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East Windsor trustees review year‑2 strategic plan, emphasize tiered supports, staffing and preschool options
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Summary
School leaders presented a year‑two update on the district'024–29 strategic plan, highlighting MTSS tiered academic supports, staffing pipelines and professional development, summer and preschool program options, a long‑range facilities inventory and SEL survey results.
School administrators presented the East Windsor Regional School District'024–29 strategic plan year‑two update at the April 27 board meeting, detailing actions across five goal areas and describing concrete program and facility options the district is pursuing.
Superintendent Mark Daniels opened the strategic plan segment and outlined five goal areas: student‑centered learning, staffing, community engagement, facilities and finance, and culture and climate. He introduced administrators who described year‑two actions intended to advance each goal.
On academic supports, Assistant Superintendent Sandy Small described a coordinated multi‑tiered system of supports (MTSS) across grade bands. "Tier 1, which are gonna be universal supports, which are provided to all students," Small said, and explained the district is aligning professional development to ensure consistent implementation. A K–2 presenter described Tier 1 core instruction intended to serve roughly 80% of students, Tier 2 targeted small‑group instruction for about 15%, and Tier 3 intensive pull‑out interventions for roughly 5% of students.
Kevin Weiss, supervisor for grades 3–5, said the district built scheduling to allow Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions to occur without students missing core instructional time and stressed frequent progress monitoring. "If our core instruction is working 80% or more of our students ... a student shouldn't need any more than what we can provide them in a Tier 1," Weiss said.
Presenters outlined specific programs used in interventions: UFLI for literacy intervention and "Do the Math" for numeracy in grades 3–5; Lexia and other targeted resources for middle grades; and a two‑teacher model for some Tier 3 classes to allow more individualized instruction.
On staffing, assistant superintendent Sam Felicita described active recruitment through job fairs and partnerships with universities and pathway programs. Felicita noted the district has hired graduates of its student‑teacher and educational‑assistant pipelines and reported district professional‑development totals tracked over the summer.
Community‑engagement features included preschool expansion planning and summer programming. Director of Student Services Dave Rowe said the state preschool expansion grant this year was funded at about 40%, and district analysis showed building space constraints and potential high land acquisition costs due to wetlands and parcel sizes. Rowe described summer bridge programs (about 140 participants) and ELL summer enrichment (~175 participants), and highlighted partnerships with local providers for internships and wraparound supports.
Paul Todd reviewed the long‑range facilities plan, described as a comprehensive inventory of potential capital projects, and said the district is analyzing needs including roughly $40 million in roofing work and an illustrative project list in the area of $200 million. Todd said the district is weighing options: building an addition onto existing elementary sites where feasible, partnering with private early‑childhood providers, or pursuing other solutions.
On climate and social‑emotional learning, Daniels highlighted a district move from the Panorama SEL tool to the New Jersey School Climate Survey (a Rutgers/NJDOE partnership) and summarized fall survey findings that showed strong perceptions of physical safety while identifying peer interpersonal behavior as an area for continued focus. The district continues SEL initiatives such as "Leader in Me" (K–2), monthly counselor SEL lessons and school SEL teams.
Board members asked a series of clarification questions about the point‑in‑time Tier 1/2/3 percentages, how language acquisition and ESL students are factored into the tiering model and attendance/format for summer professional development; administrators said the percentages are flexible averages and that tiered supports exist within sheltered/ESL settings.
Administrators said many actions are ongoing and that further details (including high‑school data and subcommittee discussion) will be presented at upcoming committee meetings.
