By Mark Tallman

“What has kept us moving forward the last several years is that we have been data-driven. We have been looking at our data, not making excuses, just owning where we are and trying to put processes and plans in place to improve.” - Geary County USD 475 Superintendent Dr. Reginald Eggleston.

Geary County USD 475 in Junction City is the state’s eighth-largest district with almost 7,500 students. I visited in October as part of my tour of successful districts. Due to its proximity to Fort Riley, half of the students are from military families. This results in a turnover rate in students and staff of 30 percent or more each year. Geary County is slightly above the state average with a low-income family rate of 50 percent. At 20 percent, the district also exceeds the state average of students with disabilities. The U.S. military has recognized Geary County for exceptional special education services.

In recent years, Geary County has exceeded academic performance predictions by about 9 percent, based on its size, family income, and student disability makeup. From 2015 to 2022, Geary County maintained steady or increased performance on state assessments. They were among the top districts in the state for exceeding predicted results. 

In explaining success, the administrators and principals I spoke with stressed commitment to strategic planning with high goals, the use of data to measure progress, consistency and intensity.

“We started out with our strategic plan. It has been evolving and will continue to change,” said Superintendent Eggleston. The 2021-26 strategic plan contains just three overall goals. The first goal involves an academic focus with graduation rate and assessment targets. The second involves social and emotional needs with attendance and behavior goals. The third involves family and community engagement. The three goal areas each reflect parts of the State Board of Education’s Kansans Can outline. The district understands that the targets are ambitious but they are measurable. Each school knows the exact growth they need to make on an annual basis.

“When we began this process, our data told us we didn’t have consistency across the district,” said Associate Superintendent Dr. Debra Gustafson. “One of Dr. Eggleston’s first charges was that we were to put together a strategic academic plan,” Gustafson says the district now has a common curriculum and common professional development.  “Whether it be academic, social and emotional or parent engagement, we're all speaking the same language now.”

Geary County leaders said the move to consistency was especially critical because of the district’s high turnover rates for teachers and students, noting that new teachers would often arrive without a sense of how they fit into the overall goals. Consistency also helps students.

“When the district started moving toward a strategic plan, we started looking at curriculum from the ground up,” said Kate Stewart, Director of Secondary Education and Library Media Services. The district worked to align academics and behavior policies between all levels and schools. “Having the same curriculum and expectations across all schools has made a huge impact,” Steward said.  The efforts have allowed the district to focus on the quality of instruction.

To build on academic progress, the district is expanding career technical education and concurrent college enrollment opportunities at the high school. They are broadening the individual plan of study based on career interest to include the middle school level. They have expanded mental health services and afterschool and summer programs. Increased state funding and federal pandemic aid have supported these efforts. 

Geary County has also made a major push to expand and improve early childhood education. The board recently approved the construction of a new Early Childhood Education Center with 24 classrooms and space for collaboration, professional development, and community outreach. This also allows expanded early childhood in each of its Junction City elementary schools.

Bright Idea: The district has dramatically increased structured observations and support of teachers. ”Now we are in every single core curriculum classroom four times a year, and that's just at the district level” said Gustafson. “Then we ask our principals to be in every single one of those rooms once a month. We collect the data from those walkthroughs and give that data back to principals to see if what we're actually seeing in those classrooms is matching up with our goals.”