Dr. Josh Dich outlines curriculum and professional‑learning priorities for Pleasantville schools

Dr. Josh Dich, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Pleasantville Union Free School District, presented a districtwide plan to align curriculum, expand professional learning and pilot new programs aimed at improving coherence across grades and subjects.

Dich said the work will center on three levers — organizational structures, professional learning and programming — that together should realize the district mission of “rich academic programs, safe collaborative environments and student‑centered experiences.” He described a three‑tier leadership approach: a core curriculum leadership team (director plus curriculum coordinators), an instructional leadership team (building leaders, technology and special‑education directors) and a larger curriculum council that will include teachers and community representatives.

The presentation emphasized teacher professional learning as a major district tool. Dich said a superintendent conference day redesigned around teacher‑led sessions and cross‑building collaboration received an average satisfaction rating of 4.57 out of 5 on post‑event surveys, with about 66% of respondents rating the day a five. “The best teachers are the best learners,” Dich said, arguing that sustained, job‑embedded learning will support coherence across classrooms.

On course approvals, Dich said the district has approved teacher coursework in climate education, the science of reading and English‑language‑learner certification, and that the course approval committee will weigh budget impacts when considering future requests. He described a professional‑development committee of roughly 20 members that will continue to shape job‑embedded learning and foster cross‑building collaboration.

Dich reviewed building‑level work: Bedford Road School is three years into an in‑house writing program and one year into a new reading comprehension program that staff report is producing stronger student work; the middle school will begin implementing the National Geographic social‑studies curriculum for grades 5–8; and Project Lead The Way courses are being rolled out to strengthen technology and engineering instruction.

At the high school level, Dich said the district is introducing expanded pathways — including personal finance and a civic‑readiness course — and continuing work to align assessment and grading practices vertically and horizontally. He also noted a district goal to implement a full ICT (inclusive co‑teaching) model and said curriculum mapping and documentation now give the district a “well‑documented curriculum that allows us to do some deeper evaluation.”

Dich presented a high‑level curriculum framework that maps district curriculum to New York State standards and identifies cross‑subject strands — disciplinary knowledge, inquiry and sensemaking, reasoning and explanation, practice, purpose/audience/application and habits/identity — intended to guide priorities and teacher supports. “It is a collaborative ecosystem rather than a hierarchy,” he said, describing the intended relationship among teams and teachers.

Looking ahead, Dich said the district is piloting a middle‑school reading unit (primarily in sixth grade) to smooth the elementary‑to‑middle transition, will continue professional learning tied to classroom technology as the district shifts to Apple devices, and expects to form the broader curriculum council after instructional‑leadership processes are tested. He also tied the district's work to New York State initiatives such as the New York Inspires plan and the State's portrait of a graduate, saying those frameworks will inform priorities and performance‑based assessment planning.

Dich closed by framing the presentation as the start of an iterative process of implementation, evaluation and adjustment and said the district aims to hold at least one curriculum‑council meeting before the end of the school year.