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Principals outline 2025‑26 plans: professional learning communities, vertical alignment and three‑week academic seminars
Summary
At its Aug. 11 meeting the Piper board heard building leaders describe a districtwide focus on PLCs, vertical alignment across grades, balanced class sizes and a new high‑school academic seminar schedule that drafts students into three‑week intervention rotations.
Principals from across the Piper School District told the school board on Aug. 11 that their 2025‑26 building action plans will emphasize professional learning communities, aligned curricula and targeted student supports.
Stacy (EC principal) said her preschool and early‑childhood team will dedicate regular time to PLC work — every Tuesday and late‑start Friday — to gather evidence of student learning, craft strategies and analyze impact using the Kansas Early Learning Standards. "We have very intentional learning with our play," she said.
Other elementary principals described similar PLC commitments. Ann Marie said the buildings that will merge in coming years will use PLC time to align practice and data collection. "We want to make sure that our practice aligns with our… strategic plan," she said. Kate Martin, principal at Piper Creek Elementary, said her school will pair PLC work with high‑quality instructional materials, including I‑Ready, to develop common goals and assessments.
Middle‑school principal Tim Laffer described a year‑to‑year vertical‑alignment effort that places all teachers in content‑area teams across grades to avoid gaps in student learning. He said the district reworked the master schedule so each core area (math, ELA, science, social studies) meets together; the goal is to keep core class sizes at 25 students or fewer and electives at 25 or fewer, with physical education classes larger by design.
At Piper High School, Dr. Booker outlined a schedule change that separates advisory from academic seminar time and increases seminar to 35 minutes on three days a week. Under the plan, students will be drafted to seminars based on common‑assessment data; assignments to a teacher for intervention or extension will last three weeks. "Those kids will stay with that teacher for three weeks… It's protected time," Booker said, noting the rotation will be used for interventions or enrichment and that assemblies and announcements will be avoided during seminar.
Board members praised the emphasis on alignment and the protected intervention time. One board member commented that a three‑week rotation can preserve momentum by being long enough to produce learning gains but short enough to avoid losing students to longer placements.
No formal board vote was taken on the principals’ building plans; the presentations were provided for information and to show how building‑level PLC work, schedules and new resources will support district goals.
