Highbridge Hill Elementary School is no longer designated as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement School, or CSI, a state designation identifying the lowest-performing 5% of elementary and middle schools in the state.

The state identifies CSI schools every three years, based on performance in the New Hampshire State Assessment test. In November 2023, Highbridge Hill was one of 19 schools in the state that received the designation. The school improvement plan will continue to be implemented over the next two years until the next assessment, but Highbridge Hill exceeded the state’s threshold to be considered a school “in good standing” based on testing in the spring of 2024.

Elizabeth Pogorzelski, superintendent of the Mascenic School District, said she was proud of the work the district had done in the past year for Highbridge Hill to become a school in good standing and exit CSI status in a year.

“This positive change is due to the hard work of the students, staff, and administration at HHES. School staff worked to develop and implement an improvement plan and student scores exceeded the state’s threshold in the spring of 2024,” Pogorzelski said. “The removal of this designation does not mean the work is done; HHES will continue to implement the school improvement plan and will continue to receive state funding over the next two years.”

CSI schools receive additional support from the state to help create a plan for improvement. Pogorzelski said for Highbridge, those steps included a school improvement plan approved by the Department of Education and more than $70,000 in funding to work toward goals in the plan.

Pogorzelski said the plan included greater communication with families, creating an ideal testing environment before assessment tests, hiring a reading and writing teacher to assist with the intervention of struggling students and providing extra resources for parents to help their children at home, including additional workbooks and suggestions of things to do to understand the contents.

The team at Highbridge Hill has also made some changes in how they collaborate, Pogorzelski said, including increasing peer observation and meeting structures to include more information on the best practices in education.

In addition, Pogorzelski said, some of the practices have extended into Boynton Middle School. While it’s important to address the issue at Highbridge Hill Elementary, the cohort who performed poorly on the state assessment has already moved on to middle school, and Pogorzelski said the district wants to ensure that those students also received support.

“This quick turnaround is a very big win for Highbridge Hill, our district, and our larger community,” Pogorzelski said. 

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.