Roaring Fork Schools present first annual equity impact update; district ties equity goals to strategic plan

Superintendent Anna Cole on Tuesday presented the district’s 2024–25 equity impact statement and described steps the Roaring Fork School District No. Re‑1 is taking to make Policy ADB’s equity commitments operational across schools.

Cole told the board the district defines equity as “differentiating resource allocation within budgetary limitations to meet the needs of students who need more support” and that the policy requires an annual superintendent update. She said the district has made the work central to its strategic plan rather than a separate initiative.

Cole highlighted specific changes this year: a universal lesson‑plan template that centers emerging bilingual students; a stronger multi‑tiered system of supports (MTSS) toolkit to ensure consistent interventions; finalized school culture and climate plans aligned to the discipline matrix; student‑led surveys and formal student–superintendent advisory councils; new career and technical education pathways; and a public data dashboard meant to increase transparency of racial and subgroup outcomes. She also described new steps on workforce recruitment and retention, including formalized interest‑based bargaining (IBB) processes for classified and administrative staff and a recruitment plan developed with Promise54.

Cole said the district has begun piloting the lesson‑plan template with roughly 25 teachers and will roll out professional development in the fall; she emphasized the template is intended to help teachers design lessons that allow emerging bilingual students to use their full linguistic repertoire and to clarify accommodations for students with disabilities.

Board members pressed for more data and timelines. Director DeFriedes and others asked for clearer evidence tying the new work to student outcomes; Cole said the district commissioned third‑party work (Attuned Education Partners) and will present year‑2 metrics and the strategic plan update at the board meeting on Aug. 28, when end‑of‑year measures are expected to be available.

Cole acknowledged the scale of the challenge and told the board the policy is intended to outlast individual administrators and board members: “This is going to take decades to achieve,” she said, and it will require multi‑year fidelity and accountability.

Ending: The district plans continued staff professional development, a staff annual culture/climate survey and monitoring of the dashboard in year 2. The board scheduled a fuller strategic‑plan and metric update for August to review early outcome data and next steps.