During the public-comment segment Rick Roni praised the district's pilot of Ignite Reading in four SCCPSS schools and two charter partners (Savannah Classical Academy and Susie King Taylor). Roni said he visited classrooms with Ignite tutors and described students as engaged and teachers supportive of the additional instructional time. He cited a recent Johns Hopkins study of Ignite use in kindergarten and first grade indicating that students who reached benchmark after K'1 use of Ignite had an 85% chance of reading at grade level in third grade without additional interventions.

Roni urged board members who have not visited an Ignite site to observe the pilot in action and requested the district include meaningful K'1 metrics in progress reporting.

Superintendent Denise Watts and board members acknowledged the pilot and noted staff would report midyear results from early reading measures.