Newton County Schools highlights literacy work, expanded dual enrollment and workforce plan in quarter‑3 report

Ben Rountree, presenting the Board of Education’s quarter‑3 informational report, said the year was focused on building foundations for district priorities and noted that “this year represented a period of foundation building, not implementation.”

Rountree told the board the district identified literacy as its highest academic priority. He reported adoption of universal screeners, prescribed literacy instructional minutes to be added to next year’s master schedules, and that “the majority of elementary school teachers were reported to have completed their modules based training in the science of reading.” He also said the REAP early literacy pilot — which operated at South Salem and East Newton elementary schools during 2024–25 — will expand to six schools for 2025–26.

As part of literacy work, the district updated its core reading resources to support structured literacy and is synthesizing the literacy plan into a single guidebook. Rountree added that fall interim-assessment blueprints were developed during quarter 3 and that a cohort of teachers will pilot a new district instructional framework (NCS Excellence in Teaching) before broader implementation.

Beyond literacy, Rountree described increased access to advanced coursework: starting in 2025–26, a core set of Advanced Placement courses will be offered at all base high schools and each base high school will offer two in-house dual-enrollment English courses (English 11 O1 and English 11 O2) and dual-enrollment engineering coursework that includes a technical college certificate pathway. Board members discussed equity concerns for one school-based program (the Alanis program) that currently limits dual-enrollment access until senior year; a board member requested staff “sit with them and do some restructuring.”

Rountree also summarized work on a workforce development framework intended to align district offerings with regional business and industry needs. He described the framework as a strategic blueprint to connect education, industry and community so students have career pathways and technical credentials.

He emphasized staff training, infrastructure and alignment from boardroom to classroom as part of the district’s strategy, and he thanked the board and district employees for progress during the 2024–25 year.

No board action was required for the informational report.