Averill Park presents K–5 goals and expands co-teaching across elementary schools
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Summary
District leaders outlined 2025–26 K–5 goals focused on literacy, engagement and digital fluency and described year-one co-teaching rollout across three elementary schools (12 teams, 24 teachers), highlighting teacher-led professional development, six instructional models and early positive feedback from families and staff.
District leaders presented a three-part K–5 plan for the 2025–26 school year and described a year-one rollout of co-teaching in elementary classrooms.
Dennis Simpson and Carrie Rosher told the board the academic goal emphasizes foundational literacy. Rosher said the district will measure progress using FastBridge oral reading fluency assessments for cohort groups from June 2025 to June 2026 and that building-level Academic Learning Teams set grade-level action steps tailored to students’ needs. The presenters described interventions used when students need extra support, including tiered small-group instruction and AIS interventionists.
On engagement, staff set a SMART objective that by June 2026 90% of students in grades 2–5 will respond positively to a kindness-and-respect survey item. Speakers noted unusually high early fall results (near 97–99%) and said teams will analyze the data to move more students from “sometimes” to “always” responses.
A separate, longer presentation focused on co-teaching implementation. A district staff presenter described professional development in June, follow-up "Monday Exchange" sessions, and classroom examples using six co-teaching models: team teaching, station/center teaching, parallel teaching, 1‑teach/1‑assist, alternative teaching and 1‑teach/1‑observe. The presenter said the program intentionally aligned with the district goals and that parent feedback has been positive.
"Where there's teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things could be achieved," the presenter said, summarizing teachers' and families' responses.
Board members asked about challenges, consistency and measurement. The presenter acknowledged "implementation dip" pressures—including planning time concerns when veteran teachers shift practices—and said benchmarking data will be collected districtwide so co‑teaching and non–co‑teaching classrooms can be compared. The presenter confirmed there are 12 co‑teaching teams (four per building) representing about 24 teachers in year one.
The board did not take action to change staffing or curriculum at the meeting; presenters said the next steps include continued data monitoring and a scheduled best‑practice share in June to inform scaling decisions.
The district identified Deborah Vallee as communications lead for materials linked to the musical and presentations; principal presenters included Dennis Simpson, Carrie Rosher and Josh Geller, who introduced building-level perspectives. The board thanked staff and principals for the rollout and invited further updates during the budget cycle.