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Cañon City Schools showcases team‑based McKinley pilot as turnover falls and referrals drop
Summary
Human resources director Jamie Davis told the board the district’s McKinley team‑based instruction pilot has produced early gains: reported 30% fewer high‑level behavior incidents, a 57% drop in referrals, improved attendance and reading gains, and lower staff turnover, supported by a two‑year recruitment grant.
Jamie Davis, who leads the district’s human resources department, told the Cañon City Schools Board of Education on April 27 that a team‑based instructional model piloted at McKinley Elementary is producing measurable early results.
Davis said the district workforce is about 542 staff members with roughly 218 certified teachers, and she highlighted that the district started the school year at a 100% fill rate for staff vacancies. She credited a two‑year recruitment grant that funded resident and apprenticeship positions that helped create paid pathways into teaching.
The core of Davis’s report described the Next Education Workforce model the district is piloting with an Arizona State University coaching partnership. Under the McKinley model, teachers operate as a team (a lead teacher, resident teacher and instructional assistant) rather than as isolated single‑teacher classrooms. Davis said the approach is intended to distribute expertise, create collaboration and build a local pipeline of teachers.
On outcomes, Davis cited early school data: “we're seeing a 30% reduction of high‑level behaviors,” a “57% reduction in referrals,” and a 15% reduction in chronic absenteeism; she also reported increases in reading benchmarks (a cited 16% increase in students reading on grade level for the tested cohort). Davis attributed improvements to increased access to trusted adults and a collaborative teacher model.
District leaders framed the work as part of a broader retention and recruitment strategy. Davis said the program’s staffing experiments—paid resident roles and team structures—helped boost applicant pools while lowering turnover, and she noted the district will reapply for grant funding to continue the model.
Board members praised the pilot and asked for more details during the district’s Compass Committee; Davis said the district will share additional slide data and benchmarking at upcoming meetings.
The presentation included in‑meeting data drawn from a site visit and internal reports; board discussion did not change district policy that night. The district said the initiative remains a pilot and that final decisions about expansion hinge on ongoing grant funding and end‑of‑year benchmarking.
