District and campus improvement plans approved by the Mineola School Board Monday reaffirmed the district’s commitment to strengthen third grade reading, Algebra I and college, career and military readiness as key components to education.

Superintendent Cody Mize said research consistently shows that if students are not reading at grade level by the third grade, they will be in trouble academically.

The district has already seen great improvement in that area.

Elementary Principal Brittany Thompson noted that the new third grade class are the COVID kindergartners who had their first year of school interrupted by the pandemic’s school closures.

She said they do show some significant gaps.

But the campus had major success last year and is adjusting its reading goals and targeting students’ specific needs.

Thompson said she also wants to incorporate more family time on campus, something which was also impacted by the pandemic.

High School Principal Mike Sorenson said the campus goals mirror the district goals, with a fourth component to make sure that the educational program is well-rounded.

Primary Principal Jole Ray said that in addition to the three main goals, her campus will focus on social/emotional learning, another victim of the pandemic.

At the middle school Kendall Gould said the campus is adopting more challenging goals since most of the scores came in higher than the previous goals.