Chelsea’s schools ended last year with 89 percent of students in their seats on an average day. The goal is 95. That gap, and what sits behind it, was the center of the school administration’s update to the School Committee this week on the indicators the district uses to track its strategic plan: attendance, dropouts, and who is taking college-level courses and how they are doing.
Attendance
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Tamara Blake-Canty gave the number plainly: “Our daily attendance ending in June, year to date, we are at 89 percent at the district level.” It is the highest figure since the 2020-21 school year, when attendance was 90.8 percent, and it is well short of the 95 percent target. Six points of daily attendance in a district of several thousand students is hundreds of empty seats every day.
The district did not offer a single cause, and there is not one. Chronic absenteeism rose everywhere after the pandemic and has been slow to fall. In Chelsea it also carries the weight of this year’s enrollment shock: the district lost about 350 students as federal immigration enforcement pushed families out of the city. Every absent student also costs the district state aid, which is calculated per pupil.
Who is leaving and who is arriving
The mobility numbers explain part of the attendance picture. Over the year, 479 students entered the district and 367 left, a net gain of 112. That churn means teachers are constantly absorbing new students, many of them new to the country and to English, while losing others mid-year. The high school dropout figure was about 5 percent: 87 students out of a starting enrollment of 1,683.
The shift from AP to early college
The most striking trend in the report was in advanced coursework. Advanced Placement enrollment started the year at 442 students and ended at 427. Calculus started at 115 and ended at 110. Early college courses, which give high school students actual college credit through partnerships with area colleges, started at 264 students and ended at 343, growing during the year rather than shrinking.
“More students are taking early college courses instead of AP and calculus,” Blake-Canty said. That is a choice the district has encouraged. Early college credit transfers directly; an AP score transfers only if it clears the college’s threshold. For students who will be the first in their families to attend college and who may enroll at a state university or community college, a transcript with real credits is worth more than an exam score.
On the exams themselves, Chelsea students took 719 AP tests, and 39 percent scored a 3 or higher, the level most colleges accept. “39 percent, while it sounds low, is actually meeting average and maybe slightly above average for our state,” Blake-Canty told the committee. The district’s argument is that the students taking the exams include many who would not have been in the room a decade ago.
The budget behind the numbers
All of this sits on top of a school budget of $156.2 million for the year, a 3.55 percent increase, inside a city budget of $272.4 million. The city added $4 million in support for the schools this year and drew $4.5 million from reserves to balance the budget. Even so, the district planned cuts to dozens of teaching and support positions this spring because of the enrollment drop. District 8 Councillor Calvin Brown’s warning at the June budget vote was aimed at years to come: “We really have to start tightening up our belt here in Chelsea.”
Superintendent Dr. Almi Abeyta and committee members Dr. Sarah Neville and Jake Small took part in the discussion. The committee will get the next round of indicators, including state assessment results, later in the fall.
Elsewhere in the schools
The Chelsea Opportunity Academy, the district’s alternative high school for students who are older, short on credits, learning English or working, was one of three programs that won Chelsea its 2026 All-America City award; the city told the National Civic League it has served 527 students. The Charter Review Committee takes up the School Committee article of the city charter in October, with public input due October 21. And Chelsea High’s auditorium at 299 Everett Avenue hosts the city’s 35-years-since-receivership panel on Wednesday, September 16 at 6 p.m.