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Superintendent’s report: summer learning, enrollment and testing schedules outlined for 2025–26
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Margaret Billings Jones summarized summer extended learning participation, fall enrollment indicators, diagnostic and benchmark testing schedules and district technology skill sequencing at the Aug. 19 board meeting.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Margaret Billings Jones reported to the board on Aug. 19 about the district’s summer learning programs, early enrollment figures and the assessment and curriculum plans for the 2025–26 school year.
Dr. Billings Jones said summer programs served a total of 443 students across the district; the meeting transcript reports about 181 students in the summer academy and 114 in the extended school year program. She told the board that participation has been steady year over year and that students responded positively to the programming.
On enrollment, Dr. Billings Jones reported 179 kindergarten students were enrolled at the time of the meeting and described continued expected growth as families return in late August. The transcript also records a figure described as 259 transfers in student enrollments over the summer; the district presented that total as a summer‑to‑date transfer count.
Dr. Billings Jones described the district’s assessment schedule in detail: diagnostic assessments (Exact Path and Study Island) are scheduled in September, January and May; benchmarks for grades 3–12 occur on a three‑times‑per‑year cadence tied to the diagnostic windows; K–2 testing follows a diagnostic schedule without a benchmark; district staff moved one benchmark from March to May to provide a better window for correlating in‑house assessments with state assessments. The district’s math growth‑measure testing (Math & Focus) is scheduled in December and March, and state assessments (PSSAs/Keystones) are administered in April and May.
Dr. Billings Jones said the district uses in‑house diagnostics and benchmarks to create individualized learning paths that teachers can tailor; she emphasized that principals and teachers discuss assessment use in curriculum review to avoid unnecessary testing and to ensure data are actionable.
On curriculum and staffing, she reported a 4‑year curriculum cycle with one content area reviewed annually, and noted the district will run an induction program for 20 new teachers supported by returning mentors. She also said the high school will introduce an introductory biomedical science course and that professional development prior to the school year is scheduled from Aug. 27–29.
On technology, the district has a scope and sequence beginning with keyboarding in grade 2 and progressing to personal computer applications in upper grades; high school students can pursue Microsoft certification tests tied to workforce competencies. Dr. Billings Jones said technology instruction focuses on generalizable skills rather than brand‑specific tools so students can transfer skills across platforms.
