King George school leaders present strategic-plan progress and budget priorities

Superintendent Dr. Boyd and King George County Schools staff presented progress on the division's four-goal strategic plan and said the presentations will inform the district's upcoming budget request.

The presentations covered Goal 1 (investment in employees), Goal 2 (quality instruction and innovation), Goal 3 (community collaboration, engagement and communication), and Goal 4 (safe, secure and healthy learning environments). Staff highlighted last-year accomplishments and identified staffing and program needs the district plans to request in the next budget cycle.

"We were able to provide salary increases, a 1% COLA and a step increase for all employees," Goal 1 presenter (identified in the meeting as Yasirsky) said, noting the division also raised starting pay to $15 an hour and increased a retiree sick-leave payout from $5,000 to $10,000. Yasirsky said the division will continue work on pay compression, expand onboarding tools (NeoEd's onboarding and eforms platforms were named) and consider leave benefits for part-time staff.

Goal 2 presenter (Hill) recapped instructional initiatives: regional curriculum work on new social-studies SOLs, new cohorts for math and English, a generative-AI cohort, expanded CTE and apprenticeship partnerships (the presentation named Germanna Community College and 4 Elements Electric Company), and growth in advanced-placement test administration (392 AP exams with a 76% pass rate reported). Hill said the division provided reading interventions for 479 K'5 students and math interventions to 312 K'5 students and added six special-education administrative positions to improve support.

Goal 3 presentation described communications improvements including a unified teacher messaging platform (SchoolMessenger) and new superintendent advisory committees for students, faculty and parents. The communications lead reported 1.34 million social-media impressions for the 2024 calendar year.

Goal 4 presenters (including staff identified as Dr. Wright for safety) described behavioral and safety initiatives. The division relaunched year two of the Character Strong curriculum, trained threat-assessment staff, added clinic assistant positions, and implemented an Office on Youth alternatives-to-discipline option. Dr. Wright reported a reduction in chronic absenteeism from 20.9% to 17.96% and said the division's internal target was 18.5% (the state target was cited as 15%). The division also described an in-house alternative program at the high school called FLEX that keeps students in school while removed from their regular schedule.

Presenters tied many of the strategic-plan goals directly to budget requests: additional math specialists and high-school teachers, funding to expand virtual offerings for secondary students (a virtual-Virginia program is being planned for 2025'26), a request for a second school-safety officer (pending grant), and future funding needs to sustain the FLEX program and related alternatives-to-suspension services.

Board members asked for additional detail in coming board materials and the superintendent said the presentations provide the foundation for the division's budget request to the board and the county.

The presentations also described recruitment and retention strategies the division will pursue, including a possible compensation study (Stafford County was described as conducting one) and regional apprenticeship participation to "grow our own" paraprofessionals and teachers (the KITES program, named by staff as "King George Initiative for Tackling the Educational shortage").

The superintendent said the strategic-plan presentations are the building blocks for the budget and would be used to shape the division's requests to the Board of Supervisors.