RUMFORD — Assistant Superintendent Matt Gilbert presented Monday data information and goals for the district’s chronic absenteeism students as well as for testing in math, literacy and science during the Regional School Unit 10 board of directors meeting.

In his overview, he said that all the district’s six schools have enlisted the Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) program, which helps educators learn more about how their students are doing academically, socially and emotionally, he said. The program also helps staff develop skills “to better serve our kids on that social-emotional (level),” Gilbert said.

Four of the district’s schools: Hartford-Sumner Elementary School in Sumner; Meroby Elementary School in Mexico; Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico; and Rumford Elementary School receive Title 1 federal funding.

The funds pay for staff “interventionists; the educational technicians who provide interventions for kids at the elementary level for those students who have fallen behind (and those) even up into the middle school level,” Gilbert said.

Matt Gilbert, Regional School Unit 10 assistant superintendent, presented Monday data information and goals for the district’s chronic absenteeism students as well as for testing in math, literacy and science during the RSU10 board of directors meeting in Rumford. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times

He also said that districtwide goals for this year include improving students’ Northwest Evaluation Test Scores, which they take every fall and spring, by 5% of their students scoring at or above average in mathematics and literacy. The goal means that 5% of students next year will be at or above grade level in both subjects, he said.

Another goal for the district is a decrease in chronic absenteeism, which is considered those students who miss 10% or more school days, or 18 days, for a typical student enrolled in the entire school year.

“We, at one point (in the past few years) had chronic absenteeism districtwide that was well over 40%. We’re knocking on the door of getting it below 30% and I’m pretty confident that next year we’ll be below 30%,” Gilbert said.

He also noted some improvements in the 2023-24 school year compared with the year before were that Hartford-Sumner Elementary School students’ chronic absenteeism rate went down to 21.7% of students from 35%, and Buckfield Junior-Senior High School students’ math achievement scores last year were “over 50% of kids on grade level,” and up by 3% from the previous year.

Gilbert also said that Mountain Valley Middle School students’ NWEA reading achievement scores went up by 6% of its students at or above average last spring compared with the prior year.

In other business, the RSU 10 board of directors chose current Chairman Greg Buccina of Rumford to continue as their board chair this year. They also chose Director Chad Culleton of Hartford as vice-chair during Monday’s meeting.