Greece Central presentation outlines ESSA designations, SCEP timeline for five cited schools

Deputy Superintendent Mark Fleming presented the Board with an update on Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) designations and the district’s plan for required school improvement work.

The nut graf: New York State annually identifies schools in the lowest performance bands (bottom 10% or 5% for comprehensive need) and requires districts to assemble improvement teams, conduct needs assessments, choose evidence‑based interventions (EBIs) from approved clearinghouses, and submit School Comprehensive Education Plans (SCEPs) for board approval.

Fleming said the district currently has one school designated as ATSI (additional targeted support and improvement) — Greece Olympia — and four schools in the TSI (targeted support and improvement) category. He named Lakeshore and Pine Brook as ongoing TSI schools and said Buckman and Craig Hill are newly identified TSI schools. The remaining 12 schools are LSI (local support and improvement) in the district. Fleming said the ATSI and TSI classifications are driven by subgroup academic performance on state measures (ELA, math, graduation rates, English language proficiency and attendance), not disciplinary citations.

Fleming reviewed the state’s required actions and timeline: schools must assemble an improvement planning team, survey parents/staff/students, conduct a root‑cause needs assessment, and write a SCEP that includes commitments, action steps, mid‑year and year‑end progress targets and a named evidence‑based intervention from an approved clearinghouse (for example, the What Works Clearinghouse). District staff will provide professional learning (including PLC work), data dives, and structured school visits to support the schools.

Timeline details Fleming gave: Buckman already attended a New York State webinar and will begin SCEP planning in March; schools will conduct data analysis and stakeholder interviews in April; begin root‑cause analysis in May; write and finalize SCEPs in June and July; and then the district will present the SCEPs to the board for review and required vote before posting them publicly.

Board members asked clarifying questions about what happens if schools fail to meet improvement targets. Fleming said state oversight increases as a school moves down the designation continuum (for example, a CSI designation draws more on‑site state support and oversight). Board members also asked whether the district examines data beyond state test scores; Fleming said the district uses internal assessments (iReady and others), attendance and discipline data and qualitative information from Panorama surveys and parent exchanges as part of the root‑cause process.

During the Q&A, members also clarified that some district citations (the district’s CAP) relate to suspension rates for Black students and students with disabilities; Fleming noted that the district‑level citation for disparate suspension rates is separate from the school‑level ATSI/TSI labels he reviewed.

Ending: Fleming said the state released the SCEP template during the board’s study session and the district will update the board on specific dates for SCEP submission and board review as soon as the state provides final posting deadlines. The board will be required to vote on each cited school’s SCEP when the plans are submitted.