For over fifteen years, ESU 10 has conducted annual service planning meetings with our public school districts. The process has evolved over time, and this year the Teaching and Learning Department streamlined the data collection phase. Using video conferencing, we successfully conducted all 33 public school visits between January 28 and March 11, 2025. Our team met with leadership teams from each district to discuss their priorities for the 2025–2026 school year.
The Process
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Prior to each video conference, school leadership teams were asked to complete a survey addressing the following questions:
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What are your district's continuous improvement/MTSS goals?
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What is your district's Targeted Improvement Plan (TIP) goal?
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Which strategy have you identified to address your TIP goal?
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What are 2–3 priorities your district is currently working on or planning for during the 2025–2026 school year?
The responses guided our 30–60 minute conversations with each district. During these meetings, we aligned ESU 10 services to the districts' priorities and goals, and we documented our discussions through shared notes. After all visits were completed, we analyzed the notes to identify key themes and trends, which are now being used to design regional professional learning opportunities for ESU 10 schools.
Key Themes and Common Needs
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Most ESU 10 districts have a strong focus on ELA (Reading & Writing) and Math as primary continuous improvement goals.
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Many districts expressed a need to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and Tier 2 interventions to better support student learning.
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Reading comprehension emerged as the most common TIP goal.
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Several districts are prioritizing efforts to close achievement gaps for students with disabilities.
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Common priorities also include addressing gaps for marginalized student groups and enhancing support for social-emotional learning (SEL) and mental health.
Our Teaching and Learning Lead Contacts have been following up with district leadership teams this spring to develop tailored professional learning plans for the 2025–2026 school year. This
year’s process proved to be efficient and impactful, and we plan to replicate it next winter. The 2026–2027 service planning meetings are scheduled for the last week of January and the first week
of February 2026. This timeline will help us accelerate the planning process and allow districts to coordinate their calendars with regional professional learning opportunities offered by ESU 10.