At their meeting Tuesday evening, members of the School Board heard a mid-year review of the district’s accomplishments as Superintendent Edward Tierney’s first school year in Monroe County enters its seventh month. The report showed upward trends in all areas presented including math, reading and graduation rates, which increased an impressive 5% between the 2023-24 school year at 86.9% to the 2024-25 school rate when 91.9 % of seniors graduated (see the detailed report here).
Director of Accountability and Assessment Yanelys Ballard gave a Progress Monitoring two update that shows upward trends in most grades for English/Language Arts (ELA). ELA Coordinator Heidi Roberts let board members know about the Superintendent’s new initiative, “One Team, One Goal - Student Success”, in which administrative employees are empowered to spend more time visiting schools and lending a hand wherever it is needed. The goal is to support teachers and students as they work to achieve the ultimate goal of any school district: teaching students and encouraging them as they find their way from childhood to productive adult members of society.
“Our focus is on our students and if we can do anything to help them be more successful, then we will do it,” said Superintendent Tierney. “We are truly one team with one goal and I want to make sure we keep that goal in mind at all times. We all work for the citizens of Monroe County and our job is to educate our county’s children and to help them be successful.”
In addition to presenting the board with a review of the first half of the school year, Deputy Superintendent Amber Acevedo talked about the district’s future plans for changes and improvements. She spoke about changes taking place which will improve class planning and scheduling. She said all schools have been asked to solicit student input about which classes they would like to see offered at their schools. The idea is to have knowledge early on about the types of classes each school wants or needs for the coming year and how many students might be interested in them, thus allowing for more planning and preparation time.
With more time, teachers can be more prepared and can be trained over the summer on the topics they will be teaching; students will have their schedules for next year before the end of this school year so they will know what to expect. School administrators will have more time to work on the jigsaw puzzle that is class scheduling - figuring out how many of each class to schedule, who will teach them and what times to schedule them so as to make sure as many students as possible can take the classes they really want.
Another area that can be challenging, Acevedo said, particularly in the Florida Keys, is ensuring teacher vacancies are filled in time for the next school year. She said Executive Director of Human Resources Harry Russell has worked hard to put together a pool of available candidates for Principals to choose from. One criteria he has built into the process: making sure those from other areas of the state or country are aware of the cost of living in Monroe County and asking each candidate if they have a housing plan if they are employed here.