The Christina School Board met for a general business session Tuesday with hopes to get a state certificate of necessity to make district-wide capital improvements.
Board members heard the projects included in the submission, many of which are familiar. This year’s submission is largely a resubmission of last year’s application.
The total ask is $185 million, with the local portion covering $74 million of that total.
That includes plans to replace Gauger-Cobbs Middle School, which has no windows, and the Shue Middle School side of Shue/Medill Middle Schools.
Planning and projects supervisor George Wicks said district officials are also asking to fund modifications for high schools, including funds for educational projects and security measures.
“The total ask is very, very close to what we asked for last year,” Wicks said. “So we tried to account for inflation and then and then modify it back down so we have very similar numbers to what our ask was last year.”
The next step is to finalize that submission and send it to the state Department of Education for approval.
If approved, the district will schedule a capital referendum for the local funding portion.
Board members also heard from its new superintendent at the meeting Tuesday.
Superintendent Deirdra Joyner presented her update for the district, which included three goals for the upcoming school year. She pointed to a recent audit finding only 28 percent of lesson time in the district showed strong instruction practices.
“We're going to use and leverage the teaching practices that are identified in what we're calling the Seven, the Christina Seven, which is our new instructional framework,” Joyner said. “And then school and district cycles of observation, coaching and feedback.”
Joyner added she plans to simplify curriculum and make resources more organized and accessible for educators. The other goals are to strengthen students’ sense of belonging and improve students’ college and career readiness.
Joyner said one way to do that is to close the achievement gap seen with multi-language students and continue targeting chronic absenteeism.
Board members praised Joyner’s goals and plan, with one saying they liked the report was largely focused on student needs.
