Elise Middle, a restart school, targets a 10‑point proficiency gain and sustained growth

Elise Middle School, a restart-designated campus, presented its 2025–2027 school improvement plan with a focus on increasing overall grade-level proficiency and exceeding expected growth. Principal Miss Priest reported that reading showed notable early-year gains (including a jump in sixth-grade reading proficiency from 32% to 50% in recent measures) and that the school aims to raise overall proficiency by about 10 percentage points (for example, reading from 42% to 52%).

Priest described the school’s "win time" (what the school calls "What I Need")—an intervention/enrichment block targeted to individual student needs—and said the restart calendar gives the school flexibility to invite targeted students to specialized support sessions on designated days. Other steps include continued use of rewards intervention for reading, periodic problem‑solving meetings to create action plans for students not making progress, weekly SIT/MTSS reviews to adjust interventions, and a renewed focus on teacher working conditions to strengthen retention and collaboration.

Priest stressed that small changes in student counts can swing scores in a small school and emphasized teacher retention actions, hiring stipends and mentoring to stabilize staffing. Board members praised parental engagement strategies and urged continued monitoring of transitions from Robins Elementary and other feeder schools to track early-warning indicators.