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Curriculum director highlights Branching Minds rollout, URI partnership and coaching investments
Summary
Gail, curriculum lead, described the implementation of Branching Minds for MTSS, a formal University of Rhode Island partnership for year‑long student teachers and investments in instructional coaching and teacher documentation to support continuity and professional learning.
Gail, the district curriculum lead, told the committee the curriculum office has implemented Branching Minds as the district MTSS data repository and is preparing to expand access beyond interventionists to teachers next year to provide a single place for attendance, behavioral data and assessment results.
She said the district has entered a formal partnership with the University of Rhode Island to accept year‑long student teachers, allowing student teachers to build year‑long relationships with classrooms. Gail also said a health and wellness committee has been reconvened to review related policy and to survey each school on areas such as school lunch, physical education and health instruction.
Gail outlined budget lines focused on professional development, curriculum academy stipends, pilot purchases for new ELA materials at the high school and licenses for new classroom kits that the district will ultimately own. She said the curriculum office aims to finalize public‑facing curriculum documents this year and to develop teacher‑only live documents on a district drive to support continuity when teachers are on leave.
Committee members praised instructional coaching and grant success; Gail noted she continues to apply for grants that add programming without increasing baseline budget needs. There were no formal votes on curriculum items during the workshop; final budget decisions will be made at the regular committee meeting.
