Adams Middle staff present site plan, target absenteeism and pilot phone check-in system

Adams Middle School teachers Marybeth Kelly and Skye Storey presented a building site plan to the North Platte Public Schools Board of Education on March 27, outlining goals for next school year including a 15% reduction in chronic absenteeism, new rules to manage student cell phones, and expanded intervention supports.

The teachers said the school’s mission is to “inspire a culture of growth where students are encouraged to invest in their future, build integrity, and develop skills through academic and extracurricular opportunities that enrich our community.” They gave the board a short overview of the site plan, the membership of their SIP team and a newly formed guiding coalition that includes representatives from each grade team.

Nut graf: The plan focuses on classroom-level supports and schedule changes intended to keep more students in learning time. The staff identified attendance, referrals tied to individualized education programs (IEPs), and cell-phone distractions as priorities that they believe, if addressed through targeted incentives and schedule adjustments, will improve student outcomes.

Teachers reported the building’s current average daily attendance at about 93% and said the site plan sets a target of reducing chronic absenteeism—defined on their materials as missing more than 10% of the school year—by 15% next year. They also described a referral-reduction goal after spotting a trend of higher office referrals among students on IEPs; the plan calls for refining in-class supports to reduce triggers that lead to referrals.

On cell phones, staff described a planned check-in/check-out system intended to remove a frequent distraction and said they aim to have the policy in place for the incoming school year. They framed that change as paired with incentive strategies, including surprise “blitz days” for students meeting academic thresholds, modeled after practices the teachers observed during a visit to Kearney schools.

The presentation explained the school’s plan to roll out the so-called “power of ICU” program (an intervention-tracking tool the presenters visited in Kearney), plus book-study work (including The Grade Cleanse) to develop consistent teacher practices. Staff said the ICU system can send automated notifications to parents, teachers and coaches when students miss assignments, and that the district’s current information system (Infinite Campus) did not provide the same rapid communication.

Staff detailed schedule adjustments under a middle-school concept: students will have a core-team period when English, math, science and social studies teachers coordinate, with additional planned time for curriculum teams and targeted ICU intervention times in the morning and at lunch. The presenters said music would be shared with a neighboring school (Madison) and that some timeline experiments—such as working lunches for students identified for ICU—will be piloted.

Board members asked clarifying questions about class length, specials teachers’ planning time and how interventions would avoid pulling students out of valuable exploratory classes. The teachers said core-class periods are expected to remain around 53–58 minutes and described safeguards to limit the number of exploratory classes students would miss.

Ending: Teachers asked for the board’s continued support as the school finalizes its logistics and software purchases for ICU, and said they will return with progress updates as the plan moves into implementation.