Director reports strong ACT improvement and staffing updates at Oneida SSD meeting

The Oneida Special School District director delivered a report covering hiring recommendations, recent assessment results and student-support staffing.

Director (speaker 7) presented hiring recommendations for April — Samantha Duncan, Gabby Jeffers, Katie Sharp and Jason Pike — and asked for board input on the strategic plan by April 12 to meet financial timelines. The director also noted packet materials including demographic data, legislative calendars and contract objectives.

A staff member who reported on high-school assessments (speaker 2) provided a detailed ACT score breakdown. The speaker said seniors and juniors showed gains across bands and listed counts at specific score levels, noting two current students had results in the 30s on initial attempts and two other students were in the 30s overall. The staff member described the district’s ACT "boot camp" and asked whether the district should expand offerings; the board discussed balancing boot-camp time with EOC instruction. The presenter characterized the test changes as encouraging and highlighted individual student improvement as evidence of the program’s effect.

Staff also reported health-services updates: turnover of the high-school/middle-school nurse (Alex Geisler) with interim coverage in place, and the addition of a counselor via Ridgeview; Mountain Peoples offered to provide free sports physicals for the district.

The board received the report; the director indicated several items require follow-up and financial planning but no additional board votes were recorded on these packet details during the meeting.