District Accountability Committee reviews unified improvement plans; New Summit Charter Academy reports instructional improvements

District leaders and the District Accountability Committee (DAC) briefed the board on a November review of each school’s unified improvement plan (UIP) and site plans and reported common themes and recommendations identified during small-group reviews.

Jolyn Patterson, director of assessment, and Shane Knight, director of curriculum and instruction, told trustees the DAC’s accreditation subcommittee divided principals into feeder-strand groups where principals presented their site plans and UIPs and answered four focus questions: how schools incorporate knowledge and skills into site plans; how social-emotional learning and character development are addressed; how site plans align with UIPs; and what else principals wanted to share. The subcommittee provided written feedback to principals and summarized recurring district themes.

Patterson and Knight said recurring strengths included professional learning communities (PLCs), stronger use of student data to guide instruction, multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for interventions and extensions, and increased behavioral supports and SEL programs (including sources-of-strength models at secondary campuses). The DAC recommended small process changes to give principals slightly more time for presentations in future reviews; school and parent volunteers reported they appreciated the feeder-strand model that connects elementary, middle and high school planning.

Separately, the board heard an annual monitoring report from New Summit Charter Academy. Jen Reinsic (New Summit) presented the charter’s work to address a root cause noted in its improvement plan—“inadequate implementation of quality instructional practices”—and described measures the school has adopted: instructional coaching, coaching cycles, peer observations, alignment to district evaluation tools, training on new ELA/math programs, and targeted supports for writing and executive functioning. New Summit said it has certified induction mentoring and uses leaderboards and recognition systems to celebrate student growth.

Board members asked about classroom student-teacher ratios and budget pie-chart presentations; New Summit staff said the school aims for charter staffing goals and described typical ratios (charter target 25:1 in most grades; kindergarten targeted at lower ratios and oversubscription up to 22). Trustees thanked the presenters and commended DAC volunteers for lengthy service and detailed feedback.

Outcome: informational reports; no board action was required on either the DAC review or the New Summit charter monitoring report.