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Superintendent outlines instructional pilot, facility review and enrollment concerns
Summary
District leadership told the board the district is mid‑year in piloting a new instructional framework, will form a community facilities committee after a state facility assessment, and is tracking declines in the district's capture rate as families choose charters, homeschooling and online options.
The Greater Albany Public School District superintendent reviewed three district priorities for the year — an instructional framework pilot, a district facility planning process and improved staff supports tied to behavior and student safety — and warned the board that declining enrollment will shape long‑range facility and budget decisions.
The superintendent said the district is midway through a pilot of the Center for Educational Leadership's instructional framework and has shifted evaluations this year to emphasize growth conversations rather than formal year‑end ratings, with formal evaluation discussions moving toward goal setting for next year.
District staff outlined a facilities planning process that will begin with a community advisory committee and a consultant selected to analyze building conditions. The superintendent said the district last did a facility assessment in 2015–16 that led to a 2017 bond and that the state provided a recent no‑cost facility condition assessment covering building envelopes, mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, ADA compliance and replacement estimates. Board members were told the district will spend the spring developing a broadly representative planning committee and identifying maintenance projects and population projections to inform possible bond or construction planning.
Enrollment and capture rates drew extended discussion. The superintendent reported an ADM (average daily membership) figure in the district roughly in the high‑8,000s and said about 415 district residents were enrolled in Oregon charter schools (about 4 percent), with 634 registered as homeschoolers. Staff said 59 students had transferred to online charter schools since November and that roughly 34 of those transfers were from district brick‑and‑mortar schools; the district's own virtual school enrolls about 140 students. The superintendent said those trends reduce the district's capture rate and complicate decisions about adding capacity.
The board heard that enrollment forecasting from outside consultants (the district referenced low/medium/high scenarios) shows the district is near the low projection line and that recovery to prior peak enrollment would take many years under the midline projection. Trustees asked for more granular kindergarten capture and birth‑to‑kindergarten tracking to support budgeting and bond planning.
On student supports, leadership described an effort to align schoolwide behavior expectations using the Safe and Civil Schools approach, to create a district behavior team that reviews data and to explore a regional behavior program with neighboring districts and the ESD for intensive placements and wraparound supports. The superintendent said the district will convene a district‑wide committee on intensive student placements and monitor the work through the spring.
Board members pressed staff for follow‑up details on the state facility reports, kindergarten capture rates and the virtual school's enrollment and cost effectiveness. The superintendent said staff will return with enrollment trend history, more detailed kindergarten capture numbers and proposals for how the facilities committee will be formed and managed.
