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Alexandria Public School District reports summer program participation and MTSS screening updates
Summary
District staff told the school board about summer offerings — including extended school year, Whiz Kids and a new middle-school launch — and described screening and intervention changes under the district MTSS process and upcoming state screening requirements.
At a school board meeting, Michelle Kelleher, Student Support Director for the Alexandria Public School District, reported on this summer’s district programs and on multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) data and screening changes slated for the coming school year.
Kelleher said the district ran early childhood special education and extended school year (ESY) services, summer enrichment programs and a new middle-school launch program. She said ESY and early childhood special education were delivered in June and July and that birth-to-2 services continue year-round.
Kelleher provided program participation counts and staffing: early childhood special education ran nine days with two licensed teachers, two paraprofessionals and 18 students; ESY used 14 licensed teachers, one BCBA and 16 paraprofessionals districtwide. At Bridgeway (the district’s area learning center/high-school program), staff recorded 57 students this summer, 11 of whom were from outside the district and who came for credit recovery services. Whiz Kids, a K–5 program, had 95 students over 11 days with five staff; Kelleher said about 10 former Miltona students returned as helpers. The district’s summer Challenge program, focused on social-emotional and executive-function skills, served 26 students with a rotating staff of nine and ran nine days at Lincoln.
Kelleher told the board the district did not run a district-sponsored free tutoring program this summer. "We do not do any tutoring this summer," she said, adding that some private tutoring happened and that community-education options were made available but not widely used. She said the district expects to expand targeted services next summer now that it operates an area learning center (ALC) at Bridgeway and will pursue additional targeted-service funding.
On logistics, Kelleher said the district provided transportation for ESY and for the Challenge program (transportation was written into the grant); Bridgeway did not offer summer transportation. For the new middle-school launch program, district staff used vans to pick up students as needed.
Kelleher also reviewed MTSS implementation and screening work completed over the year and this summer. She said the district implemented initial Read Act training and a literacy plan, expanded math intervention and improved progress-monitoring alignment after coaches and the school psychologist found some interim measures were not tracking what teachers were instructing. Brandt Veise, the district’s school psychologist, worked with intervention coaches to develop progress-monitoring tools over the summer, Kelleher said.
Kelleher summarized tiered intervention rates and outcomes: tier-2 intervention generally served 5–10% of students and tier 3 served a smaller group for more intensive supports; across buildings, many students in intervention met average or above-average growth targets, and some buildings — including Milton and the district’s ninth grade — showed particularly high percentages of students meeting growth benchmarks.
She reviewed screening for dyslexia characteristics using the district’s FAST screener and said the district will adopt a different screener for grades 4–12 required by the Minnesota Department of Education. The district will use the new state-required assessment for grades 4–12 three times next year so staff can compare results with local progress-monitoring data. For more intensive dyslexia evaluation, Kelleher said school psychologists can administer the CTOPP (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing) and that the district recently acquired Woodcock–Johnson IV materials; the district uses additional phonemic assessments as part of reading intervention.
Board members asked about summer staffing, attendance and barriers. Kelleher said the district filled summer paras and teacher positions despite regional shortages and reported a 76% consistent attendance rate for ESY participants. Board members asked whether transportation and scheduling were barriers; Kelleher said transportation was provided for the programs that included it and that timing of ESY in June helped families avoid vacation conflicts.
Kelleher said the district will continue MTSS auditing, paraprofessional Read Act training beginning with an eight-hour module series, and committee work on EduCLIMBER data systems. She said the CAP (state arts) grant work and the district’s decision to give the required 4–12 screener three times a year will yield additional data to evaluate instruction and interventions.
The board’s discussion closed with a reminder that some summer programs are funded by the district PAC and a two-year mental-health collaborative grant that supports the Challenge program; staff said the district may reapply for that grant after two years.
The district staff presentation and board questions focused on program counts, transportation, screening tools and progress-monitoring alignment rather than new policy actions or funding changes.
