Brevard board staff begin four-month deep dive on academic excellence in new five-year strategic plan

Brevard County School District officials used a Feb. 11 work session to begin a four-month series of presentations on the district's new five-year strategic plan, focusing Tuesday on the first goal area: academic excellence.

The presentation described five objectives staff will use to lift student outcomes: improve school grades so all schools are A or B, raise cohort graduation rates toward a 95% target, expand data-driven instructional meetings for principals and teachers, accelerate early-grade reading through the "Mighty Moves" initiative, and increase student attendance and whole-child supports. District leaders also described a new elementary athletics pilot that involved more than 1,200 students this year.

Superintendent Rendell and strategic-plan lead Cynthia Rand said the board and district leadership will examine one of the plan's four goal areas each month. Rand said the process will allow goal teams to present objectives, strategies and metrics and ensure alignment among principals, the district and the board. "This review process will give each goal team the opportunity to present their individual objectives, the strategies in place to achieve them, and how they plan to measure progress with performance indicators and metrics," Rand said.

District presenters walked the board through specific strategies and performance indicators. On Objective A1, presenters told the board the district's primary aim is to have all Brevard schools earn either an A or a B grade from the state; staff called that an ambitious, district-wide target and described plans to strengthen teachers' use of state-aligned instructional materials and professional development. "You can have the best instructional materials that are aligned to state benchmarks, but it's how do we leverage them?" one presenter said.

For graduation (Objective A2) staff said the district is targeting a 95% cohort graduation rate and is developing a systems manual to standardize cohort tracking and interventions. Staff reported the district's current graduation rate at about 90% overall and 91'92% when excluding charters for the 16 traditional schools tracked by the district. Lena Weibel, named in the presentation as a director overseeing school leadership supports, was identified as leading the cohort-tracking work.

Objective A3, described as the "Mighty Moves" initiative, aims to shift early reading outcomes by expanding professional development grounded in the science of reading and delivering a 90-minute literacy block from VPK through third grade. Staff said the plan targets an annual 8-percentage-point increase in early-grade proficiency toward a 2030 goal, and noted the district will include VPK in the rollout and name the initiative prior to next school year.

Objective A4 focuses on whole-child supports: raising average daily attendance from 95% to 97% by 2030; expanding English-language-learner (ELL) classroom supports and usage of ELL instructional tools; maintaining teacher and staff training in youth mental-health awareness (the presentation cited a 91% training rate last year, above an 80% state goal); improving ESE evaluation compliance under state timelines; and growing mentor programs in schools. One presenter said, "If students are not in their seats, that's half the battle," while describing targeted monthly monitoring and attendance interventions.

Objective A5 described a newly launched elementary athletics program (grades 3'6). Staff said the district offered elementary soccer at 31 schools in the fall and expanded flag football to 35 schools in the spring, with a goal of reaching 50 of the 56 eligible elementary schools; staff reported more than 1,200 elementary students participated in soccer and expected similar or higher participation for flag football. The district outlined jamboree formats, coach training and community engagement for those events.

Board members questioned details of implementation and asked for access to interim metrics. Several board members asked that principals' and district data used in meetings (PM1 and PM2 progress-monitoring results, school improvement plans and the newly launched data dashboard) be made available to board members so they can track progress. One board member requested access to the school-level PM1 and PM2 data and suggested in-person follow-ups with staff to discuss individual-school plans.

Staff described next steps: monthly presentations on the remaining goal areas at board workshops, continued principal data reviews, additional professional development targeted to areas identified in data, and rollout of the data dashboard that brings proficiency, acceleration, graduation and discipline/attendance indicators into a single view for principals and district leaders.

District presenters and several board members praised staff work on the strategic plan and on the early implementation steps. Staff emphasized they want the plan to be a "living" document and to use the data checkpoints to adjust instruction between now and the end of the school year.

The discussion on academic excellence was part of a larger strategic-plan review series; staff said they will present the next two goal areas in upcoming work sessions.