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Superintendent reports $169M in scholarship offers and lays out special-education outreach plan
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Royster reported scholarship totals for graduating classes and summarized a large special-education engagement effort (over 1,800 survey responses, multiple forums, and an external review by the American Institutes for Research due December 2025).
Superintendent Dr. Royster told the board on June 24 that the district continues to see large scholarship totals for students — the Class of 2024 collectively received $168,047,000 in scholarship offers and the Class of 2025 received $169,022,644.
He then delivered a progress report on special-education outreach and planning. The district received more than 1,800 responses to a SPED survey, held four parent forums (two public, two targeted), three employee forums with about 270 participants and two public forums with modest turnout. To gather broader input and to refine recommendations, administration plans regional summits in September and has engaged an external reviewer, the American Institutes for Research (AIR), to conduct a systems-level review. Dr. Royster said AIR’s final report is expected in December 2025.
District priorities drawn from the outreach include improved consistent digital communications (archived IEPs, push notifications for IEP meetings and behavioral incidents), better onboarding/transitions for students moving between schools, additional parent resource guides and training on prior written notice timelines, and consideration of a family-partnerships coordinator focused on special-education supports. The administration also proposed exploring an electronic student profile and other tools to make special-education processes clearer and more consistent for families.
Dr. Royster framed the changes as multi-year work: some items can be advanced over the summer (platform/technology requests, establishing administrator and principal focus groups) while the external review will inform further recommendations.
The board asked clarifying questions about summit selection and representation; Dr. Royster said the district will prioritize a broad cross-section of parents, teachers and administrators and prefer participants who had engaged in prior public meetings or surveys.
Next steps: implementation of near-term technology investigations over the summer, convening the September summits and receiving the AIR final report in December 2025.
