school’s A,B, and C wing, which includes the auditorium roof, in the 2026 CIP plan. The total CIP request for that project was $4.3 million according to Uberti. However, due to the urgent need to fix the auditorium portion of the roof, Uberti said they are requesting the funds to repair the auditorium roof over Christmas break.

Uberti said that she will now follow up with a formal letter relaying all of this information to First Selectman Jeff Capeci. She added the letter will clarify they are proposing to remove the $600,000 emergency appropriation request from the original 2026 CIP request. This will reduce the total roofing request to $3.7 million.

Uberti also brought up the BOE’s proposal to reallocate the previously approved HVAC funds for Newtown Middle School in the 2024 CIP. The funds totaled $450,00, and were originally allocated for engineering, specifications, and construction management for the school’s air conditioning system. The BOE had unanimously voted to approve the reallocation of those funds during its November 19 meeting.

However, Uberti now shared that they cannot switch what that money is for because the allocation was voted on and bonded. She did say that there is “a path to making the change” and that it begins with writing a letter.

Uberti said that she will also put in writing a formal request that those funds instead be used for conducting an electrical load study to “determine whether or not the current electrical system can support portable air conditioners.” She added they assume additional work will need to be done once they finish the electrical study, and that it will be included in those aforementioned funds.

Uberti said that they will purchase the portable air conditioning units with any remaining funds they have. Once that gets brought forward, Uberti said that it would need to be approved by both the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council.

“They are consulting with their legal [counsel] to make sure that we follow the appropriate steps, and that there’s clarity and transparency about what we’re requesting to do with the funds,” Uberti said.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.