Education committee outlines LinkIt pilot, time-study and student services updates

The Octorara Area School District education committee on Nov. 17 summarized several instructional and student-support initiatives that the board will consider in coming months. The committee plans a spring pilot of LinkIt, a new data-warehouse system intended to house student scores and related data. "It's a data warehouse, system," the board president said when describing the software.

The committee is conducting a STEM curriculum review with the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) to assess current status and next steps, and reported that CKLA literacy instruction is now in its second year and "showing some good results." Committee members also discussed a high-school time study meant to inform a master schedule that would build in intervention time while balancing staffing and room availability; officials said they expect further updates in the spring.

On student services, the committee reviewed the district's multi-tiered supports: an interventionist in each building overseeing MTSS, BCBA functional behavior assessments, school psychologists (who performed more than 200 student evaluations last year), counselors focused on academics and careers, social workers handling a range of supports, and mental-health staff working with truancy issues. The committee did not vote on policy changes at this meeting; these items were provided as reports and as items for the board's upcoming agenda.

The board received the committee report as information. The next steps identified were the spring LinkIt pilot, continued curriculum review with the CCIU, and scheduled follow-up updates on the time-study and student-services outcomes.