Straight Talk from the Superintendent - September 30, 2022

At Monday evening’s Board meeting Deputy Superintendent Anita Huggins shared the WorkKeys assessment (career readiness measure) and the end of course (EOC) exam data for middle and high school students enrolled in Algebra I, English II, Biology, and U.S. History, which overall showed significant and promising gains, particularly among our student subgroups. Students, on average, outperformed the State in all content areas except English II (this was the first year of complete transition away from students taking English I as their EOC exam). I echo Ms. Huggins' sentiments that these gains would not have been possible without the thoughtful, advanced planning of principals who set ambitious goals and the hard work of our classroom teachers who are making real-connections with students and finding ways to support them.  Thank you, dedicated teachers and school leaders, for your tireless efforts to improve academic achievement and outcomes for all students. 

The Board of Trustees wrapped up its community engagement sessions around goals and guardrails for student outcomes this week. Early next week, they will gather to look at the data and feedback collected at these sessions as well as the survey results that many of you completed to help further develop and define goals and guardrails. I want to take a moment to thank all those involved in supporting the Board in these community engagement efforts, especially the members of our Office of Translation and Interpretation Services who ensured Spanish speaking families were supported at every single community session:  Angela Rush, Luis Torres Clavell, Stephanie Vickers, Amanda Adams, and Gloria Collazo-Rodriguez.

On a more personal note, my week was a little shorter than usual as I stepped away from the office mid-week to participate in the celebration of life for my closest childhood friend who unexpectedly passed away, Sam Brown. Between the loss of this dear friend and the devastation and loss families have felt in Florida this week, I am even more so reminded of the importance of spending time with the ones you love and coming together as a community to support one another in both loss and celebration.

Regards,

Don