Miss Buckley and other division leaders told the board that the 2025–26 school year opened smoothly and highlighted staffing, curriculum work, student supports and community partnerships — while flagging the pending end of a major grant.
Nut graf: Buckley said the WISH grant has paid for counseling and social-work interns, ramp coaches and professional development but will expire in December; the district reported higher teacher retention, expanded early-childhood seats, operational successes in transportation and a large summer workload in curriculum, finance and technology.
Miss Buckley, presenting the back-to-school report, said the curriculum and instruction department onboarded 52 teachers over two days and that nearly 90% of new hires reported that orientation was relevant and useful. She said the division responded to new state standards with increased teacher participation in summer curriculum work and updated observation timelines and report-card documents.
On special education and early childhood services, Buckley reported that the ECSE program welcomed 31 students and that overall teacher retention rose to 89% from 84% the prior year; 71% of staff are fully licensed. She highlighted gains in academic proficiency for students with disabilities and a nearly 3 percentage-point increase in standard-diploma attainment.
On student supports, Buckley said the WISH grant funded 12 counseling and social-work interns who are currently working in schools, paid for ramp-coach support, and funded professional development and conference attendance. "As you all know, that grant is expiring in December," Buckley said, adding that the grant had expanded adult capacity in schools.
Board discussion included a comment from a board member noting the division now has 14 counselors and 12 WISH-funded interns, representing a near doubling of adults serving students through the grant-funded positions.
Operations and logistics were raised as summer accomplishments: staff reported completing about 90% of capital-improvement projects, and the first week of school produced approximately 5,400 breakfasts and 10,700 lunches across the division in four days. Transportation leaders said contracted drivers covered routes with no doubling required and that roughly 2,300 students ride buses each day; the district said bus service was running smoothly though occasional glitches may occur when staff are out.
Technology staff completed a large rollout, imaging more than 1,500 devices to Windows 11 and completing a cloud-hosted phone-system migration. Buckley said the technology team is also working on a redesigned district website platform.
Community partnerships and events included a readiness fair that drew 220 families, where Valley Health provided sports and enrollment physicals for students and Bright Futures supplied about 80 backpacks and school supplies. Buckley thanked community partners and staff for work over the summer.
Human-resources and finance highlights included continued recruitment incentives: a $5,000 signing incentive remains available and special-education positions continue to offer a $5,000 salary differential, which staff said has been a factor in recent hires. The speaker said 74 professionally licensed staff and 102 support staff were onboarded over the summer.
Ending: Leaders thanked staff and community partners for the smooth opening and emphasized that the pending WISH grant expiration in December will require planning to sustain counseling and social-work capacity beyond the grant period.