Flagler principals report midyear gains, stress small-group instruction and staffing

Principals from multiple Flagler County schools presented midyear updates to the Flagler County School Board on instructional progress, targeted interventions and staffing needs during a standing agenda item.

The presentations showed mixed districtwide trends but repeated themes: growth in some grades, persistent gaps for students with disabilities, and a districtwide emphasis on shorter planning cycles, collaborative professional learning communities and increased small-group or paraprofessional support. Several principals described midyear pivots — adding tutoring, hiring paraprofessionals or a teacher for a grade level, and aligning instructional resources across tiers — intended to increase end-of-year proficiency.

Belter Elementary reported that students in grades 3–5 moved from 30% on grade level at Progress Monitoring 1 to 46% at Progress Monitoring 2 and projected about 62% on grade level by year end; the school is aiming for 63% and said the district’s 15-day planning cycle and collaborative team planning are central to its strategy. Annelle Elementary said it had hired paraprofessionals to provide targeted small-group instruction and added a fourth-grade reading teacher midyear to strengthen Tier 1 reading instruction where growth lagged. Old Kings Elementary cited expanded tutoring and an increased use of data via iReady to drive small-group instruction and said staff are conducting ‘‘child study’’ reviews of individual students in MTSS to check intervention fit.

Rumfire (principal Travis Lee) and other elementary schools reported particular attention to students with disabilities: Rumfire said it set a goal to increase SWD proficiency from 36% last year to 43% this year and aligned tutoring dollars to grades 3–5. Wadsworth Elementary reported a 15-percentage-point jump from PM1 to PM2 and a third-grade proficiency rate already at 51%; the school attributed gains to implementation of reading and math frameworks and instructional routines.

At the district’s alternative/virtual program, Assistant Principal Scott Bannon (sitting in for the principal) said the school is targeting a 95% participation rate in state testing (it was at about 89% at midyear) and described outreach plans including Remind messages, personal phone calls and offering a smaller portable testing setting to improve participation. Several principals noted challenges with implementation time for classroom walkthrough tools and requested more leadership time to provide coaching and feedback to teachers.

High schools described progress on targeted goals. Flagler Palm Coast High School reported ESE ELA proficiency rising from 9% to 19% midyear and said the district approved additional tutoring for students with disabilities; the school also reported an acceleration rate figure provided to the school in December and set a goal to increase that rate by 5 percentage points for an upcoming cohort. Matanzas High School said its college-and-career acceleration rate rose by five percentage points and that ESE performance is generally ahead of last year except in geometry and 10th-grade English, areas it tied to prior staffing vacancies that are now filled.

Board members and Superintendent Moore praised teachers and principals for work to increase small-group instruction and professional coaching; they asked staff to bring proposed district support strategies back to the board for further discussion. The session closed with the board thanking school leaders for their presentations and committing to follow up on staffing and targeted coaching supports.