District presents strategic‑plan update; board hears communications improvements including ParentSquare launch
Loading...
Summary
Superintendent and cabinet reviewed a revised two‑year strategic plan emphasizing curriculum implementation, MTSS, CTE, staffing, operations and community engagement. The district plans to roll out ParentSquare for school communications and a family survey informed the communications priorities.
District leaders presented an updated two‑year strategic plan and described operational steps to measure progress and improve family engagement.
Why it matters: The plan sets district priorities — curriculum adoption and implementation, multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS), career and technical education (CTE), staffing and operational controls — and lays out measures and processes to track progress.
Teaching and learning: Cabinet described adoption of new 6–12 English language arts materials already delivered to schools and a K–5 adoption process underway. Leslie Peters (Curriculum) said the district has classroom and digital materials and scheduled district training for implementation; a teacher‑on‑special‑assignment (TOSA) will support rollout and site‑level professional learning. MTSS training with UNR technical assistance is in progress for selected schools; some schools will move to level‑2 MTSS work next year, others will continue to build a strong tier‑1 core.
Recruitment and staffing: Jeanne Dwyer, who oversees human resources, said the district continues to recruit and develop staff and is expanding work‑based learning and CTE supports (including a planned district work‑based learning coordinator). The district reported unfilled positions historically around 4 percent at the start of years and flagged special‑education and school‑psychologist shortages as recruitment priorities.
Operations and metrics: The district committed to aligning annual budgets and program reviews with strategic priorities, developing internal controls to verify state reporting (e.g., student counts and classifications), and improving grant coordination via a new grants coordinator position.
Communications and family engagement: Communications director Haley (last name on file) presented results from a new family survey and said the district will implement ParentSquare (which replaces Remind) to improve two‑way messaging, allow event signups and translate messages automatically for non‑English speakers. Survey highlights showed families prioritize emergency alerts and school events, and many respondents asked for clearer, consolidated messaging. The communications office will pilot ParentSquare training and provide analytics to measure school‑by‑school parent engagement.
Trustees asked for measurable metrics, such as grade‑level growth measures and MTSS fidelity inventories, and suggested tying budget codes to strategic goals so the board can track spending against priorities.
Ending: Cabinet members said they will return to the board quarterly with progress updates and add measurable indicators to each goal area. ParentSquare onboarding and training are scheduled over the summer ahead of the 2025–26 school year.