SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday approved School Improvement Plans for each of the district’s three school buildings crafted by building principals and modeled on the District Improvement Plan committee members approved earlier this year.

Each plan was approved unanimously by committee members, after hearing from the principals at each school building — Veterans Early Learning Center Principal Mike Mondello, Interim Belmonte STEAM Academy Principal Maureen Lueke, Saugus Middle-High School Associate Principal Myra Monto, and SMHS Principal Brendon Sullivan. The plans each sought to explain how the schools would work toward the overarching targets of growth, belonging, and learning set out in the District Improvement Plan.

A key thread across all three schools was a greater emphasis on communication, with each principal addressing present efforts to get in touch with students and families, and how they plan to continue to bolster those efforts. Committee members have repeatedly praised Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem for the work he has done in that area.

Mondello, whose school serves the district’s youngest students, spoke first, telling the committee a lot of the focus in the growth area was on supporting teacher capacity and deepening work already underway as teachers work to embrace new curriculum in its second year of implementation. The school has partnered with the HILL for Literacy this year, a nonprofit that Mondello said works with schools to enhance language and literacy.

“That part of the growth and development really supports the ‘why’ behind the work we’ve been doing, really focusing on the science of reading,” he said, noting that the school has a robust professional-development schedule in place for teachers.

Mondello also spoke about the ongoing effort to create an understanding of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, to ensure students have a safe learning environment. In the second year of implementation, the school is now focused on embedding students into the work.

As the school works to build the “foundation of Saugus,” Mondello said additional emphasis has been placed on creating a sense of belonging for students and families.

“We really have the opportunity to set the tone for their educational experience,” he said.

Addressing the third area — learning — Mondello spoke about creating both a teaching lane and a learning lane, where the focus is on effective implementation of high-quality instructional materials in the classroom and offering robust assessments for students.

The committee next heard from Lueke, who spoke about the ways in which the school is embracing the possibilities of STEAM education to provide opportunities for each student to succeed.

“With the STEAM Academy, the vision of that is, we’re committed to developing students for the 21st century and having an innovative learning environment,” she said. “That involves helping kids understand how to collaborate, how to have critical thinking skills, and really learning to become lifelong learners and enjoying their educational experiences and keeping it positive so that they will continue on as they grow and develop through all their stages of education.”

STEAM education is an “equalizer,” Lueke said, teaching students how to learn in different ways and use hands-on education.

Lueke also praised the work of the school’s instructional coaches, who have worked with teachers on the implementation of new English language arts and math curriculum.

“We’re all kind of growing together,” she said of the school’s staff and families.

Sullivan and Monto were last to speak, addressing not just the three areas set out in the District Improvement Plan, but also an operational goal of continuing to work to figure out how to combine two schools into one. Prior to the construction of the new complex, Saugus Middle School and Saugus High School were housed in separate buildings.

They also praised the work of the instructional coaches, who are supporting staff as they continue to transition to new curriculum.

“Our instructional coaches are really working directly with those staff to a great extent,” Sullivan said, noting that the focus is primarily on middle-school English and math — where students well underperformed the state average on MCAS testing.

Sullivan said the school is working on curriculum alignment in its Early College program to ensure the material students are learning at the high-school level matches what will be expected of them in college.

In addressing social-emotional learning, Monto pointed specifically to the ongoing implementation of PBIS techniques and said those efforts “eliminate any guesswork” and ensure “everyone is speaking the same language.”

Both principals were frank in speaking about the challenges of managing a building of the size and complexity of the Middle-High School, which hosts more than 1,000 students across grades six through 12.

“We’ve really been learning and creating the school, the everyday school culture,” Sullivan said. “There’s been some missteps at times. But we have really focused on taking what worked from the previous two buildings… and applying it here, and then creating new protocols, new procedures, new traditions that are really going to define Saugus Middle-High School.”

“We are really doubling down and focusing in on ‘How do we have smooth daily operations at the complex?’” he added.

School Committee Vice Chair Tom Whittredge acknowledged the work Sullivan and Monto have done at the school, but asked what is holding the school back from improvement, citing frustration from parents.

Sullivan pointed specifically to the district-wide layoffs enacted in 2022 that left the complex without 19 staff members, and the challenges of learning how to offer education in the middle of a pandemic while also navigating the new building.

“We did the right thing as a community, building that school to give all of our secondary students that opportunity. But there are age-level differences,” he said, explaining that school officials are working to create more distinct environments in both the middle and high school.

Committee member Stephanie Mastrocola, whose son attended middle school at the complex, voiced frustration with the school’s communication.

“It was tough,” she said. “I didn’t get responses that I needed to get.”

Sullivan said the school is working to be more conscious with its messaging, offering some communications solely for parents of middle-school students.

“We are very much trying to communicate with parents and caregivers much more frequently, but also much more targeted,” he said.