Eatonville reports midyear attendance and assessment gains; district highlights tutoring fund and MTSS rollout

Eatonville School District leaders told the board their midyear school improvement monitoring shows gains in attendance and several academic indicators and described continuing steps to scale tutoring and multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS).

"We have seen, from last year, our total was 59% with attendance rate ... already this year we're at 67%, which is a great 8% increase," presenter Sally told the board when summarizing districtwide attendance progress.

District presenters credited multiple initiatives for the gains. Superintendent Brower described a community‑led scholarship/tutoring endowment established with a gift the district described in the meeting as about $2,300,000; the plan is to use interest from that fund to support tutoring across schools. Brower and others singled out a lunchtime tutoring pilot at the high school and an expanded after‑school and in‑school tutoring model. The high school also reported a notable improvement in ninth‑grade on‑track rates: presenters said 90.5 percent of ninth graders were on track at the end of first semester.

Presenters gave data from the district's assessment platforms (I‑Ready diagnostics and interim SBA items) to show changes by school and subgroup. Highlights the board was shown included: - A midyear jump in the district K–8 ELA indicator from about 29 percent to 45 percent of students reaching on‑level benchmarks in the I‑Ready midyear diagnostic as presented. - Math growth in several elementary buildings and ongoing focus where needed; presenters said work remains in algebraic thinking across some grades. - Subgroup progress: the district said its Hispanic/Latino subgroup showed movement toward grade level in ELA and math diagnostics; special‑education students were reported as making "stretch growth," with presenters noting 42 percent of students receiving special‑education services had reached a year's worth of expected growth in diagnostics this year.

District staff said MTSS continues to be rolled out districtwide and will be a statewide requirement for all districts by 2026; they described building‑level tactics including teacher‑led interventions, flexible grouping, data teams and plans to strengthen substitute coverage so intervention blocks are preserved during absences. Presenters also cited the Panorama platform for data tracking and I‑Ready for diagnostics and intervention alignment.

Board members and presenters discussed testing cadence and alignment (for example, high‑school geometry coverage and the timing of state interim assessments), curriculum alignment, and next steps for math interventions and teacher supports.

Ending: The board received the midyear report as presented. District staff and community donors and volunteers were publicly thanked; trustees did not take any immediate policy or budget action during the report but flagged continued curriculum and intervention work as priorities for the remainder of the year.