Othello School District presents plan to strengthen K–3 foundational reading at Hayawa

At a board meeting presentation, a Hayawa school representative told the Othello School District board that the school has focused this year on strengthening foundational reading skills for kindergarten through third grade by prioritizing word recognition — phonemic awareness, decoding and spelling — alongside language comprehension.

The presenter said the district distinguishes between the language-comprehension side of reading (vocabulary and background knowledge) and the word-recognition side that underpins fluent decoding. "When I'm talking about foundational reading, I'm really focusing on that word recognition side of becoming a skilled reader," the presenter said, noting that phonemic awareness and the ability to blend and segment sounds are central to the work.

Why it matters: presenters and board members said early automaticity with decoding is essential to free students to engage in comprehension. The presenter said Hayawa began work on these practices in the prior year and in 2024–25 increased phonemic-awareness opportunities during core instruction and aligned the same program and structures across core and intervention periods so students receive coherent practice.

What changed this year: the team moved enrichment and intervention time to a model that applies phonics skills in multiple ways — writing, spelling, fluency passages, word sorts and vocabulary talk — to deepen transfer. "During this time, students are taking that skill that they learned during their core time. They're doing writing and spelling with it. They're applying it in a fluency passage," the presenter said, adding the change gives students more repetition and varied practice.

Training and staffing: the presenter said staff received training while implementing changes and that professional development for both paraprofessionals and teachers will continue. She listed the Hayawa support team as Eliza, Melissa (instructional coach), counselor Blanca, school psychologist Maria, special-education staff Octavio, multilingual teacher Julia, and grade representatives Jessica (K–2), Liz (3–4) and Katie and Jennifer (5–6). The presenter said the goal is strong tier-one instruction so fewer students require tier 2 and tier 3 interventions.

Assessment and student goals: the presenter emphasized common planning, shared assessments and student involvement in goal-setting. Teachers use classroom tracking, interim assessments (for example, STAR) and one-on-one teacher–student goal-setting to monitor progress. "Some of the feedback from our teachers is we just keep hearing them say our students are more confident," she said, while noting that no specific new outcome figures were presented that night.

District context: the presenter walked the board through slides comparing local elementary schools with regional data and said Othello elementary schools, including Hayawa, rank among the top-performing 20% relative to state expectations. Board members acknowledged that while those rankings are positive, many students still need additional supports; one board member said the slide prompts urgency to raise reading rates "until we can raise those numbers."

Board response and next steps: board members praised the recent Hayawa site visit and the presentation. Board member Pete reminded the room the district remains in the top 25% regionally and several members thanked staff for transparency and the classroom-level follow-through they observed on the visit. The board asked for continued refinement of the professional development plan and scheduling to provide additional intervention or enrichment where needed.

No formal action: the meeting recessed into a 30-minute executive session to discuss the performance of a public employee and the sale or lease of real estate; the chair stated no action will be taken following that session and the meeting was adjourned.

What was not in the presentation: presenters repeatedly said they did not have specific new numeric outcome data to share that evening (for example, precise K–3 gains for the current year were not specified). The district said it will continue professional development, strengthen common planning, and work on vertical alignment (K–6) and MTSS/RTI systems.

Next meeting: the board noted a scheduled board meeting on April 27 at noon and upcoming site visits; no votes or policy adoptions occurred during this presentation.