Swain County Schools administrators presented a district strategic plan and school NCSTAR improvement plans and asked the board to approve the plans for submission to the state. The board approved the plans by show of hands and directed staff to convene follow-up meetings to review formative versus summative assessments.

The district said it is prioritizing two strategies: strengthen literacy across grades and invest in a coaching initiative to improve core instruction. Administrators said they rely on in-class and i-Ready diagnostics during the year because end-of-year EOG and EOC tests are "autopsy data" that arrive too late to guide midyear adjustments. The district cited a roughly 0.7 correlation between i-Ready and EOG outcomes and set an initial target of approximately 9% growth (with an 18% stretch goal) based on vendor projections and internal analysis.

School leaders reported steps already in place: interventionists and revised Swain core curricula, weekly formative checks at the middle school, small-group interventions, and a focus on reducing excessive screen time in early grades by increasing paper-and-pencil and teacher-led activities. Principals and teachers described the use of weekly assessments, small-group interventions and retired-teacher mentors to provide one-on-one and small-group instruction. The middle school described beginning-of-year i-Ready diagnostics and weekly mastery checks for standards with targeted follow-up.

Administrators said the district will post school-level strategic plans for public comment and review input; they received 17 public responses during the initial posting and will share those comments with the board. The district recommended monthly or quarterly progress reporting and proposed a special meeting with teachers and administrators before the December board meeting to review formative assessments and plan adjustments.

Board members approved the district and school improvement plans and asked staff to return with midyear check-in data and a schedule for reporting progress.