Gilbert Public Schools is purchasing a supplementary reading intervention resource for kindergarten through third-grade students who need additional help reaching the state’s reading standards.
The district’s governing board unanimously approved the purchase of the 95 Percent Group’s “Phonological Awareness and Phonics Lesson Kit”for $179,927.37 from the district’s capital funds for curriculum at its April 25 meeting.
The resource is composed of systematic, explicit, and evidence-based lessons to deliver focused, targeted intervention to K-3 students, according to the district.
The resource will supplement the Fundations and Spalding curriculum in order to provide primary students who qualify for intensive reading intervention the support they need.
That is so the students will meet state’s “Move On When Reading” policy, a combination of three state laws that require a student not be promoted from third grade to fourth grade if he or she “does not demonstrate sufficient reading skills” on the state's third grade reading test. The legislation is designed to provide students with evidence-based reading instruction and intervention in kindergarten through third grade.
The material came from a recommendation of a committee formed to investigate various supplementary resources. The public was able to review the materials from Feb. 15 to April 17.
Teaching and Learning Assistant Superintendent Barbara Newman said the district received little feedback from the public during the review period and what it did receive was positive.
“I love that this is just an additional safeguard for those little kiddos that need that extra help,” Board Member Ronda Page said. “We’re putting like little guard rails around them so they don’t get too far off track.”
Board Member Jill Humpherys also praised the curriculum based on her review of it.
The material is expected to arrive by the end of May and will be used primarily by reading specialists, who will have a professional development session on the use of it, according to the district.
In other actions:
The board appointed Ames Singley as principal of Pioneer Elementary School for the 2023-24 school year. Singley is a former Gilbert Public Schools administrator who is returning to the district after working in Japan for several years.
The board unanimously approved an Employee Benefit Trust recommendation to have two “medical premium holidays,” in which the trust pays the district employees’ medical premiums for a pay period, during the 2023-24 school year. One will be paid about at the time of fall break and the other at about the time of spring break.
The board had a first read on a personal leave policy for employees to bring policy in line with district practice based on the district’s negotiated Memorandum of Understanding with its employees.
On consent agenda, the board approved a number of capital projects around the district that will be done during summer.
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here