Pasco staff recommend McGraw Hill for most K–12 science courses; public hearing, board vote scheduled

Samantha DiValli, a district staff member, told the Pasco County School Board at a workshop that district schools completed their votes on recommended K–12 science instructional materials and that staff will present those recommendations at a required public hearing ahead of final board action.

DiValli said the district followed the state-approved list and a multi-step adoption process that included vendor outreach, teacher surveys, a district narrowing team and school-level lesson trials. She said the narrowing team and school votes produced a recommendation that, for kindergarten through fifth grade, the district should recommend McGraw Hill; middle school and physical science also were recommended as McGraw Hill (physical science had a single resource on the state list). For most high school courses, McGraw Hill was recommended; forensic science was recommended from Cengage.

The recommendation is based on alignment to state benchmarks and on technical integration with district systems. "McGraw Hill had very, very strong alignment to benchmarks and standards," DiValli said, adding that the vendor scored highly on technology integration (Canvas, single sign-on and QTI file support) and on supports for ESE, ELL and parents.

DiValli described the district’s vote collection: elementary schools cast one overall elementary vote (reported 29–21 in favor of McGraw Hill), middle schools cast a single vote covering sixth–eighth grade, and high school courses were voted per course. She said the state review alignment generally matched school votes.

DiValli outlined next steps: a board workshop (the current meeting), a statutorily required public hearing with materials available 20 days in advance, and a final board approval scheduled for April 15. She said the district will open a 30-day reconsideration window after board approval and will not place orders until that window closes; orders and professional development planning would follow. DiValli said training and summer workshops are planned for K–2 and 3–5 teachers, biology (a state-tested course) and middle school courses; district PD days and new-teacher supports will also be used.

No formal board motion or vote on the adoption occurred at the workshop; DiValli presented the recommendation and asked for questions.

Votes at the school level and other recorded details from the workshop are part of the record and were cited by DiValli in her recommendation.