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Quincy Innovation Academy leader reports rapid enrollment growth, continued challenges with graduation and math
Summary
Quincy Innovation Academy reported enrollment growth to about 217 students and program-level outcomes and challenges at the Quincy School District board meeting, including a roughly 50% graduation rate for parts of the school and efforts to strengthen math and multilingual supports.
Miss Pershing, representing Quincy Innovation Academy, told the Quincy School District Board of Directors that the school has grown substantially and is balancing gains in attendance and graduation with ongoing academic challenges.
"We have really 3 main programs here at our school," Miss Pershing said, describing the online learning program, the Big Picture Learning program and the Open Doors reengagement program. She said the academy served about 217 students, with 76 seniors and about 50 juniors, and that online learning is the largest component.
The nut graf: the academy's enrollment has tripled in three years, which brings both opportunity and strain. Pershing said online learning has expanded capacity needs and improved attendance but has left persistent gaps in on-time graduation and math achievement that the school is working to close.
Pershing gave program details and data the board requested. Online students primarily learn from home with optional in-person support days; Big Picture Learning students attend in person and pursue internships and competency-based pathways; Open Doors operates in partnership with Big Bend Community College to reengage students typically more than a year behind in credits. She said the academy is part of a mastery-based learning cohort that brought grant funds to support Big Picture Learning.
She reported that the academy recorded 26 graduates last year, the most in the school's history, and that strong attendance (OSPI defines "strong attendance" as 90 percent or more) improved from about 40 percent to roughly 64 percent so far this year. Pershing said staff completed more than 260 high-school online courses for credit so far this school year.
Pershing also flagged continuing problems. "Our graduation rate hovered around 50 percent," she said, and noted that much of the shortfall comes from the online program, where students commonly enter behind and may need more than four years to finish. She described math instruction as a districtwide challenge and said the school reorganized Big Picture Learning schedules to add a daily math period and sent teachers to math conferences to improve instruction.
The board questioned class sizes and staffing. Pershing said state funding rules for alternative online programs differ from regular schools and noted that the district receives a higher FTE mix for online students; she said she believed the district receives about 1.2 FTE per online student. She also said one online high‑school teacher currently has an overload (about 65 students versus a 50‑student full‑time cap) and the district is monitoring January and February enrollment to decide staffing changes.
Pershing described partnerships and internships with local employers and agencies and a new relationship with SkillSource Moses Lake and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to provide career readiness and case management support for students, especially those with disabilities.
The meeting record shows no formal board action on the report; the presentation concluded with board questions and staff responses.
