Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
MONTGOMERY CO. – The Montgomery County School Board voted to approve a Capital Transfer and Appropriation for $358,757 and a supplemental appropriation to the 23-24 school operating budget of $1,216,545 from Esser III funds at its Jue 4 meeting. The funds are being used to help better the schools and provide renovations and updates to facilities. The board also voted to close FY 23-24 and open FY 24-25. This will allow timely payment for personnel and vendors.
The board also voted to approve the Gifted Advisory Committee Membership for 24-25 as submitted which shows allocated GAC members for each of the four communities served: Auburn, Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Eastern Montgomery. This was followed by a presentation by Helen Fontinos, the Administrator of Gifted Programs, on the Gifted Identification Process.
Fontinos’ presentation explained that during the 23-24 screening, 167 students were flagged for a gifted referral. Some of those students have IEPs or 504s and those numbers were broken down by ethnicity as well to see the percentages in the data. The Identification Process for Gifted Students is a four-step process currently. First, each student undergoes a universal screening, then staff holds a school-based screening meeting with GRT, principals, gifted administration and any other appropriate staff to review data from the school-wide universal screening. The third step in the process is an assessment period with parental permission and the last step involves GRT administrators reviewing student files with a focus on seeing the student as a person and a student. The testing for this identification process is modified to help encompass students of all abilities and language statuses because it features tests that are verbal and non-verbal.
The board also received an update on the Strategic Plan regarding professional development, lesson planning, recruitment and retention, engagement and more during the June 4 meeting.
The board conducted a first read of the MCPS literacy plan that is to be voted for approval on June 18, 2024 along with the Student Cell Phone Usage policy.