Gloucester School Committee Adopts New Graduation Standard to Replace MCAS Requirement

GLOUCESTER — February 12, 2025 — Gloucester School Committee adopts post-MCAS graduation competency standard and hears plan to overhaul special education delivery. The committee voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the Gloucester Public Schools competency determination, replacing the MCAS passage requirement with passing grades in designated courses — ninth and 10th grade ELA, Algebra and Geometry, and one of four science offerings — following the 2024 Massachusetts ballot referendum that ended MCAS as a graduation requirement. Dr. Michael Jarvis, the district's Director of Special Education, presented a seven-and-a-half-month audit recommending a shift away from pulling students out of general education classrooms toward a co-teaching inclusion model, which he described as budget-neutral for year one at the elementary level; he flagged a potential cost in adding special education reading specialists at three schools to deliver structured literacy programs at full fidelity, currently capped at 30-minute sessions. The committee also approved three grants, including a $275,996 Massachusetts CEC Climate Critical ARPA grant and a $14,890 Gloucester Education Foundation mural grant for O'Malley School. Three Union of Gloucester Educators members, including Life Skills teacher Sean Lilly, told the committee that departures of special education staff are accelerating and that the district has failed to honor retroactive pay promises made to retired educators — a "$90,000 bill to a labor-relations firm," Lilly said, that educators will be paying for years.