For their annual review, tri-town school committee members gave Superintendent Doug White mostly high praise.

A summary of comments from the committees was reviewed at Thursday's Joint School Committee meeting.

The committees evaluated goals set by White in September, finding him in at least the top 94 percent of the scoring scale – having made "significant progress," "met" or "exceeded" each goal.

In leadership, White's goal was to "increase the number of teacher leaders in all schools...by 50 percent." The schools have had a lack of leadership in each grade, and peer to peer leadership has been a focus.

In their comments, which were anonymous, committee members praised the effort. One from the Rochester School Committee said teacher leaders went from zero to six.

"This is a work in progress and support continued growth in this area (sic)," wrote another member.

Regarding White's social emotional goal to support all students' social emotional health, he received a 100 percent score in the top three categories.

"I believe that Doug has gone above and beyond in his work to realize these goals," said an Old Rochester Regional School Committee member.

White's goals to increase one-on-one technology in classrooms was also praised. One Rochester School Committee member noted that Rochester Memorial School had no Chromebooks last school year but now has 225.

White also scored highly in a number of standards, including instruction in which he mostly received proficient ratings. Some commenters in Marion did say that there could be more consistency in implementing standards.

A commenter in Rochester said White has been proficient in this area, and the next step is to continue moving forward by including teachers in walkthroughs at their own schools and in other schools.

From ORR, one member said, "I still think there is work to be done on engaging the full spectrum of learners. I am not convinced that ALL students are being challenged."

The superintendent also received mostly proficient ratings in the family and community engagement category with commenters saying they saw more administrative staff interact with the schools, while also noting a need to see more outreach to the community.

After the review, the Joint School Committee members discussed the possibility of switching from yearly to biannual evaluations since White has a relatively short period of time to accomplish his goals.

The problem, however, is that his compensation is tied to the annual evaluations. The committee members decided to continue the discussion in September, which is their next scheduled meeting.