By Mareesa Nicosia

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Growing numbers of "at-risk" students, the need for more teacher training and a push for parent engagement are a few of the key issues school officials will set out to address this year at Maple Avenue Middle School, as they work to meet changing federal standards and also cope with increasing enrollment in grades 6 through 8.

A task force of teachers, administrators and parents led by Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Michael Piccirillo has finished a four-month review process and presented recommendations to the Board of Education Thursday.

The task force was formed in September 2010 to examine how the middle school can be improved to foster student achievement. It met six times between October and January, and gathered and analyzed data collected from student test scores as well as student and parent responses to a survey.

Its top recommendations included taking steps to improve consistency across the four middle school houses — for example, the school’s more than 1,600 students should have similar homework loads; the creation of a mentoring program; an increased focus on students with emotional and behavioral needs, including hiring a new staff member to counsel them; and a push to engage parents in the education of their children. A steering committee will be created to execute these tasks.

The last time the school conducted a similar project was in 2001-2002, when federal standards through the No Child Left Behind Act were coming into play. Now, educators are responding to federal and state standards laid out in the Race to the Top program initiated under the Obama administration.

The four months spent examining data was just the beginning of the process, school officials said; changes could take up to two years to implement.

"These recommendations are really just the beginning of our work," Piccirillo said. "Now we have to roll up our sleeves and put them into action."

Board members said Thursday they appreciated the comprehensive data used to create the action plan, but had some concerns about what it all meant. Frank Palumbo suggested that the survey did not address sixth-grade needs specifically enough. "I love the data, but I’m concerned that we’re jumping to some conclusions with it," he said.

Also citing the survey, Charles Phillips said what jumped off the page for him was the seeming lack of parent engagement and/or their lack of satisfaction with their level of engagement with their children’s education.

"I will be keen on hearing about how we’re doing that better," when the task force next reports to the board, he said.

The recommendations will be shared in a faculty meeting today and the new steering committee plans to meet next Tuesday for the first time.