According to Superintendent Jeff Swensson, all state legislator proponents of the proposed Performance Qualified School District (PQSD) legislation, including Senator Mike Delph, were reelected in the state elections on Nov. 6.

“From what I hear, (there has been progress on the legislation). There is an office called a Legislative Services Agency (LSA)… that on behalf of a Senator or Representative, they put an idea like PQSD into legislative ease in the sense that they write a bill that would be considered by (legislators),” he said. “What I have been told is that the LSA has the draft of PQSD that we came up with.”

According to senior Robert “Julian” Sollenskog, the regulatory relief provided by PQSD would greatly benefit students, particularly with the proposed senior schedule.

“I think it would probably encourage students to try more, especially when it comes to seniors,” he said. “You would be forced to attempt to introduce more rigor into your schedule as well.”

Although Swensson said Delph has mentioned hosting a press conference about PQSD, no date has been confirmed.

Meanwhile, according to Swensson, the Carmel Clay School District has continued implementing the new Carmel RISE program, which has now been in use for almost a full semester.

“I think where we want to be (at the end of the semester) is where we are headed,” he said. “All of us are becoming more familiar with that core piece of this, the rubric. The focus on the rubric and those behaviors… and then the response to that are both exactly where we want them to be.”

According to Swensson, during evaluations there have been far more “Highly Effective” and “Effective” marks (green dots) than “Improvement Necessary” and “Ineffective” marks (yellow dots).

“It’s all based on what’s in the rubric,” he said. “Where the core is expressed in a new fashion is in the rubric. So understanding it and responding to it are two factors that I think are very important.”