Pasco outlines school improvement process as state OSSI funding shrinks; three schools to receive grants
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Summary
Assistant Superintendent Mira Goble told the Pasco School Board the district is aligning all schools to a single school improvement plan template required by OSPI. She said state OSSI grant funding has been reduced; three schools qualify for awards of $77,000 each while other schools must still submit plans without funding.
Assistant Superintendent Mira Goble told the Pasco School Board of Directors that Pasco School District is standardizing its school improvement plans (SIP) to align with Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) requirements and to support continuous improvement.
Goble said the district requires every school to complete a SIP that follows a Plan-Do-Study-Adjust continuous improvement cycle and that the SIP template has been updated to include midyear progress monitoring and embedded links for federal and state grant compliance. "The SIP is a living, actionable document," she said.
The report matters because SIPs are used both to guide school-level goals and as the documents OSPI audits when awarding federal and state funds. Goble said the school board will receive all schools' SIPs as a consent-agenda item on Oct. 28 so schools in OSPI's School and System Improvement (OSSI) cohort may apply for grants.
Goble also outlined a reduction in OSSI funding this year. She said last year 11 schools received variable OSSI awards ranging roughly from $27,000 to $55,000. This year, she said, only three schools qualified for the updated tiered support funding and will receive $77,000 each. "Only schools who are receiving funding this year are called support tier 3 plus, comprehensive. So we have three schools that qualify. So it's New Horizons, Rowena Chess, and Captain Gray. Those are the only three schools who are receiving the funding, and they're getting $77,000 per school," she said.
Board members asked how the SIP is monitored. Goble said principals use SIPs with their guiding coalitions on an ongoing basis, that principals' personal goals are tied to SIP outcomes, and that schools use interim measures such as STAR midyear assessments to adjust strategies.
The district will present the completed SIPs on the Oct. 28 consent agenda. If approved, the OSSI-eligible schools will submit grant applications to OSPI on the required timeline.
Provenance: Excerpted from Assistant Superintendent Mira Goble's presentation and subsequent Q&A during the Pasco School Board meeting.
