Justine Bieganski

The Governance Committee meeting included a continued discussion on Board Bylaw 0167.1 concerning Voting procedures. Further agenda items involved potential modifications to Board Policy GC-02E (C) and Bylaw 0144.1 regarding Board Compensation and its Annual Review. The committee also conducted a review of the Annual Work Plan and Monitoring Report Calendar, as well as a continued review of Operational Expectation - 2 concerning Emergency Superintendent Succession Policy Language and its proposed Interpretations and Indicators.

The special board meeting and work session addressed procedural matters and several key operational items. An action item was passed to make an exception to the board policy revision process to allow for the immediate discussion of modifications to Operational Expectation 4 (OE4) concerning personnel administration, bypassing standard referral steps for expediency. The body then reviewed the Operational Expectation 3 (OE3) facilities monitoring report for the period of September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025. Administration reported meeting 11 of 12 directives, with the exception being OE3.4 regarding preventative maintenance on critical building systems, achieving 88% compliance instead of the required 95% due to integrating new systems and a temporary backlog in entering data. The board recommended accepting this OE with the exception noted and requested rationale for non-compliance be added to future documentation. Furthermore, the board received the November 2025 annual update to the long-range facilities master plan, detailing progress on construction projects completed since the 2022 referendum, current projects under construction, and plans for Phase 4 projects starting in Summer 2026. The update also covered real estate transactions and goals for building a diverse and local workforce, noting all current projects are on schedule.

The meeting commenced with the Pledge of Allegiance and preamble recitation. Key agenda items involved monthly school student achievement reports from Gford K8 School, highlighting significant gains in early literacy metrics for 4K, Kindergarten, First, and Fifth grades, and recognition as the best of Raine for elementary and middle schools in 2025. Academy principals presented data, celebrated achievements such as high attendance rates (94.7%), and discussed progress on literacy goals, including mastery of letter names and sounds. The presentation also addressed performance on the Forward exam for middle school math proficiency and writing, noting challenges with data reporting from Panorama in some areas. Further discussion covered sense of belonging goals, attendance tracking, and chronic absenteeism, along with the implementation of new strategies for 2025-2026, focusing on student discourse, professional learning communities, new programming like Junior Achievement, STEAM lessons, and launching the National Junior Honors Society. Board members also inquired about strategies for encouraging student participation despite fear of judgment.

The meeting commenced with a report and demonstration on the Sport Stacking (speed stacking) program at Olympia Brown, highlighting its benefits such as improved focus, hand-eye coordination, and the participation of students in the Junior Olympics. The board then received updates on school goals from the previous year, which focused on increasing early literacy progress (with 79.3% of the first-grade cohort on track) and growth in constructed response writing skills, showing scores around 59.9% to 70.9% for third through fifth graders on those specific ELA questions. New goals for 2026 were introduced, targeting an increase in math growth scores from 50.8 to 65.8 and a 3% decrease in chronic absenteeism, which currently stands at 24%. Strategies for addressing attendance, particularly among younger students, include family intervention, exploring barriers, and incentive plans. The math goal involves intentional planning within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) by analyzing unit assessments question-by-question to embed necessary prerequisite skills and common misconceptions into daily teaching plans and utilizing common exit tickets for progress monitoring.

This Early Literacy Remediation Plan, mandated by state law, outlines the district's approach to reading instruction, assessment, and remediation for students in five-year-old kindergarten through third grade. It aims to support student reading achievement, identify and provide intervention for students needing literacy support, and strengthen the reading curriculum. A key goal, part of the broader Strategic Plan 2027, is to achieve 75% early literacy proficiency among Pre-Kindergarten to 3rd Grade students by 2027.