Board hears new district improvement plan priorities, HB3 goals and superintendent scorecard to track benchmarks

Dr. June Richland, executive director of educational leadership, presented the CASTLEBERRY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT's 2025'6 District Improvement Plan priorities and the district's recommended House Bill 3 (HB3) five-year goals for early literacy, numeracy and college, career and military readiness (CCMR).

The nut graf: staff combined academic priorities (content alignment, writing instruction, early literacy, math fluency and retester reduction) into a DIP tied to HB3 performance objectives, and the superintendent described a new scorecard district leaders will use to track nine-week benchmarks and prompt corrective action.

Richland outlined the DIP's instructional priorities: vertical alignment for eighth-grade social studies (grades 6'8), use of released items in formative assessments, protected elementary social-studies time and supporting teachers with pacing and PLCs; math acceleration and vertical alignment (including having seventh graders take eighth-grade math to expand Algebra I access); and a heavy emphasis on English I and II through full-day PLCs, coaching cycles and data walks.

A central focus was extended constructed responses (ECRs). Richland said the district will increase teacher capacity through prompt analysis, side-by-side coaching, calibration and a triple-blind ECR scoring process that includes teacher scoring plus AI for calibration: "We are building teacher capacity through prompt analysis, and we're breaking down the prompts with the students," she said. The plan also adds "cold reads" and writing-planning strategies for students, and embeds pacing for prompt analysis across grade-level guiding documents.

Retesters and credit-recovery policy were highlighted as operational priorities. The district set a short-term target to reduce retesters by 30% in every assessed area. Richland described a single central spreadsheet to track all retesters, PLC review time dedicated to intervention planning, and a target date of Oct. 1, 2025 to have the intervention model fully implemented campus-wide.

Early-literacy and math targets were presented with specific baselines and five-year goals. Examples presented to the board include: - Third-grade STAR reading: baseline 36% "meets" (2025); district goal 55% by June 2030 and interim 40% by end of the 2025'6 school year. - Pre-K reading (CIRCLE on-track): baseline 68% on-track; goal 82% by 2030 and 70% by end of 2026 school year. - Third-grade math: baseline 27% meets/mastered (2025); district goal 55% by 2030 and interim 34% by 2026.

Whitney Harper and Becky Putney outlined elementary literacy strategies (redesigned literacy block, Amira-aligned small-group instruction, writing mechanics in K'grade guiding documents, and daily progress monitoring). The district also highlighted a three-year "Facts on Fire" math-fluency grant that will implement daily campus-wide fluency practice.

Stephanie Martinez and Dr. Darla Barnes presented HB3 CCMR goals for high school: maintain a 98% CCMR completion target for 2025'6 and increase incremental targets to 2030, raise the share of graduates meeting college-ready benchmarks on SAT/ACT/TSI (current 12.5% to 20% by 2026 and higher by 2030), expand dual-credit participation (baseline 21% to 25% by 2026), and increase on-ramps/college-credit opportunities. Presenters also warned that some industry-based certifications will be sunset and may lower counted CCMR percentages in the short term; staff factored expected changes into the 2026 targets.

Superintendent Smith Faulkner introduced a superintendent scorecard that places the DIP performance objectives and HB3 targets into a nine-week, benchmark-driven monitoring tool. She explained how campus and district administrators will enter benchmark results (with red/yellow/green flags) and how the scorecard consolidates multiple performance objectives (e.g., third-grade meets, special education approaches, and percent zeros on extended responses) for quick review. Smith Faulkner said the scorecard will be updated after each nine-week progress-monitoring session and used to trigger interventions.

The board asked clarifying questions about ACE tutoring and whether tutors working outside ACE may still provide additional tutoring; staff replied that tutoring combinations exist and campuses are assigning staff expectations accordingly. There was no formal action on the DIP or HB3 recommendations at this meeting; the documents were presented for board review and will be considered for adoption at a future meeting.

Ending: staff said campus-level performance objectives and campus improvement plans will align to the DIP and feed into the scorecard; administrators will return with periodic nine-week progress reports.