District highlights assessment gains and expands gifted-education staffing after ELG grant results

District administrators presented a portfolio of end-of-year assessment results and updates on gifted education at the June 16 Steamboat Springs School Board meeting.

Kristen Atwood, director of exceptional student services, delivered the gifted-education summary. She reported approximately 264 students identified as gifted across the district (middle school ~78; Steamboat Springs High School ~160; Sleeping Giant Middle School ~23; Yampa Valley High School ~2) and said the district will move staffing so that all four gifted-education staff will be student-facing next year. She also named Maggie Bruske as the staff member taking over a recently retired position. Atwood said the district will participate in the state’s five-year gifted education monitoring process and plans to finalize staffing before the next school year.

Dr. Tim Ritter presented assessment findings tied to the Early Literacy Grant and other measures. He reported reductions in the percent of students categorized as "well below benchmark" (for example, Soda Creek’s K–3 'well below' figures moved downward) and said district I-Ready ELA and math typical-growth figures were at or above roughly 70 percent. Ritter corrected a board-book table error on the record (a 9% figure should have been 71%) and walked through school-level trends, curriculum-adoption plans for grades 4–8, and next steps to release CMAS/PSAT/SAT disaggregated results in August.

Board members asked detailed follow-up questions about cluster grouping, the district’s use of universal screeners (CogAT and Naglieri), identification of twice-exceptional students, and professional development. Atwood explained the district’s process: parent and teacher recommendations, universal screeners and triangulation of data (MAPS, iReady, local measures), and noted the district is reviewing screener choices with incoming staff and Colorado Department of Education (CDE) input. She said the district has provided whole-district professional development on twice-exceptional learner identification and anticipates continuing and expanding teacher training.

What to watch next: the board will receive formal CMAS and disaggregated data in August and the district will begin the state monitoring process for gifted education next year. Staff flagged open follow-up items including finalizing gifted staff hires, confirming screener policy, and publishing the detailed assessment packets in August.

Selected direct quotes in the meeting record:
"We have 264 students at the gifted level." — Kristen Atwood
"Our students in the well below benchmark category was about 31%...and all of them went down." — Dr. Tim Ritter

The board accepted the reports before moving on to action items.