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District starts IMSE phonics training; ELA program decision delayed to next school year
Summary
South Orangetown launched IMSE foundational‑skills training for teachers this spring, prioritizing K–2 and certain grades at Cottage Lane and William O. Schaefer. The district will 'live with' IMSE for months before recommending a final ELA/curriculum adoption in December 2025.
District administrators told the board the district has begun intensive IMSE foundational‑skills training and will extend the timeline to choose a new ELA reading program so teachers can first implement and evaluate IMSE in classrooms.
Mister Arrieta, who delivered the instructional update, said the district started a first cohort of seven teachers at William O. Schaefer and will continue training each week for the rest of the school year. “We decided on IMSE. The training is very rigorous, and so training is underway,” Arrieta said, describing phased priorities that place kindergarten through second grade first at Schaefer and third and fourth grade prioritization at Cottage Lane because of state test schedules.
Arrieta said the district wants teachers to “live in IMSE” while reviewing candidate reading programs so officials can judge how IMSE complements or overlaps with any full ELA program. He told the board the ELA adoption timeline is extended and the team plans to make a recommendation by December of the next school year to align with budget planning.
Board members asked whether the reading programs under consideration include phonics; administrators responded that while many vendor programs include phonics components, they generally do not match IMSE’s intensity and weekly hours. The district will continue evaluating three leading reading programs previously reviewed and may add other districts’ experiences to its review.
Administrators said training includes classroom teachers, special‑education co‑teachers and reading specialists in phase 1, with administrators scheduled for summer administrator training. The district reported nine previously trained staff at William O. Schaefer and one at Cottage Lane who will receive refreshers.
The board did not take formal action; direction from the discussion was to continue phased IMSE rollout, complete classroom implementation, collect feedback in fall, visit other districts and return with a recommendation in December 2025.
