Coos Bay SD 9 reviews mid‑year data; board focuses on attendance, math interventions and preschool gains

COOS BAY, Ore. — Coos Bay School District 9 principals and program leads presented mid‑year performance data to the district board, highlighting attendance as the district’s most urgent concern while pointing to clear gains in early literacy and targeted math interventions.

At the start of the meeting the board approved the agenda and moved directly into presentations. Principals from Marshfield High School, the Destinations program, Lighthouse School, Sunset, East Side, Madison and others reviewed first‑semester passing rates, benchmark assessments and discipline data, and described school‑level strategies aimed at improving outcomes.

“We know the single biggest factor in our students not passing courses is that they are not in class,” Principal Ashton said while presenting high‑school data, linking absences to lower passing rates and calling attendance his top concern. Multiple principals repeated that assessment: Dr. Crook said, “attendance is our biggest concern,” and described personalized outreach and student success plans being used in the Destinations alternative program.

Presenters flagged three broad themes:

- Attendance and staffing: Several schools reported that February illness depressed attendance and stressed the district’s dual challenge of student and staff absences. District leaders said staff attendance affects continuity and student achievement and discussed flu clinics and other supports to reduce sickness‑related absences.

- Math performance and interventions: District presenters repeatedly identified math as the area needing the most work. Schools reported pilots of targeted interventions (including hands‑on manipulatives and fluency kits) and practices to increase fact fluency and in‑class intervention time. One principal noted a tradeoff between screen‑based adaptive programs and teacher‑led interventions and said two classrooms per grade are piloting reduced Chromebook time to test hands‑on instruction.

- Early education and SEL gains: Multiple elementary programs showed strong middle‑of‑year improvement on DIBELS and other measures. Principal Ainsworth highlighted Little Pirates, the district’s targeted preschool program, reporting that none of its kindergarten cohort received behavior referrals this year and that 87 percent of Little Pirates attendees made average to well‑above average reading growth — findings board members said support arguments for preschool investment.

Other details reported in presentations included: district online enrollment of roughly 215 students accessing online curriculum as of Feb. 16 (K–12 blend of full‑time and hybrid students); expanded AP course enrollment at the high school (several‑fold growth in recent years); and a variety of attendance incentives at elementary schools (for example, Dolphinopoly banners and weekly recognition events).

Board members and district staff emphasized measuring growth as well as proficiency. One board member suggested the district routinely surface year‑over‑year growth metrics to help identify practices that produce exceptional gains. District staff said some suppliers provide richer longitudinal growth charts than others, requiring the district to dig deeper in some cases.

The meeting concluded with informal assignments of who will give upcoming graduation remarks; no formal board vote was recorded on those assignments. The board thanked school leaders for the presentations and closed the reports portion of the agenda.

What’s next: principals said they will continue monitoring attendance and screening the effectiveness of math interventions; the board encouraged more district‑level reporting on staff‑attendance correlations and promised to follow up on flu‑clinic uptake.