Unit 4

Likely on the way out: Unit 4’s elementary “schools of choice” model, which Superintendent Shelia Boozer this week summarized as a failed initiative that “resulted in little to no progress in decreasing minority group isolation, closing pervasive achievement gaps between White and Black students and increasing achievement rates for other historically underserved student groups, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities.”

Its replacement as the district tries to close the widening gap in socioeconomic status between its 12 elementaries: TBD. And a decision on when a new program will be picked — originally pegged for December — may not come until sometime after the holidays, we learned this week.

A month after the district’s $159,000 consultant unveiled its first round of recommendations, here are 20 things we now know — and don’t know — about the particulars, the process and the people involved.

1. An email sent this week from The News-Gazette to Cooperative Strategies’ Ohio-based point person on the Unit 4 project came back with an automatic reply noting “Scott Leopold is no longer with Cooperative Strategies, LLC.”

MMM Unit 4 Scott Leopold

Scott Leopold

Asked how his departure from the firm, after 17 years, would affect the district’s plans, Unit 4’s Stacey Moore said: “Mr. Leopold is still the lead on this project until the district’s decision is finalized.”

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