Early literacy slotted as a top priority in Kyrene for coming school year

By Caroline Yu
Mail | Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

A new strategic plan takes effect this coming school year in Kyrene School District with targeted priorities, like improving district-wide early literacy and academic equity, employing a “whole learner” approach.

Kyrene’s latest strategic plan of new district priorities and goals will unfold over the course of five years, starting fall 2023 through spring 2028.

Like other districts and in the past, Kyrene values high-quality instruction, which is typically a strategic plan goal, but is generally a part of the day-to-day work, Superintendent Laura Toenjes explained.

For the district’s coming priorities, Toenjes said that they wanted to identify specific, key initiatives to work towards that go beyond just providing a quality education.

“We’ve been spending time now really digging into which ones are we going to go build our action plans for this year right now,” Toenjes said.

With work underway to determine what goals are achievable for the coming year, the main issues Kyrene is looking to address in the next five years are early literacy rates, academic excellence, equity and increasing students’ sense of belonging.

Strategic plan in action

Early education is a major part of Kyrene’s next strategic plan, especially in regard to literacy rates.

In the process of identifying the district’s goals from 2023-28, Toenjes said that community surveys of students, staff and other stakeholders along with several data reviews showed that students struggled in their academics if they weren’t reading by the third grade.

“If you really dig into the research about closing gaps and all of the access that kids need, if we aren’t sending them off reading after third grade, they really never do perform,” she said.

Kyrene plans on putting a lot of energy this year into literacy with its earliest learners so that students have the best chance at success throughout their whole educational career.

Starting with the kindergarten class of 2024-25, this goal aims to have at least 85% of all kindergarten to third grade students meet their end-of-year benchmarks in reading by the end of this strategic plan.

Also to come to fruition by the 2027-28 school year is Kyrene’s investments in academic equity and excellence.

Kyrene uses its academic progress score to measure the proficiency and growth of district students and whether they are on track with state assessments for math, English language arts and science. The district’s current score is 57%, and the goal for this strategic plan is to increase it to at least 70%.

“Obviously, our thoughts and our goals are always 100%, right? You don’t ever want to leave any child back in this, but we’re also realistic in what you can accomplish in the amount of time,” Toenjes said.

With hopefully a new baseline of 70% by the end of this plan, it sets the district up to continue building upon this goal in future plans.

Talking student success, Toenjes noted that Kyrene takes a “whole student” approach, which takes into account a student’s scores but also their social, emotional and cognitive wellbeing. That is why the district also plans to prioritize equity and a sense of belonging within its community.

Toenjes said, “We have found that the students that are scoring higher in that sense of belonging are scoring higher also in their academics.”

Students who feel unsafe or nervous at school struggle to engage in the curriculum, especially at higher grade levels, she explained.

Particularly in students sixth to eighth grade, where students are more likely to have fears of failure and being seen differently, the district recorded only 39% of its students feeling a strong sense of belonging.

Over the next five years, the district hopes to raise the percent of middle school students who feel a strong sense of belonging by 10%.

As for equity, Kyrene plans on supporting its diverse population by ensuring that students of all races and ethnicities along with students with varying disabilities are more proportionately represented in advanced courses, gifted program, discipline referrals and suspensions.

“There’s not an actual number per se for this goal, but it’s about proportionality,” Toenjes said.

Actual initiatives to support this goal are still being determined, but the district plans to attack this issue by addressing the root cause of gaps in equity rather than taking a sweeping approach that doesn’t consider the feedback of educators and individual student results.

Kyrene’s latest strategic plan offers a multi-tiered system where the new goals impact each other. For example, improving the early literacy rate allows staff to better manage students who may need additional resources, rather than solely putting resources into academic interventions.

Throughout the plan, Kyrene also looks to consider its long-term plan in regard to declining enrollment and also proactively trying to address the national teacher shortage. Toenjes said Kyrene hasn’t felt the full effects of the latter as a more fortunate school district, but that it’s in danger of being left behind if nothing is done.

“If we don’t get in front of this, and we are playing catch up, then it’s going to hit, and it’s going to hit hard down the road,” she said.

Bond and override

Also slated for the coming school year is Kyrene’s first attempt at renewing its District Additional Assistance override of $8.5 million and a $161 million bond for use in coming school years. The election is scheduled for this November.

Money from these funds support the district in its maintenance and operations of schools to provide a number of improvements not covered by state funds, including updated technologies, new curriculum and infrastructure upgrades.

In an email from Kyrene’s Executive Director of Communications and Marketing Erin Helm, she wrote that members of the Kyrene community have historically been very supportive of the bond and override elections.

Courtesy Kyrene School District

Bond and override funding supplements state funds so that Kyrene can support its schools' maintenance and operations goals. 

“The 2021 M&O override and the 2017 bond and overrides all passed with more than 60% approval from voters,” Helm stated.

In the case that voters do not approve the bond or override funding, the district will have a chance in the following school year to secure those dollars. Funding will not immediately go away, but the district would be left without an alternative funding source if voters deny the bond and override a second time.

Information on the bond and override election can be found on the district’s website, where it has outlined how dollars would be allocated and a link to Kyrene’s comprehensive annual budget report.

“Kyrene and the governing board take fiscal accountability and transparency seriously, and the budget report gives a detailed accounting of how tax dollars are spent,” Helm stated.

School safety

Districts locally and nationally have seen a greater interest in investing in school safety with the prevalence of school shootings and other incidents where students and staff are put in danger.

Kyrene, like other districts, is committed to the safety of its schools with it also being a key focus area in the November bond reauthorization and capital override. Additionally, each of Kyrene’s schools have respective safety plans for such situations.

Damian Nichols, executive director of information technology and school safety, said in a written statement that safety and security of Kyrene students and staff is a top priority for the district.

“Kyrene utilizes both a safety and security committee to review and make recommended changes to policy and security infrastructure, as well as an emergency management team that responds to events and crises of all kinds,” Nichols said.

The safety and security committee and the emergency management team are composed of district employees and community experts experienced in law enforcement, medical response, health care, social emotional support, facilities management and much more.

Kyrene is constantly reviewing, testing and updating its safety and security posture to ensure a welcoming and safe environment.

“We do all of this on an ongoing basis to ensure our students have a safe, secure, inviting environment to learn and thrive,” he said.

Information about Kyrene’s safety and security measures can be found at www.kyrene.org/safe.

Reporter Caroline Yu can be reached at cyu@iniusa.org

To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Caroline Yu
Reporter | Tempe
@AzNewsmedia

cyu@iniusa.org

Meet Caroline
Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.  

Community:  She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events. 

Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French. 

Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years. 

Hobbies: Hiking, painting and crocheting.