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Parma City recognizes gifted-program students and Educators Rising competitors
Summary
The board honored students from the Parma Academy of Gifted Enrichment (Paige) and career-technical education participants who placed at the statewide Educators Rising competition, and administrators outlined program goals and data showing high achievement for Paige students.
Parma City School District administrators recognized students and teachers from the Parma Academy of Gifted Enrichment (Paige) and the district's career-technical education program at the April 10 board meeting, highlighting high test scores and statewide competition placements.
Tiffany Buchanan, administrative specialist for alternative programming, described Paige as a second-year specialized gifted program housed at Parma Park that uses an integrated, inquiry-based curriculum. Buchanan said Paige served third through fifth grades in 2024-25 and will expand to sixth grade in fall 2025. She presented district data showing gifted progress ratings and a rise in students scoring at the "accomplished" and "advanced" levels over three years (from about 30% to 35%). Buchanan also said third- and fourth-grade Paige students averaged in the advanced category on state assessments in both ELA and math.
Buchanan identified areas for continued growth — particularly writing — and described action steps such as using state writing benchmarks, targeted writing instruction, benchmark assessments and teacher data-team collaboration. She listed partnerships that support the program, including collaboration with Case Western Reserve University and a STEM-focused "Graduate Lead the Way" component; students also participated in robotics, hydroponic gardening and introductory world-language exploration.
Administrators recognized four students who placed at Educators Rising, a statewide competition held at Capital University. Buchanan read names of student awardees: Sean Connolly (fifth place, non-core subject teaching, physical education and health), Taylor Patrick (second place, chapter display), Sofia Feliciano (fourth place, non-core subject teaching, French) and Memory Sanborn (interactive bulletin board, elementary). The district also noted an honors-chapter designation for the chapter under the leadership of Courtney Bocach.
Why it matters: The presentation underscores the district's efforts to develop a pipeline into education and to sustain high achievement in gifted programming while expanding access to specialized services.
"We are committed to our integrated curriculum model to maintain these high scores," Buchanan said.
