Kingston Schools will adopt McGraw-Hill’s Wonders as their new K-5 English language arts curriculum this fall, paired with a foundational phonics program, capping a year-long overhaul of district materials that administrators credited for measurable gains in early reading. The School Committee received the news June 1 alongside an end-of-year data presentation showing students made steady progress in literacy and math across the year.
Assistant Superintendent Tricia Clifford told the committee that the district’s K-5 Curriculum Council had selected McGraw-Hill Wonders as the new ELA program, to be used alongside OG+, also called OG Classroom, a structured phonics program from Orton-Gillingham. The selections were the product of what Clifford described as a year-long review driven by teachers rather than administrators.
“It really was a choice by the Curriculum Council, by the teachers,” Clifford said, thanking the staff who took part in what she called a year-long endeavor to examine and select curriculum.
The new programs extend beyond the elementary grades. Clifford said the middle school will adopt a program called EL Education, and the preschool selected a curriculum called Open Up. The ELA and preschool purchases are partially funded through the district’s PRISM grant, money that must be spent by June 30. Clifford said the district is already arranging professional development for teachers in the coming weeks and is building an activity timeline mapping out training dates, locations and facilitators for the year ahead. She said she expected the new ELA program to “start running in September,” with preparation work continuing through June and July.
The curriculum changes build on a math program, HMH Into Math, that the district implemented this year across kindergarten through sixth grade. Brian DeSantes, the K-6 Curriculum Coordinator, who presented the year-end assessment data said the consistent rollout had paid off and credited school leaders with holding teachers to a single, shared plan. He said the district’s priority moving forward was “fidelity” with high-quality instructional materials so that all students have equal access to them.
The data presentation traced a year of gains. On early-literacy screening for students in kindergarten through grade three, which measures phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and decoding, Kingston students rose from 66 percent at the start of the year to 71 percent at midyear and 79 percent by spring. DeSantes noted that kindergarten through grade two scored in the low 80s, while third grade lagged at 72 percent. He attributed the third-grade gap to students who still need foundational fluency instruction and said several teachers will be trained over the summer in a phonics-intervention approach to close it. The district’s goal on that measure was 80 percent; the superintendent noted that all three district schools exceeded it.
On a separate reading-comprehension and vocabulary assessment for grades one through six, Kingston rose from 54 percent in the fall to 57 percent at midyear and 60 percent in the spring, a six-point year-over-year gain, with first grade finishing at 82 percent. Over three years, the same measure climbed from 53 to 55 to 60 percent. DeSantes said he hoped the figures would track close to the district’s most recent state MCAS reading result and acknowledged the scores are “not where we want to be totally” but “heading in the right direction.” He offered the same assessment of the new math program’s early trend line.
School Committee members welcomed a milestone tied to the district’s co-teaching model, which the elementary school has used for about five years. KES Principal Jake Galewski reported that, for the first time, a co-taught first-grade classroom finished the year with no students needing intensive intervention on early-literacy screening. Most students landed in the program’s two highest tiers, with three in the “yellow”, a result he attributed to co-teaching and to teachers’ classroom relationships.
Both schools presented their improvement plans for the coming year. The elementary plan centers on safety and operations, family engagement, and equity, access and inclusion. New initiatives include a Career Day to introduce students to local professions, an expansion of the school’s first SEL Night, and continued development of an outdoor classroom that parent volunteers have helped build. Galewski floated opening the garden to the community over the summer as an informal farmers market. He also described a new “sensory-friendly window” at evening events for neurodivergent students and their families, which debuted at the school’s art show.
The Kingston Intermediate School plan responded to a parent survey conducted in January and February that flagged communication, discipline, safety and facilities. Principal Kerri Whipple outlined continued use of the Raptor visitor-screening system, upcoming ALICE safety training with Kingston police, more organized arrival and dismissal procedures, and camera upgrades being coordinated with the district’s IT staff to close coverage gaps. The plan also calls for a monthly newsletter with teacher contributions, family math and literacy nights, a revamped schoolwide behavior system, and a revised master schedule that adds co-teachers for reading and special education at each grade level.
In other business, the committee finished the reorganization it had begun by electing Megan Cannon Chair at its previous meeting, electing Jesse Keith as Vice Chair and Sheila Vaughn as Secretary by voice vote and assigning members to subcommittees and liaison roles. The committee then voted to enter executive session to discuss strategy for negotiations with non-union personnel and for collective bargaining, and to approve prior executive session minutes, before returning to open session. Members noted that contract negotiations with the Kingston Teachers Association and the district’s support-staff union remain ongoing.
Superintendent Jill Proulx reported that Plympton and Halifax have both approved the Silver Lake Regional budget, along with their own school budgets, and said the district awaited the outcome of Kingston’s Town Meeting that weekend, which did subsequently approve the budget June 6. Vaughn, reporting from the Pilgrim Area Collaborative, said that body had approved its FY27 budget. The committee also briefly noted that the Silver Lake regionalization study group has not met as a full body recently and had no new updates, with members still gathering data across the district.