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Stewartville preschool team reports year-5 progress on Pyramid Model and plans for preschool–kindergarten transition
Summary
Haley Liffrigo told the Stewartville Public School District board the preschool program is in the fifth and final year of a federally funded Pyramid Model grant; staff reported benchmarks of quality, assessment alignment, and steps to sustain practices after the grant ends.
Haley Liffrigo, presenting to the Stewartville Public School District board, said the district is completing year five of Pyramid Model implementation in its preschool program and has nearly achieved the program's benchmarks of quality.
Liffrigo said the Pyramid Model work was funded by a federal grant administered through the state of Minnesota and that this year marked the final year of that grant. "We are in year 5 of that. There's our final year," she said.
The presentation explained why the work matters: Pyramid Model is the preschool version of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and focuses on consistent positive expectations, family engagement, staff coaching and program-wide procedures. Liffrigo noted the preschool team has used peer coaching and real-time behavior tracking to reduce problem behaviors and to improve transitions.
Board members were shown benchmark data that Liffrigo said demonstrates steady improvement since 2020 and near-mastery of program practices in year five. Liffrigo described tools the team uses, including "EC SISS implementation" (the transcript reference to the district's behavior-tracking tool), Teaching Strategies GOLD (TSG) as the district's assessment tool for preschool, and the Minnesota Department of Education's Successful Learners Equation issued in fall 2023.
Liffrigo said the district's preschool assessment choices align with Minnesota's early childhood indicators and that the state has not updated those indicators since about 2017. She said the state guidance on the Successful Learners Equation emphasizes that children who are 5 by Sept. 1 are eligible for kindergarten and urged alignment between preschool and kindergarten teams.
On transitions, Liffrigo described surveys the preschool and kindergarten teams used with parents to design a "tiered start" for kindergarten and said the teams have increased early childhood screening outreach in the community. She said the district plans to upload end-of-year preschool assessment data to a shared system so receiving kindergarten teachers can view students' prior assessments rather than starting from scratch.
Board members asked about sustainability after the grant ends. Liffrigo said many of the program improvements were embedded through internal coaching and that some materials (manipulatives, puppets, social stories) were purchased with grant funds. To sustain practices, she described options such as remote coaching via recorded classroom video during teachers' prep time.
The presentation closed with trustees and administrators thanking Liffrigo for her leadership; no formal board action was taken during the report.
The board did not adopt specific policy changes at this meeting; the item was informational and intended to guide future planning and budget decisions.
