Pequannock schools unveil 2025–26 goals and a district-wide "Profile of a Graduate"

Pequannock Township School District officials presented the district's three goals for the 2025'—26 school year and publicly unveiled a multi-year "Profile of a Graduate" at the board's Sept. 15 regular meeting at Cedar Crest.

Superintendent Dr. Richard Portis said the district will prioritize three interlocking goals in 2025'—26: ensuring student success; enhancing staff instructional capacity; and improving two-way communication with families and community partners. "We move very much in a straight line, from board superintendent, board office, all the way through every other team in the district," Portis said, describing how the goals will be aligned across the district.

Why it matters: Board members and district leaders said the goals are meant to guide daily instruction, assessment and community messaging across all grade bands so that everyone in the system shares the same expectations for student outcomes. The public unveiling of the Profile of a Graduate is the final phase of a multi-year effort to translate community input into specific competencies, the presenters said.

At the meeting, PTHS principal Michael Hazler and Dr. Richard O'Keefe, the district supervisor of world languages, social studies, business and ESL, described the Profile of a Graduate as a community-wide, curriculum-integrated framework that identifies skills, knowledge and attributes students should demonstrate by graduation. "This is a community wide vision for our K-12 education system that identifies the skills, the knowledge, the attributes and the competencies necessary for a successful transition to life after high school," Dr. O'Keefe said.

Hazler summarized the high school's encouragement for students with the program slogan, saying, "Our goal this year at the high school is 'Chase Your Horizon.'"

Process and timeline: Officials described the Profile of a Graduate as three years in the making. Year one (2023'—24) focused on committee formation and drafting; year two collected surveys and analyzed responses from teachers, students, alumni, parents and community members; year three—this school year—will identify specific "defenses of learning" (grade-band touch points) and building-level committees to map where the competencies already exist in course curricula and where they must be added. Dr. O'Keefe said the district will identify K'2, 3'—5, 6'—8 and 9'—12 grade bands as implementation units for those touch points.

Competencies and assessment: The Profile centers interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies (communication, agency/self-advocacy, resiliency, curiosity, accountability, empathy) plus discipline-specific competencies within STEM, humanities, arts and wellness. Presenters said the framework will include literacy in multiple forms'research and information literacy, data literacy and technological literacy'and will be embedded in curriculum revision and teacher professional learning. Officials also noted work underway on an AI policy and district-level media literacy supports.

Community outreach: Portis emphasized communication goals that include a crisis communication plan and renewed strategies for public engagement (website, social media, community partners). He and other administrators said they would use district events and program highlights (allied health capstones, band, athletics) to promote the Profile and show "what students are doing" across grade levels.

What officials asked of the board and public: Presenters requested feedback and said building-level committees will seek teacher, parent and student participation as the district identifies where competencies live in existing courses and where new experiences will be added.

Next steps: The district will post the goals and the Profile on the district website, form building committees this school year, and map competencies into curriculum and assessment work as part of the state curriculum review cycle.

Ending: Board members thanked the presenters and said the materials will be posted online. The district scheduled follow-up presentations on Advanced Placement results (Oct. 6) and district assessment data (Oct. 27) to show how the goals and Profile relate to student performance metrics.