White Plains school board outlines instructional budget, new AP and CTE pathways

The White Plains City School District presented a wide‑ranging instructional budget on Feb. 9 that district staff said would expand course offerings while remaining largely budget‑neutral.

Superintendent and curriculum staff told the Board of Education the proposal includes a one‑time purchase of about $50,000 for a new grade‑6 ELA curricular resource and roughly $20,000 in external professional learning to support teachers, amounts the administration said can be covered through reallocation rather than new local tax funding. The presentation emphasized alignment with the district strategic plan and the Portrait of a Graduate framework.

Deborah Hand (S3), who led the presentation, described continued implementation of Arts and Letters and dual‑language literacy units, the district’s use of Hegarty and Wilson Foundations for early literacy and phased assessment changes, including a state transition to WIDA for English learners and continued use of NWEA and DIBELS as screening tools. "We are planning professional learning for our reading specialist to connect interventions to concepts taught in social studies, science, and ELA," she said.

At the high‑school level, the district proposed new offerings and expanded electives: Dance 2 (adding 0.2 full‑time equivalent staffing), AP Business with Personal Finance, AP Cybersecurity (recommended for students who have taken AP Computer Science Principles), and a cooperative games physical‑education option. The presentation also described a planned Syracuse University dual‑enrollment "world history super course" that the district expects to pilot after Syracuse finalizes course materials; the district said Syracuse has asked White Plains to postpone implementation until 2027–28 while the college refines the syllabus.

Special education services would be expanded with the addition of two intensive 8:1:2 classes—one at Highlands and one at White Plains High School—requiring the reallocation of two special‑education teacher FTEs and four teaching assistants, the administration said.

District staff described work to centralize student data with a potential data dashboard (EduCLIMBER, LinkIt and Branching Minds were mentioned as options) to support MTSS and districtwide decision‑making. Hand said the new systems will help teachers and administrators access assessment and intervention data in one place.

Trustees praised the proposals as "thoughtful" and repeatedly noted that most of the items were presented as budget neutral through internal reallocation. The board voted to advance the instructional budget materials to the next stages of committee review and adoption processes. The presentation concluded with board members thanking directors and curriculum staff for months of preparatory work.

The district plans further committee deliberations and public updates before any final budget adoption; the presentation materials and committee schedule were referenced at the meeting.