Kuna board adopts HMH Into Reading (and Arriba) as K'5 ELA curriculum

The Kuna Joint School District Board of Trustees approved adoption of HMH's Into Reading as the district's K'5 core English language arts curriculum and Arriba for the district's Spanish-language program.

Director Kevin and members of the adoption committee described a year-long process that paired parents and teachers for classroom pilots, public review on the district website, rubric scoring, and vendor demonstrations. Parent committee member Christina Meyer told trustees she observed students highly engaged in the HMH pilot: "With HMH ... these kids were so involved with this curriculum," she said, praising the stories, home-learning materials and the balance of print and digital resources.

Teacher pilot lead Cara Scag described the vendor's support and the product's integration of foundational skills, handwriting, writing instruction and online reporting that she said improved teachers' ability to monitor standards by student and to share weekly progress with families. Committee members said HMH scored highest across parent, teacher and district rubrics; McGraw Hill and other candidates were either at end-of-life or did not align as strongly with the district's science-of-reading criteria.

Board members voted to adopt the recommendation. Final purchase options (three-, five- and seven-year payment plans) and exact cost figures will be presented alongside the budget for final approval in the coming months. Implementation plans and professional development are already being scheduled to begin ahead of the next school year.

What happens next: staff will return with cost scenarios for the board's budget review and a proposed implementation timeline; the district will treat the first year as a baseline year for monitoring student learning data under the new curriculum.