Madison County School Board reviews redlines to student progression plan, adds parent-notification and remediation steps

Madison County — At a Dec. 1 school board workshop, Dr. Holmes presented a set of redline changes to the district’s student progression plan that would shift some notifications to the district website, clarify testing and promotion rules for early grades, and require earlier parent contacts for students in academic danger.

Dr. Holmes said the district removed a requirement to publish notices in the local newspaper and instead will post required notifications on the district website to align with current statute. She also described updated language tying early-grade assessments to state requirements, saying the STAR/FAST literacy and mathematics diagnostics will be incorporated into the plan and administered on an ongoing schedule.

The revisions add a midterm progress-report requirement: if a student is in danger of failing during any grading period, the teacher must document a parent contact — by phone, conference, or a written notice (including email or ClassDojo) — so families are alerted earlier and targeted interventions can begin. A board member who raised concerns about unreliable mailing addresses pressed staff to specify multiple contact methods; Dr. Holmes acknowledged the point and said staff would add at least two methods and note the parent’s responsibility to keep contact information current.

On promotion and remediation, Dr. Holmes said the board removed a prior, highly prescriptive kindergarten sight-words requirement and instead allowed promotion if students meet standards through the district rubric or score at an acceptable level on the FAST early-literacy or FAST mathematics diagnostics. For middle grades, the redline clarifies credit requirements by subject so students do not advance with large core-course deficits. For secondary remediation, the plan requires face-to-face repeats of failed core courses when feasible before relying on virtual options such as Edmentum.

Dr. Holmes outlined intervention supports for early grades, including partnerships with the University of Florida and targeted tutoring of roughly 120 students, instructional coaches, and a state specialist who meets with coaching staff twice monthly. She described the PEAR problem-solving process (problem identification, evidence review, action planning, reflection) the district will use to make interventions consistent across schools.

Board members pressed for evidence of impact after noting third-grade reading scores in some schools were substantially below grade level. One board member asked that principals attend the Dec. 15 voting meeting to outline concrete, school-level actions and results monitoring. Dr. Holmes said she will invite principals to that meeting so the board can hear specific plans and measured outcomes.

The proposed redlines also update honor-roll categories (principal’s honor roll and an A–B honor roll) and clarify makeup-work policy: excused absences may receive full credit; work missed for unexcused absences may be made up but is capped (the redline specifies a 75 maximum). Dr. Holmes said exam-exemption language was aligned with an attached state rule or statute.

The board did not take a vote on the redlines at the workshop; Dr. Holmes and staff will incorporate requested clarifications and present updated documents for the December 15 voting meeting.