McGuffey unveils Future Ready plan emphasizing AI, common assessments and attendance goals

The McGuffey School District presented a high-level summary of its Future Ready Comprehensive Plan (FRCP), a three-year strategic plan the Pennsylvania Department of Education requires every district to submit on a three-year cycle. Superintendent Dr. Oberg told the board the FRCP uses a "ready-set-go" process of data collection, prioritization and measurable action steps to address two to four priority challenges over the 2025'8 period.

The district identified four priority challenges to guide the next three years: (1) a vision and culture of higher expectations, (2) integration of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning, (3) improving regular attendance across grade spans, and (4) recruiting and retaining high-quality staff and school leaders. Dr. Oberg explained that the plan ties each priority to measurable goals and strategies and emphasized the plan s iterative nature: goals and strategies will be reviewed annually and adjusted as new data arrive.

Chet Welch, the district s middle school principal, described the first-year academic goal for the vision-and-expectations team: establish common diagnostic and benchmark assessments across grade bands so K—2 data drive individualized instruction. Welch said the district will build a testing calendar to reduce ad-hoc assessment timing and then use that data to personalize remediation or acceleration. "We will use common benchmarking and diagnostic assessments across grade levels at both the elementary and content-tested secondary classes and PSSA and Keystone tested subjects," Welch said.

On staffing, Justin Wise outlined a measurable target to raise newly hired teacher retention from 71% to 90% and overall teacher retention from 93% to 95% by 2028. Year one will focus on listening eploying surveys and exit interviews to identify causes of turnover; year two will implement targeted mentorship and professional-development plans aligned with Act 48 and the 2026 Act 93 negotiations.

The FRCP team explicitly included AI as a priority. Mike Wilson, director of transportation and technology, told the board the district must adopt an intentional framework for AI because the technology is here to stay and will affect both student learning and teacher practice. The plan contains two AI goal statements: one focused on teacher and staff professional learning and another focused on student-facing applications. Staff emphasized a phased rollout: year one will be staff-focused, year two will introduce vetted tools to students with safeguards and guide rails, and year three will scale successful uses.

Attendance workstreams set distinct targets for elementary and secondary levels after reviewing baseline data. Assistant principal Alie Waldo said projected baseline attendance for the two elementary schools was 86% (projected 2023'4), and the team proposed incremental gains to reach 89% over three years. Secondary baseline was cited around 72% with a multi-year goal of roughly 78.1% through targeted interventions, family engagement and tiered support.

Dr. Oberg said the full FRCP document will be posted under the district s admin tab for 28 days of public view before the board s planned adoption on March 20; that posting initiates the formal public-comment period required by PDE.