Chelsea Public Schools rose from the 44th to the 50th percentile on the state’s school accountability measure this year, and the state found the district is making “substantial progress toward targets,” Superintendent Almi Abeyta told the School Committee on October 1. The district as a whole does not require assistance or intervention. Its three middle schools and Chelsea High School still do.
“Despite everything happening around us, little but mighty Chelsea still had a 6% gain,” Abeyta said. “Do we have areas to grow in? Absolutely.”
School by school
The accountability percentile compares each school with every school in Massachusetts and counts both test scores and growth. Abeyta gave these figures:
- Hooks Elementary: 47th percentile, unchanged.
- Berkowitz Elementary: 45th, down slightly after three years of growth.
- Kelly Elementary: 19th, up 9 points.
- Sokolowski Elementary: 13th, up 1.
- Wright Middle: 8th. Brown Middle: 7th. Clark Avenue Middle: 2nd. All three unchanged, which Abeyta called “pretty stagnant.”
- Chelsea High School: 3rd.
The four elementary schools do not require assistance or intervention. Chelsea Opportunity Academy, the Chelsea Virtual Learning Academy and the Early Learning Center are not rated.
The district’s share of state improvement targets met rose from 46 to 52 percent. Math in grades 3 through 8 drove most of it: the average math scaled score rose 1.7 points, to 482, while math proficiency statewide was flat, and the lowest-performing group of students rose from 456 to 462. English was flat in Chelsea while the state dropped 2 points. In English, 32 percent of Hooks students met or exceeded expectations, 27 percent at Berkowitz and 26 percent at Wright. Abeyta said 47 percent of the district’s students are English learners, against roughly 19 percent statewide, and that the next step is to move “from pockets of growth to systemwide growth” in literacy.
Neville said the comparison with every other school in the state is “a love-hate relationship” for her.
114 teachers left last year
Of 644 teachers in 2025-26, 114 left the district, Human Resources Director Dr. Lee reported: 48 on their own, and 66 who retired or were let go, a number that includes last spring’s reductions in force. Nine teachers retired, against a usual one to three a year. One of 28 school administrators left, the lowest turnover in seven years. Six paraprofessionals became teachers and 13 substitutes became paraprofessionals. A member asked that retirements be listed separately from terminations, and that the district set a retention target. The district said it would send the committee a written comparison of retention with past years and with the state.
The district reported staff diversity of 29 percent for teachers, unchanged, 39 percent for school administrators and 44 percent for central office leaders. New hires this fall were 53 percent Hispanic, 27 percent white, 13 percent Black and 7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander.
Enrollment and other numbers
- Enrollment on October 1 was 5,446, about 300 below last year. That is 53 more than the 5,393 reported on September 3. The October count sets next year’s budget.
- September attendance was almost 91 percent, and 93 to 94 percent in pre-K through grade 8. Grade 5 led at 95 percent. Last year’s 89 percent was the highest in five years, Abeyta said.
- 96 eighth graders are taking Algebra 1, 14 more than last year. 346 students are in AP courses, 77 in calculus and 297 in early college. A member said calculus was down 38 and early college up 33.
- For the dropout indicator, the district counted 1,547 students as of October 1, of whom 32 have dropped out.
- Student mobility: 132 students in and 68 out.
A charter expansion and a $400,000 question
Katherine Anderson, president of the Chelsea Teachers Union and a special education teacher at the Brown, told the committee that Pioneer Charter School has applied to expand in Chelsea, Everett and Revere. In the “absolute worst case scenario,” she said, it could cost Chelsea’s schools $7 million if every seat opened. She also asked about a $400,000 transfer into the school psychologist line, which she said amounts to the whole budget for the district’s three psychologists.
The district’s finance staff said that transfer was part of a $2,769,500 correction, not a new spending plan: an automated import into the Munis accounting system this year left $2.7 million in salaries off their budget lines. The committee approved it 8-0.
Money approved, 8-0
- $477,288 in added state aid in the final FY2027 state budget, raising the school budget from $156,248,491 to $156,725,779. The district said it will be used to bring back tutors at the schools.
- $300,000 state earmark for the Chelsea High School music program: trips, auditorium seating, instruments and studio equipment.
- $150,000 state Intensive Assistance renewal grant and a $15,000 Innovation Career Pathways planning grant.
- 100 filled backpacks from the Jimmy Flynn Memorial Fund, 288 backpacks, folders and headphones from the Eliot Family Resource Center in Everett, $1,000 from Rockland Trust for the back-to-school event, and $657.68 in SNAP outreach reimbursement.
- An overnight trip October 22 and 23 to Nickerson State Park for 10 Chelsea Opportunity Academy students; homeschooling for four students in three families.
- An updated school library policy to match the state’s new Freedom to Read law. Neville said the only change limits who can challenge a library book to parents and guardians, students and staff; before, anyone could.
The committee also adopted its new public comment policy; that vote and the debate before it are in our first story.
Dates
Suggestions on the School Committee section of the city charter are due to the Charter Review Committee by October 21. A committee member will hold office hours in English and Spanish at the library on October 15, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Small announced that TEDxBellinghamSquare, Chelsea’s first TEDx event, will be held in March 2027, and speaker applications are open at tedxbellinghamsquare.com.