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Bethune Arts Elementary

State of the School Meeting

November 18, 2025

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Accountability,

Innovation, and

Research

Agenda

WHO WE ARE

• Mission and vision
• Strengths
• Challenges

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OUR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

• Goals and strategies
• Sharing student progress

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TITLE I

• Overview of Title I
• How we’re using our Title I funds
• Title I and Family Engagement

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Bethune Arts Elementary�Who We Are

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Who We Are

Mission: Bethune Arts Elementary School fosters an inclusive and supportive environment where all students grow through arts integration, critical thinking, and creative problem solving. We celebrate diversity with culturally relevant lessons that build confidence, self-esteem and respect. Through strong community-based partnerships, we connect families, schools and the greater community to support each child’s success and well-being. In order to grow diverse, well-rounded, life-long learners.

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School Stats

• Enrollment: 213 Students
• Demographics: 73% African American; 7% White, 10% Hispanic; 3% Asian/Pacific Islander, 4% Native American; 2% Two or more races.
• Community: Bethune is located in North Minneapolis in the Heritage Park neighborhood; we are connected to the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center.
• Programming: As an arts magnet school, we integrate arts instruction into much of what we do at Bethune. Many of our community partners are local artists or companies - such as the Children’s Theatre Company - who are dedicated to bringing arts into the lives of students. We are a full-service community school - partnering with Minneapolis Parks and Recreation.
• We are named for Mary McLeod Bethune who worked to establish programs that fought to end segregated education, to improve healthcare for black children and to help women use the ballot to advance equality.

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Our Current Reality

Strengths

• Arts Integration
• Community Partnerships: Children’s Theatre Company, Kroening Nature Center, Assistance League, MN Friends of the Orchestra, MN Institute of Arts, Be the Change Foundation, Nordstrom Shoes that Fit, and others
• Full-Service Community School-serviced by Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board
• Academic Interventions have begun
• Bethune is a resilient and tight-knit community
• Fully staffed educational support Professional Team
• K-3 Phonics instruction through UFLI and K-5 implementation of Bridges Math Curriculum
• All classroom and support staff positions hired
• Family Involvement

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Challenges

• Continuing to see the impacts of COVID-19 on academic and social emotional learning
• New Teachers
• Meeting needs of students
• Less staff from previous years

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Our School Improvement Plan

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Our school improvement plan:

• Sets the goals that our school community is working to achieve
• Identifies the strategies or activities that will help us reach those goals together

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Every Minneapolis Public School is required to develop, implement, and monitor a school improvement plan.

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What’s a School Improvement Plan?

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Our School Improvement Plan

Goal 1: Academic Excellence

• 32% of K-1 students will meet or exceed growth goals on the earlyReading assessment in Spring 2026. This is an increase from 27%

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• 9% of K-1 students will meet or exceed growth goals on the earlyMath assessment in Spring 2026. This is an increase from 44%

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• 29% of 2-5 students will meet or exceed growth goals on the aReading assessment in Spring 2026. This is an increase from 22%

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• 38% of 2-5 students will meet or exceed growth goals on the aMath assessment in Spring 2026. This is an increase from 33%
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*We will disaggregate all data by race, risk level, grade, etc.

Strategy to achieve our goal:

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Through Data-Based Decision Making, Educators follow the four questions while internalizing and practicing the Foundational Literacy materials and grounding in the student experience. Teachers will implement UFLI with fidelity.

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• How will the strategy help us meet the goal?
• How can ILT more regularly monitor goals?
• What should ILT communicate to staff around ongoing goals and strategies?
• How should goals and strategies be communicated with students at Bethune?

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Our School Improvement Plan

Goal 2: Student Well-Being

The number of student referrals will decrease by half by the end of 2026 from 523.

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Strategy to achieve our goal:

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Implement Wayfinder

All teachers will implement Wayfinder to support SEL by covering at least 1 lesson per week/every two weeks and sharing feedback with the Equity and School Climate Team for shared decision making/discussion.

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Our School Improvement Plan

Goal 4: School and District Climate

Peer-to-peer relationships on the Climate survey will increase from 54% to 64%

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Strategy to achieve our goal:

• Equity and School Climate Team
• Family Engagement Support Team (FEST)
• Wayfinder implementation

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How We Measure Student Progress

Assessments help us answer questions such as:

• Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?
• Are students learning what we intend for them to be learning?
• Are all students improving and being appropriately challenged?

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Some of the assessments our students will take this year are:

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• MCA 3-5
• FAST aReading, aMath - Fall, Winter, Spring
• Early Reading and Early Math
• K-1 Fall, Winter, and Spring
• CBM - Fall, Winter, and Spring
• ACCESS for EL - K-5 Winter

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We want to make sure our students are learning as much as possible, so we use state and district assessments to determine their strengths and areas for growth. The results of these assessments help us figure out how we can better support our students in the classroom.

Throughout the year, we’ll share information with you about how your student is doing in the classroom.

We’ll do it in the following ways:

• Parent-Teacher conferences this fall (this week!) and again the week of February 12th and 13th.
• Quarterly report cards/progress reports – which will be mailed home (please make sure that we have your correct address within the Infinite Campus system)
• Parent Portal – if you haven’t yet signed up for parent portal within Infinite Campus – please do so

How We’ll Share Student Progress with You

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Data Points for Co-interpretation

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Title I

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What is Title I?

Title I supports our School Improvement Plan, and the funding we receive helps us reach our goals.

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Title I is a federal program that provides money to schools and districts to help them ensure all children have an equal opportunity to get a high-quality education and achieve proficiency on our state’s academic standards and assessments.

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For this school year, we received $410, 641 in Title I funding, which makes up 15% of our school budget.

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We are required to use Title I funding to improve the academic achievement of all students and engage YOU, our families, in that process!

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Title Funding

Bethune Arts Elementary School is a schoolwide Title I program, which means all students are able to benefit from the services we provide with our Title I funding.

How We’re Using our Title I Funding

Curriculum and Instruction Support

• Classroom Teachers
• Associate Educators
• Family Liaison
• SSPA

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Family Engagement

• Turkey Bingo
• Donuts w/Dads
• Muffins w/Moms
• Bethune Carnival
• School Dance
• Children’s Theatre Family Nights
• American Indian Awareness and Family Involvement Week
• National African American Family Involvement Week

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• Request information from the district about whether your student’s teacher meets State licensing approval for the grade and subject being taught, is teaching with a waiver, and/or has certification for the field being taught
• Request information about the qualifications of any paraprofessional providing instruction
• Know how your child’s school is rated on its state test scores
• Expect regular communication with your school in a language that you can understand
• Work with other families and staff to develop a compact between our school and our families
• Help plan how money for family involvement should be spent
• Work with teachers, other families, and the school principal to develop a family engagement plan
• Ask for a meeting with your school principal or your child’s teacher at any time

As a family member in a Title I School, you have the right to…

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Opportunities for Families to be Involved!

We want your input on our:

• School Improvement Plan goals and strategies
• Family Engagement Plan
• School-Family Compact

You can find all these documents on our school website!

We’d love to see you at the following school events:

• Parent-Teacher Conferences
• February 13 - 14

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• Participate in Site Council! Site Council Meets once a month on Tuesdays at 4:30PM.
• Talk to your child’s teacher about events and issues that may affect your child’s work or behavior.

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School Staff Information

Principal: La Tonya Overton - 612-668 -2551

LaTonya.Overton@mpls.k12.mn.us

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Family Liaison: Sherronda Wiley - 612-668-2550

sherronda.wiley@mpls.k12.mn.us

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We appreciate you!

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