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West Ridge Elementary reports student gains, exits TSI status; principal highlights kindergarten outreach and targeted supports
Summary
Principal Kim Hawkins told the Provo City School Board that West Ridge Elementary shows reading and math growth across grades, improved kindergarten transitions and that the school has exited TSI status. She outlined goals for reading and math, identified areas needing more work and described professional development for special education and ESL.
Kim Hawkins, principal of West Ridge Elementary, presented the school’s profile and early-year student-achievement data to the Provo City School Board on Oct. 14, reporting growth in reading and some math measures and saying the school had been removed from TSI designation.
Hawkins told the board West Ridge enrolled 547 students this year. She said roughly 66% of students are white, 24% are Hispanic, about 17% are multilingual learners (about 95 students), and roughly 14–15% are students with disabilities (about 80 students). She reported 35% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and average attendance at about 95%.
“We got out of TSI status, and we’re super proud of that,” Hawkins said, referring to the school’s targeted-support designation in categories tied to students with disabilities and multilingual learners. She credited team collaboration, targeted interventions and a multi-pronged approach to instruction for the change.
Hawkins summarized several assessment results. Kindergarten through third-grade Acadience and pathway-of-progress measures showed notable gains; for example, she said kindergarten end-of-year benchmark and growth figures were strong and some lower grades exceeded district goals. She noted mixed results in other measures: district RISE math held steady while science dipped and NWEA math proficiency at the end of last year was 54% (beginning-of-year proficiency reported at 45%). She said the school will continue data dives and targeted strategies in math where needed.
Hawkins described changes in kindergarten onboarding that staff credited with reducing separation anxiety: a spring meet-and-greet, group testing rotations in centers to observe social and fine-motor skills, and multiple touchpoints before school started. “This is the first year in my entire career that we did not have one crying kindergarten student,” she said.
Hawkins also outlined professional development strategies for supporting multilingual learners and students with disabilities, including monthly multilingual PD coordinated with the district’s instructional support team and a new special-education PD series delivered by the school’s special-education, speech and psychological staff. The school set improvement goals for Acadience pathway progress and a 3% increase on district RISE targets in math and science for the coming year.
Board members asked about class-size support in fifth grade; Hawkins said the school prioritizes interventions and deploys instructional assistants to grade levels with greatest need rather than assigning dedicated classroom aides to each large class.
Hawkins closed by listing school community programs and supports including a wellness room, STEAM activities for upper grades, a Wildcats Read family-book program, a kindness theme and student leadership efforts. The board thanked her and raised no objections to the school’s goals and strategies.
Provenance: Principal report and question-and-answer exchange recorded in the meeting’s school-report segment.
