Eastside principal outlines assessment, attendance and family-engagement goals

Catherine Woodard, who introduced herself as the Eastside School presenter, told the Coffee County School District board on Sept. 25 that Eastside serves about 556 students from pre-K through fifth grade and is pursuing modest gains on benchmark assessments.

“Our purpose is to create a joyful and connected school where generations learn, lead, and grow because our community is counting on us,” Woodard said, summarizing the school’s mission and data-driven focus.

Woodard said the school set two improvement goals tied to STAR assessments: increase STAR reading and early-literacy scores by 5% in the kindergarten–fifth-grade cohorts from fall to spring, and increase STAR math scores by 5% for grades 1–5. She described the school’s intervention structure — classroom tiered supports and small pullout groups — for students in intervention and urgent-intervention bands and said final progress will be measured at year-end after spring testing.

Woodard also reviewed attendance patterns from the prior year, reporting that a small number of students had perfect attendance while substantial groups had 1–4, 5–9 and 10+ days absent; she noted a month-long weather closure that affected totals and described monthly and year-end incentives for students and staff to encourage attendance.

On staff attendance, Woodard cited a small number of personnel with perfect attendance and a range of absences across the staff, and noted the district’s use of those data in evaluation and staffing decisions. She highlighted family and community engagement efforts — daily prerecorded “Eagle News,” volunteer readers, postcards from teachers and an expanded career day that increased employer participation from 48 to 82 career centers.

Board members asked no substantive follow-ups beyond a brief question period. Woodard closed by thanking the board for the opportunity to present and reiterated the school’s focus on data, relationships and student engagement.