Piedmont principals outline school improvement plans, set targets for OSTP and ACT

Principals from Piedmont schools presented school improvement plans and year-by-year goals during the board’s regular meeting, focusing on OSTP performance, ACT targets and building-level strategies to accelerate student growth.

The districtwide presentation began with an overview from Mr. Melton and Mrs. Campbell summarizing 2024–25 OSTP results and district changes in curriculum, then moved into site-level goals and action plans from each building principal. The presentations noted gains in multiple grade bands and outlined targeted interventions the district will use this year.

Why it matters: Piedmont leaders said the combination of new curriculum, coordinated professional learning communities (PLCs), targeted intervention blocks and additional counseling has produced measurable gains and sets a roadmap for further improvement on state tests and the ACT.

Districtwide context and priorities The district credited recent curriculum adoptions and emphasis on math fluency, small-group instruction and “flex” grouping for some of the gains shown on 2024–25 OSTP scores. Administrators said the district is comparing this year to 2022–23 results because 2023–24 scores were “skewed” and inflated.

Principals described common tools and programs they will use this year: PLCs and RTI processes for teacher collaboration, targeted grade-level action plans based on a district literacy continuum, progress monitoring at regular data meetings, and additional “reading success” and “math success” classes at the secondary level. The district also uses commercial platforms named during presentations: Istation, Amira (a screening/assessment tool), Reflex Math, ALEKS, and classroom common formative assessments (CFAs).

Elementary goals and tactics Jenny Jewell, principal at the Early Childhood Center, said last year’s kindergarten goal—80% of kindergarten students accurately articulating 21 consonant sounds—was exceeded (86.1%) and the ECC will raise its kindergarten target to 90%. She described monthly progress monitoring and weekly TCM (team check-in) meetings to track consonant-sound mastery.

Brandy Skakowski, principal at Northwood Elementary, said the school met a goal to increase ability-index scores on a screening tool and nearly met a mastery goal in math fluency. Northwood’s 2025–26 targets include an 8% increase in third- and fourth-grade proficiency and a continued emphasis on foundational kindergarten and first-grade skills.

Tyler Bodell, principal at Piedmont Elementary, described grade-level ownership of goals and an emphasis on vocabulary and number sense. He said the school will require second-grade students to master addition and subtraction facts through 10 (measured by Reflex) and set other grade-specific literacy and numeracy benchmarks.

Stoneridge Elementary (Cara King) and other elementaries described similar, grade-specific goals tied to the district literacy continuum and reflex-based math fluency, and all said they will use small-group instruction, frequent progress monitoring and inter-teacher student sharing to move children along the continuum.

Intermediate and middle school strategies Jennifer Warner, principal at the Intermediate School, reported a 34% reduction in suspensions from the prior year (from 78 to 51) and credited the addition of two counselors, a districtwide discipline matrix, and team-based relationship-building work for the decline. Her SMART goals for 2025–26 focus on raising the percentage of fifth- and sixth-graders scoring proficient or advanced in ELA, math and science, with CFAs guiding instruction.

Erin Pruitt, principal at the middle school, said the building made “growth” after years of stagnation by using reading success classes, a scheduled intervention block called pause time, and growing teacher collaboration. The middle school will add a trial math-success class and keep using targeted intervention tools.

High school targets and instructional changes Scott Farley, principal at Piedmont High School, said the high school fell short of its ACT target of 20 last year (composite ~19.4) but has implemented several strategies to close the gap. Farley described differentiated bell-ringer practice and tiered instructional tasks based on preACT scores, required “bell-ringer” activities for eleventh-grade teachers, and a sequence of spring boot camps targeted at math, science and reading in the weeks before the state ACT administration.

Farley also outlined a tighter assessment cadence in high school classrooms: breaking units into smaller “chunks,” giving short formative quizzes, correcting gaps immediately and reducing the number of students who need later intervention. He said algebra, English I and history teams are already using the smaller-assessment approach.

Board and superintendent remarks Board members and district leaders praised principals’ work. One board member called the meeting packet and scorecard “the best packet I’ve ever seen” over his 16–17 years on the board. The superintendent thanked principals for implementing PLC, RTI and “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” training and reported enrollment growth (see separate article).

Ending: Next steps and monitoring Principals said each grade-level team created its own SMART goals and associated action plans during early-year data reviews. They will monitor progress through weekly or biweekly data meetings (TCMs), CFAs, and district screening tools, and return regular updates to the board through progress reports and future agenda presentations.