May 1, 2020

Dear Perry K-8 School Community:

I am pleased to announce that I am appointing Mr. Michael Macchi as the principal of the Perry K-8 School effective July 1, 2020. Mr. Macchi’s appointment is the culmination of a rigorous screening process with participation by members of the Perry community, including several staff members, parents and guardians.

Since the summer of 2018, Mr. Macchi has held an administrative position in his role as a Principal Fellow and Assistant Principal. It is evident that the collaborative work Mr. Macchi has led and the deep relationships he has cultivated during this time will continue to have a positive impact on student learning and will serve the entire Perry community well under his leadership.

A lifelong learner, Mr. Macchi is an alumnus of the Lynch Leadership Academy, University of Massachusetts Boston and Boston University.  Prior to his arrival at the Perry School, Mr. Macchi was a third grade teacher in the Boston Public Schools from 2013-2018 at the Phineas Bates Elementary. Mr. Macchi is a talented instructional leader, who is guided by his four core values: inclusion, collaboration, communication and relationships. Over the course of the last two years, he has established strong relationships with students, families and community partners, communicated with families to design ways to expand family engagement, and collaborated with students and teachers to design rigorous, student-focused and standards-aligned learning opportunities that are inclusive of all students in the Perry School community.

Please join me in welcoming Mr. Macchi as he assumes this position of leadership at the Perry K-8 School. I also want to thank Principal Geoff Rose for his six years of unwavering dedication to the Perry community, and his commitment to ensuring a smooth and successful leadership transition. With the full support of all of us at the Boston Public Schools, I am confident he will continue to advance the great work of the Perry School on behalf of our students.

Sincerely,

Dr. Brenda Cassellius
Superintendent

Please see information sent from Interim Superintendent Laura Perille about Boston Public Schools' School Quality Frameworks (SQF):

• Boston Public Schools will continue to use the School Quality Framework (SQF) for the purposes of school choice and student assignment for the upcoming school choice season. Data from 2016-17 and 2017-18 were used to calculate metrics and new tiers.
• Most schools received a school quality tier under the new framework. However, there are some schools—such as early education centers as well as special education and alternative schools—that are not given a score because they do not have students who take standardized tests or they are specialized schools.
• Updated SQF tiers and Quality Scores will be available to families on Discover BPS and in Welcome Centers beginning on November 17, 2018.
• For more information on the School Quality Framework please visit: www.bostonpublicschools.org/schoolquality

• Perry School Structure Update: As we continue to work hard to educate all of our students, we are also planning for the 2020-21 school year.  Here are some updates:
  • Next school year, we will begin the transition to our K-6 school structure so we will not have a 7th grade Homeroom.  As a result, all of our Grade 6 families will be participating in the School Choice Process beginning this week.
  • Our current 7th grade students will remain at the Perry for 2020-21 and will be the final cohort of students to “move on” to high school.
  • For the 2020-21 school year, we will also be starting a new K0/K1 early childhood special education homeroom.  This homeroom will have up to 9 students with disabilities (3 and 4 year olds) and will have one teacher and one paraprofessional

Parent Climate Surveys - Through June 14th: We know there continues to be various surveys we are asking families to complete. This info helps inform our next steps so please complete and help us to achieve our goal of having over 75% families complete this survey! The survey should take between 10-15 minutes

https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/climatesurvey

Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Focus: Gratitude & Appreciation: Over the next three weeks, we will continue to integrate Boston Public Schools’ SEL (Social-emotional learning) standards into our lessons and tasks! 
o    Social Relations (SR 2.1): Demonstrate an understanding of the thoughts, feelings, behavior and perspectives of oneself and others.
o    Expectation #1: We use respectful words and actions.

The Perry School was awarded the "Good to Great" grant by the Boston Schools Fund Board which will provide our school community with up to $250,000 over the next few years!

The Perry received a $20,000 award for being a finalist for the Edvestors School on the Move prize!

We will continue to work hard to ensure that we achieve our school vision which states:
“The Perry K-8 School is a community working together to prepare our students for successful futures. We develop strong relationships with families and students to provide the best education for every child, every day. Our focus is to academically and socially advance our students through innovative experiences designed to positively promote the learning of the whole child.”

The new system has four categories for ranking schools and districts, which are:
- Meeting Targets. This is the designation for 23 BPS schools.
- Partially Meeting Targets. This is the designation for 29 BPS schools.
- Needing Focused/Targeted Support (requiring intervention.) This is the designation for 41 BPS schools.
- Requiring Broad/Comprehensive Support (requiring intervention). This is the designation for nine BPS schools.