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Tiffin Elementary reports reading gains, preschool to return to school building; district pilots UFLI and CKLA
Summary
Tiffin Elementary principal Stacy Stoll reported winter screening gains in K–1 reading and math, described implementation of the UFLI literacy program and CKLA pilot, and said preschool will move back to Tiffin Elementary next school year. Family reading nights drew about 38 families (roughly 20%).
Stacy Stoll, principal at Tiffin Elementary, told the Clear Creek Amana school board Wednesday that early reading screeners show improvement across the building, with the school’s overall reading proficiency rising from about 50% in the fall to 61% in winter.
"We saw some good growth there," Stoll said, pointing to gains in kindergarten (from 60% to 77% on some measures) and noting that first grade also showed increases though it still has "a bit of work to do." She described emphasis on decoding skills (nonsense‑word fluency), onset/rime and sight‑word instruction as part of the kindergarten–first grade focus.
Stoll said the school has implemented UFLI (the University of Florida Literacy Institute program) across the grade levels this year. "We've had a full year of implementation across both grade levels," she told the board, and attributed much of the fall‑to‑winter growth to that literacy work. The district is piloting CKLA for comprehension and writing in some first‑grade classrooms as a complementary program.
Stoll also described preschool operations: the district participates in the statewide voluntary preschool grant and provides half‑day preschool four days a week; she told the board the preschool program will move back into Tiffin Elementary next year so preschool and full‑day kindergarten can be under the same roof. The principal said family literacy nights had about 20% of families attend — roughly 38 families — across offered sessions.
District curriculum staff added that the district has set growth targets (about 3% per grade level on district goals) and is aligning report cards and professional learning to support consistent instruction across buildings. Staff noted that the ISASP state assessment will be administered in April but that the state’s new norming process will delay data return until the fall, changing how the district monitors year‑to‑year ISASP results.
Board members asked clarifying questions about which grades or buildings are piloting CKLA and how programming aligns across sites; presenters identified specific grade placements (e.g., first grade at Clear Creek Elementary) during the discussion. The district’s literacy and assessment work will continue to be monitored as spring screening and ISASP testing are completed.
The board did not take formal action on curriculum items at the meeting; the presentations were informational.
