The next few slides will highlight some of the

work we have been engaged in this year to

address the strategic priorities and the blueprint expectations.

Thanks to the county council's support of our

fiscal year 24 budget, we were able to

add three math coaches so that all of

our elementary schools now have a math coach.

These individuals work directly with small groups

of students to provide intensive intervention to

accelerate student learning, which is imperative for

addressing the gaps in our achievement data.

In addition, the math coaches work with teachers

to provide real time, ongoing professional learning, to

improve classroom teaching practices, to meet student learning

needs, and to ensure that instruction is aligned

to the rigor of the standards.

We are already seeing evidence of

the positive impact of our coaches.

For example, a teacher recently shared with me that she

is meeting with her math coach weekly to plan her

lessons, and she is demonstrating some of the greatest gains

in student mastery of grade level standards.

Through grant funding, we've been able to

implement map testing for elementary students in

english language arts and mathematics.

This allows us to track student growth

and progress in meeting grade level standards.

Having this data allows teachers to differentiate

their instruction to address individual student learning

needs in an effort to intervene with

targeted instruction before gaps develop.

This data also provides a level of transparency of our

progress as a district, as it is reported to our

board on a regular basis and is shared with parents

so they know how their child is progressing.

Grant funding has also allowed us to do an

audit of our elementary reading and mathematics curriculum.

We convened a group of teachers, administrators, and district

staff to review new reading and math curriculum options

that would be better aligned to the standards.

We have the reading recommendation aligned to

the science of reading available for public

review, and we'll be making a recommendation

for mathematics at our next board meeting.

Our second strategic priority is fostering an engaging environment

for all students and staff in this area.

Providing school based mental health

services is a significant effort.

As all school districts can attest, the

impact of school closures has had an

adverse impact on students mental health.

We have been seeing students with more

significant needs that, left unaddressed, create conditions

in which they are not prepared to

engage in the learning environment.

This year, we have also implemented a process to

get feedback from students and staff on their perceptions

of multiple factors that impact school climate.

The intent is to be able to

address issues so that all students and

staff have safe and caring school environments.

The board's third strategic priority is to

recruit, hire, and retain high quality teachers.

Research consistently demonstrates that the most

significant factor for student achievement is

having a high quality teacher.

The challenge for school districts across

the nation is that there is

a critical shortage of teacher candidates.

We have developed a few innovative strategies to

ensure that we are staffing our classrooms.

The first is our Grow Your O wn program for

graduating students, many of whom complete our Teacher Academy

of Maryland program as high school students.

After a thorough application process, we provide students

with college scholarships if they agree to return

to Talbot County Public Schools to teach.

We currently have nine Grow Your Owns, one of

whom graduated with her degree in December and was

able to move directly into a classroom vacancy.

We have used grant funding to expand the grow

your own model to an Employee to Teacher program.

We recognize that we have amazing support

staff currently working with our students who

would be great classroom teachers.

We now have five instructional assistants and

one bus driver who are pursuing their

teaching degrees and will eventually fill high

needs teaching positions in our schools.

As you know, the Blueprint for Maryland's

future is a framework for improving learning

outcomes for all of our students.

TCPS is embracing the blueprint because we know that

there is alignment between the Blueprint expectations and our

county's beliefs and aspirations for all students.

Easton Elementary School is entering year three as

a Community School and will begin implementing wraparound

services that meet the specific needs of their

students and school community, and in the 24

25 school year, Easton Middle School will begin

year one Community School implementation.

We are also supporting teachers in pursuing national

board certification, which has been identified as a

measure of distinction for an effective teacher.

We have increased our collaboration with Chesapeake College

to support dual enrollment for our students, including

supporting the ability of our students to earn

a high school diploma and an AA degree

when they leave high school.

Meeting the requirement to increase teacher

compensation has also been a priority.

This factor alone is a significant part

of the increase in our budget request.

It is, however, the greatest investment that can be

made in the long term success not only of

our students, but of our entire community.