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District sees gains in attendance and ninth‑grade on‑track; grants funding braided across programs
Summary
Staff presented the district’s integrated grants annual report, highlighting a rise in overall attendance, a ninth‑grade on‑track rate of 82% for 2023–24, gap‑closure gains in high school and targeted literacy interventions funded by multiple grants.
Newberg‑Dundee staff presented the district’s integrated grants annual report Sept. 9, detailing how multiple state and local funding streams support counseling, literacy specialists, credit recovery, career‑technical education and other student services.
The report matters because the district uses braided grants — including the Student Investment Account (SIA), the High School Success Grant, Early Indicator and Intervention Systems funding and the Early Literacy Grant — to pay for staff and interventions that district leaders say have produced measurable gains in attendance, ninth‑grade on‑track and targeted literacy gap closure.
Presenting staff member Jillian summarized a five‑year snapshot of outcomes and targets. She said the district’s ninth‑grade on‑track metric for the 2023–24 school year was 82 percent. Jillian highlighted a reported double‑digit improvement in gap closure for high school indicators and a 6‑point gap closure for third‑grade English language arts among students who had been furthest from proficiency. Regular attendance rose about 4 percent across all students, and gap closure on attendance improved roughly 3 percent for groups with historically lower attendance.
Jillian described how grant funds are used: SIA dollars support school counselors, special education supports, English learner services and literacy staffing; High School Success funds credit recovery, dropout prevention and CTE pathways; Early Literacy Grant dollars support reading specialists and high‑dosage tutoring. She and board members discussed the practical effect of “braiding” multiple funds to pay recurring staff costs and the risk that cuts to any one fund would reduce district capacity.
Board members asked for more transparency on how specific positions’ FTE are split across funding streams. Jillian and other staff said some reading specialist positions were originally funded from SIA and later allocated partially to Early Literacy and Title I, producing line‑item complexity. Staff committed to providing a clearer FTE‑by‑fund breakdown at budget season.
Jillian said the district will seek board approval of the annual report at the next meeting but did not request immediate action. Directors praised community donations — notably the Austin Family Foundation — and asked staff to continue aligning grants, curriculum and assessments.
