Superintendent outlines plan to boost inclusion and reduce chronic absenteeism; board presses for data and next steps

Superintendent Dr. Reed presented the school division’s strategic plan Objective 2 on March 26, describing steps the district is taking to ensure students are safe, supported, included and empowered. The presentation highlighted attendance improvements, reductions in suspensions and a reported figure that about 61% of students with disabilities spend at least 80% of their time in inclusive settings.

Dr. Reed summarized three priority strategies: strengthening connection and belonging, expanding supports for students with disabilities, and targeting interventions to reduce chronic absenteeism. She said the division has worked with outside consultants, provided professional development and implemented universal programs to support social and emotional learning.

Board members pressed staff for the underlying data and the meaning of headline percentages. One trustee noted that a chronic-absence metric of roughly 11–12% (about 18 days per year) remains a concern and asked how much of that figure represents excused absences. Staff responded that roughly 70% of chronic absences in the cited figure were excused and described ongoing efforts to separate excused from unexcused absences in predictive analyses.

Trustees also asked about disproportional discipline levels and how the division assesses whether inclusion strategies are producing outcomes for different student groups. Staff said targeted training, revised referral practices and school-level interventions are being piloted and that it may take one to two years to see measurable impacts in some metrics.

Community commenters during public comment connected to the presentation: parents and teachers urged the board to expand arts and theater programs as a strategy to increase engagement and attendance, and to improve supports for twice-exceptional and autistic students. A parent concerned with classroom technology urged stronger privacy protections, particularly around Google applications and camera access in student devices.

Board members asked for clearer documentation of survey methodology and source data used to produce the percentages presented, and asked staff to return with disaggregated data and implementation milestones. Dr. Reed and staff said they will provide follow-up materials and continue work with schools to scale the strategies indicated in the plan.

The board did not take a formal vote on the plan at this meeting but adopted the report as presented and moved to follow up with additional data and implementation updates.