Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Strategic Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Taconic Hills presents strategic-plan progress and major schedule redesign to boost targeted support
Summary
District leaders summarized year‑one work on the strategic plan and outlined a master-schedule redesign that adds structured support periods, expands MTSS/AIS grouping by skill and introduces 14+ new courses next year based on student feedback.
District leaders presented a year‑one update to the Taconic Hills strategic plan and described sweeping schedule and curriculum changes intended to increase targeted academic support.
Presenters emphasized the plan as a “living, breathing” document and reviewed the district mission and vision as well as core values read aloud by board and staff. The presentation highlighted three priority areas identified from community input: academic excellence, school environment and operations.
On instruction and scheduling, the high-school and middle-school teams described reintroducing a structured team/support period (similar to a past 't 9' model) and moving away from an unstructured "work hall." The plans call for grouping AIS (academic intervention services) by specific need (for example, reading comprehension, phonics or phonemic awareness) so students receive targeted instruction rather than mixed-level classes. Administrators said that change will be paired with cross-grade teaming and a data-focused day to monitor progress.
The district also plans additional summer programming focused on essential standards for incoming Grades 7–9, and noted 14+ new courses approved for next year. Presenters framed these moves as efforts to increase instructional minutes — citing an additional roughly 360 instructional minutes over the year by adjusting bell times — and to better align curriculum across grades through PLC work this summer.
Why it matters: The schedule changes aim to intervene earlier and more precisely for students who are falling behind, while preserving the same number of academic periods; district staff said the design maintains eight academic periods and provides longer class periods to yield more instructional time.
The presentation was followed by questions from board members about logistics (athletics, course loads and how students will be assigned to support periods); administrators said they will use data, teacher input and master-schedule planning to assign students and to prevent unintended course loss for athletes.
