Schools superintendent wants to help Montgomery students find 'spark'
Montgomery Superintendent Melvin Brown's third town hall didn't draw a lot of community members, but the new schools chief used the opportunity to have an "intimate conversation" on such topics as accountability and helping students find their 'spark.'
Brown, who started his contract this past summer, took questions Thursday from the audience in the George Washington Carver High School auditorium.
Brown raised the importance of teachers, mentioning that the district will be performing a salary study to ensure that their pay is competitive. He said the system plans to employ more teachers based on information from Human Resources.
Montgomery Public Schools lost around 70 teachers this year as a result of declining enrollment in the district. Teacher units are funded by the "Foundation Program" of the State Board of Education, which is tied to student enrollment.
Schools can pull from their local and federal funds to pay for more teachers. MPS spokesperson Jade Jones said the funds are likely to come from the district's general funds and cited increased funds from the ad valorum tax that will go into effect in the fall of 2023.
Brown also said that he is planning for a curriculum audit to take place in February, emphasizing that the audit would be an outside, third-party. He did not name who, specifically, would conduct the audit.
Subject proficiency scores in Montgomery can vary wildly between schools. Some magnet schools have near perfect proficiency in some subjects, while some schools have fewer than half of their students making the proficiency score.
With the implementation of the Literacy Act, third-graders who are not on reading level may be asked to repeat the year.
"We will never be a perfect school district ever, but we'll continue to chase that," he said.
Key concerns re-emerge
In response to an audience question, Brown said that schools this year have been given the "go ahead" to have field trips after the pandemic. He said that some schools are more hesitant than others.
Still other audience members repeated themes from previous meetings: asking about family participation and equitable programs across the district.
Brown said parent participation probably will look different at every school, but they want to encourage parents coming in for field days or whatever the occasion.
In terms of equitable programming, Brown said that they plan to look into whether the district has historically made it so that programs are clustered in only certain schools. This answer comes after previous town halls where Brown was asked about the equity of magnet schools.
Helping kids to find a 'spark'
He did say that they hope to add more programs across the district and across different career paths. At both this meeting and previous board meetings, Brown has also spoken about dual-enrollment and his hope that some MPS students will walk across their high school graduation stage with an associate degree, as well.
"And those kids who struggle, if there's a spark because they see something they're interested in? It changes the whole trajectory of their lives, and we need to be able to provide those opportunities," he said.
Brown's overarching plan
Due to the smaller community gathering, the meeting lasted around half the time of the previous two town halls.
As part of his presentation, Brown said that he plans to re-release his 100-day R.I.S.E. plan (Review. Identify. Strategize. Engage.) with the parts of the plan he has achieved checked off. He told the crowd that he believed he had around "65-70%" of the list checked off. At past town halls, community members raised questions of accountability and concrete actions.
His plan had six main components, with sub-goals for each piece:
Goal 1: Every student will be academically successful and prepared for life, work and college
Goal 2: MPS will partner with families and the community in the education of Montgomery’s youth
Goal 3: MPS will recruit, develop, support and retain a staff that meets the needs of every student
Goal 4: MPS will provide optimal and equitable learning environments;
Goal 5: MPS will promote efforts to enable students to be healthy and ready to learn
Goal 6: MPS will be efficient, effective and transparent in its business operations.
Jemma Stephenson is the children and education reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at jstephenson@gannett.com or 334-261-1569.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Schools superintendent wants to help Montgomery students find 'spark'
