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Superintendent lays out scorecard to boost achievement, special education and school climate
Summary
The Millersburg superintendent presented a multi-year scorecard of goals — curriculum updates, targeted interventions, expanded special-education supports, extracurricular growth and climate work — and reported measurable progress including a 26% drop in external cyber-charter enrollment for Millersburg residents.
The superintendent presented an updated district scorecard that sets five priorities: raise achievement, decrease outside cyber enrollments, improve special education, expand extracurricular programming and strengthen climate and culture. The presentation described action steps under each goal and how the district plans to measure progress.
"Green means go," the superintendent said, explaining that completed actions are marked green, while yellow indicates items in progress or scheduled. He described a newly formed curriculum-instruction committee with teacher representatives from each building and several in-service curriculum-writing dates aimed at producing a complete updated curriculum across subjects.
To raise achievement the administration emphasized strengthened instructional-practice training (including lesson-study work), additional data-review meetings to drive targeted interventions, and use of benchmark assessments and state tests such as the PSSA and Keystone as outcome measures. The superintendent noted early-dismissal professional-development days this year allowed staff to focus on instructional planning and interventions.
On reducing outside cyber-charter enrollment, the superintendent said the district had pursued in-district engagement strategies — including invitations to special events, targeted outreach, and flexible scheduling for online-academy students — and reported a 26% decrease in outside cyber enrollment among Millersburg residents this year. "We invite all of our online students to all of our special activities," he said as part of the engagement strategy.
For special education the district has added a full-time elementary emotional-support program and expanded multiple-disability supports. The superintendent told the board there is an agenda item to hire a middle-school autism-support teacher to serve students moving up from elementary programs. Staff trainings on 504 plans and a district special-education procedure manual were cited as capacity-building measures.
Extracurricular programming was highlighted as an area of growth through community partnerships. The superintendent cited a second-grade water-safety program delivered in partnership with the YMCA and internship and work-experience expansions that grew from zero students last year to several this year. He also described partnerships with the Ned Smith Center and the reconstitution of the Maroon and Gold Foundation to support programming.
On climate and culture the district has been piloting restorative practices and recorded 48 examples of the program's use across the middle and high school. The superintendent said principal teams will receive PASA training and that the district is planning parent workshops. He also raised the possibility of part-time or contracted staff to help implement restorative-accountability work and agreed to provide metrics on implementation.
The superintendent asked the board to review a newly drafted communications plan (templates, social-media guidelines and decision tools) and noted the superintendent-evaluation packet was included in the meeting materials.
The presentation closed with next steps: the administration will continue to share scorecard measures (benchmark and assessment data, program participation counts and behavior metrics) with the board and pursue hires and program rollouts noted on the agenda, including the middle-school autism support teacher.
