Sarasota officials point to literacy gains, outline VPK and Read 180 expansion

Mrs. O'Day and Miss Manelli presented the Sarasota County Schools’ comprehensive evidence-based reading plan and highlighted measurable gains and program expansions.

The district said baseline pre-K screening shows 86 percent of students at or above benchmark and reported that, across grades 3–12, about 67 percent of students are reading at grade level. “This reflects strong early literacy outcomes tied to our aligned instruction as well as early interventions,” Miss Manelli said.

District leaders described several concrete steps to build on those results: converting early-learning rooms into 26 VPK classrooms systemwide; expanding the summer bridge program from one site to two (Tuttle and Venice L) to help students enter kindergarten ready; moving a phonological awareness program (Heggarty) into pre-K to strengthen alignment through Grade 1; and scaling the Read 180 intensive reading curriculum into middle schools with high-school teachers mentoring middle-school staff.

Superintendent Connor and staff stressed the role of targeted professional learning and coaching, funded in part by grants and community foundations, to maintain gains. The presentation credited district literacy coaches, district–school coaching models and external partners with helping increase proficiency and reduce the share of Level 1 readers.

Board members pressed for details about supports for the district’s lowest quartile of readers and for tracking cohorts affected by COVID-era disruptions. In response, staff described individualized "push and press" intervention plans that use PM2/PM3 progress monitoring, small-group reteaching and blended learning platforms, supplemented where possible with Title I and grant-funded interventionists.

Next steps: staff said the reading plan will be presented to the board for approval at the June meeting and submitted in August along with any charter school plans.