The Saugus Union School District reviewed the 2026 Local Control Accountability Plan Connectedness Survey during its May 19 governing board meeting.
The survey, which is an annual questionnaire distributed by the district to its students, families and staff, aims to measure school safety, emotional well-being, and evaluate the district’s LCAP goals.
According to the presentation given by Edwin T. Clement, the district’s assistant superintendent of education services, and Director of Education Services Carin Fractor, the 2026 survey saw an increase in participationamong employees by 20% from the original baseline of 2024. There was a 7% increase in survey participation from families as well.
Among students, the question that saw the largest increase from the 2024 baseline percentage was in relation to adults caring about students, and Fractor credited the increase to “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” and “really building that classroom community,” she said. “Our teachers have spoken so positively about how that’s impacted their classroom community. We’ve heard that from students, staff and families.”
Another increase the district saw was in the “peer respect” question, which was at 36% in 2024. It increased by 14%, according to the 2026 survey.
“That was an area that was really low for us, so while we did increase, obviously we had more work to do. This year we recently implemented that Character Strong curriculum, and we’ve seen a lot of benefits from that on peer respect,” Fractor said.
Students liking school was one of the categories that plateaued, Fractor said. In the recent survey, it stated that 65% of students liked school, which saw a 4% decrease from 2025.
“We dipped a little bit, but we’re right back where we were and so obviously, we want our students to enjoy coming to school, to love learning, to want to be here,” Fractor said, adding that district staff members are already working on seeking solutions.
Among the Saugus district staff responses, 96% of employees stated they liked working at their school, which was an increase over the 89% baseline of 2024.
“It takes a school community to come every day and support you through this work to inspire you, to be there for you on a hard day, to help you become a better staff no matter what role you play with our students,” Fractorsaid, and although there were increases across the board, including a 7% increase in relation to behaviors in class, “we’re not satisfied with that. We always want to dig deeper and keep moving,” she added.
Behavior in class was the lowest historically in 2024 and continues to be the lowest among the employee responses, but it did see a 7% increase in the 2026 survey.
“We’re trending in the right direction. There’s more supports put in place,” Fractor said, acknowledging that they may not be perfect but nonetheless there is slow improvement.
Clement noted that, in relation to student behavior, both surveys among students and employees had similar findings and were split down the middle.
He added that district personnel are visiting school sites to gain a better understanding of the challenges some teachers have been facing in the classroom throughout the school year but are still celebrating the progress they’ve made.
“I think that’s just indicated here something that we’re really still focused on, or we need to continue to focus on, obviously because 61% isn’t high enough,” Clement said. “We’re going to work on that.”
For the family survey responses, all favorable categories saw an increase, according to the presentation. Categories including feeling respected, students liking school, and school belonging did not see either an increase or decrease from the 2024 baseline.
In the unfavorable categories of the family survey, increases ranged from as high as 8% in the category of adults caring about students to as low as 2% in family engagement and feeling encouraged.
The draft of the Local Control and Accountability Plan is scheduled to be presented during the June 2 governing board meeting, when a public hearing will also be held to allow community members to provide feedback. The final review and formal adoption of the LCAP for the 2026–27 school year is scheduled to take place on June 30.
