South Orangetown board adopts IMSE for K–5 phonics and word study; district to fund training

The South Orangetown Central School District Board of Education voted to adopt the Institute for Multisensory Education (IMSE) — Comprehensive OG Plus and Morphology Plus — as the district's K–5 ELA foundational skills program after a lengthy review and consensus process.

Superintendent's staff member Rudy Arrieta, who led the phonics and word study review, told the board the selection followed the New York State literacy review guide, Reading League curriculum guidelines and the district's nonnegotiables. "We use a consensus building protocol, to come to a, a decision," Arrieta said, describing a multi‑day review that included about 30 teachers and specialists from William O. Schaefer and Cottage Lane schools.

Why it matters: the adopted program provides a K–5 continuum that district staff said will align phonics instruction from kindergarten through fifth grade and reduce the risk of students encountering incompatible approaches between grades. Arrieta said IMSE also includes the most rigorous teacher training among the options the committee examined, and that training is a…