Board holds public hearing on state compensatory education: staff report $11.5M in targeted spending

At the Tallis Board of Trustees meeting, district staff presented the annual state compensatory education (state comp ed) program review and held the required public hearing. Dr. Groepel told trustees state comp ed funding provides supplemental resources aimed at reducing graduation gaps for economically disadvantaged or at‑risk students and said the district spent just over $11.5 million on related direct and indirect costs in 2024–25.

Dr. Groepel said the district's graduation rates exceed the 2023 statewide average and that the state comp ed programming supports dropout-prevention campuses. He listed five campuses identified for Tier 1 support in 2025–26: Jones, Dixie, Austin, Pete and Voulter, and said additional instructional coaching and after‑school programs are targeted to reduce disproportionate gaps in academic performance.

Board members asked about accountability ratings and rescores of extended constructed responses (ECRs). Dr. Groepel and staff said the agency will release accountability data in mid‑August; staff reported they closely projected results and that rescoring of constructed responses produced positive changes in some cases — staff said 32% of the items the district submitted for human rescore this year were returned with higher scores and that in one instance a single student's rescored ECR produced a two‑point gain in a campus rating.

Trustees asked for more disaggregated data at the next presentation. CFO Casey Russell and Dr. Groepel agreed to provide the number of students generating the state comp ed allocation and a demographic breakdown for the next report, including counts and the demographic mix of students tied to the funding.

No board vote was required; the public hearing and report fulfilled the statutory presentation requirement tied to receipt of state comp ed funds.