4/28/2005 -  Meeting MTSD & MAX-ED

John and Karen Kumpf met with MTSD Representatives Dr Barbara Sargent (sitting in for Mr Chris Manno),

Language Arts Curriculum Supervisor Russ Walsh and Math Curriculum Supervisor Christine Burton on April 28, 2005.

Click here for the detailed Minutes of Meeting.

Mon 9/27 - Chris Manno Meeting.

Our meeting was very positive. It was as good as what i let myself hope it could be.

Here are some highlights:

Mr. Manno was enthusiastic about working together in a partnership to continually improve gifted education, just like the board of ed continually improves the main curriculum.

MAX-ED will have our own table at the parent meetings on Oct 5th & 6th to publicize our group.

Mr. Manno will link to max-ed.org from their district pages on their enrichment program, and we'll link to them.

Opportunities for future cooperative work:

Mr Manno completely understood how it can be hard for parents to see the differentiation that's happening from their child's report of "what happened in math class today." He expressed his commitment to parents getting that info, however. It begins Oct 5,6 which sounds like it will be an excellent kick-off to this process.

Here's some more positives:
Mr. Manno is already considering K-2 math enrichment as a next step, and our feedback to him today gave that option more weight.

Enrichment teachers attended in-service training this summer on curriculum compacting.

ALL the enrichment teachers have been given our favorite handbook,
_Teaching_Gifted_Kids_in_the_Regular_Classroom_.

Mr. Manno was already considering additional staffing to support the Enrichment program in the future.

There is a central Jersey group of gifted administrators and we belong. Renzulli spoke at one of their recent meetings. Renzulli supported our district's program. In Mr Manno's words, he saw before him a group of parents who want to advocate for their children in a
positive way.



September 14 Board of Ed Meeting

Lisa Kurschner
I attended the 9/14/2004 Board of Education Meeting. Not many people there except me and a few reporters. Anyway the focus of the meeting was about recruiting, retention, evaluation and training of staff. The presentation was given by Chris Manno.

Montgomery's attrition rate is 7.8% a year compared to a national average of 13% a year.

The pool of qualified teaching candidates is shrinking due to fewer people choosing the profession, No Child Left Behind, and tougher requirements.

Math and science teachers are particularly difficult to find. Partnerships with Squibb and graduate school science departments of local universities are showing some promise. 

Teacher invest a lot of hours during the summer and school year attending workshops to improve their skills. Chris mentioned one or two. I'm sure the list wasn't exhaustive.

Andrea Bradley ask if we weren't grooming our teachers to go elsewhere as we don't have a lot of opportunity within the district for them to advance to positions such as vice-principal, principal, etc. Dr. Schnur said that they are working on somethings for teachers to work toward as advancement. He felt that as an educator it was his job for everyone to keep learning and that teachers who keep moving forward are happier and we all benefit. 

There was discussion about the progress of the high school and the success of the first football game and the new stadium.

At 9:45 the meeting progressed to non-instructional items (e.g. approval of bus routes) and I left.


(More to be added)