Montgomery school board highlights: Rise in non-English speakers, teachers leave and more

The Montgomery school board covered a lot of ground in its April meeting — from contract renewals and pay negotiations to addressing support for the rising numbers of non-English speakers in Montgomery Public Schools and new school construction timelines.

Some board members even got emotional when voicing their concerns about the number of teachers whose contracts aren’t being renewed this year and the way community members are treated at MPS events. District 1 Representative Lesa Keith spoke from experience, describing how a security guard threatened to remove her from a magnet school PTA meeting without cause the day prior.

Before any of that discussion, Board President Brenda DeRamus Coleman shared some recent MPS successes, including leading community advocacy work at the capital, receiving the Purple Star designation for support of military-connected children and reducing discipline referrals through the use of Yondr phone pouches.

“All of these strategies move us toward recognizing that we are a district to be admired,” Coleman said. “Although, we have much more to do.”

In case you missed the nearly three hour board meeting that included a 15-minute executive session, here are the highlights:

MPS is seeing an influx of high school students who are still learning English

There are over 700 more students with limited English proficiency in MPS than there were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the 2022-23 school year, about 2,570 students were identified as having limited English proficiency, and approximately 500 kids were first-year English learners. In the 2028-19 school year, about 1,814 students had limited English proficiency, and 445 were first year English learners.

“We are experiencing a large influx of high school students that are lacking formal education. They’ve missed many years,” MPS ESL director Lizette Ussery said at the board meeting. “We have to enroll them, so one of the things it’s doing is hurting our high schools as far as dropout rates, chronic absenteeism because they’re older. They don’t want to go to school.”

On the most recent state report card, MPS’ graduation rate dropped from 84.5% to 67.47%.

The rising numbers of students who are still learning English and are not on grade level necessitates self-led online learning platforms like Imagine Language & Literacy. That way, students can learn at their own pace.

Ussery addressed the board to ask for funds to renew the district’s use of Imagine Language & Literacy, which helps ESL students at the elementary level.

District 1 representative Keith said she would support the program, which is costing almost $5 million, even though she’s bothered by the fact that the district recently paid $3.5 million on a separate ESL contract with the same company.

“I was talked into this,” she said. “I felt like we had already paid for this, so me seeing this again is quite frustrating.”

Over 100 teacher contracts not renewed, board member says

When it came time to discuss the certified personnel report, District 5 representative Pamela Cloud said 116 teachers will not have their contracts renewed this year. She specifically asked whether any of the 116 teachers were part of the district’s teacher academy, and Superintendent Melvin Brown said no.

“Is there a reason why we’re still nonrenewing and why we have so many with the climate we’re in with it being so hard to find teachers?” District 2 Representative Pamela Portis asked.

Cloud and Portis both expressed concern over the high number. Meanwhile, Brown said not all of the nonrenewals will necessarily leave the district.

“Some of those folks, their contracts have to be nonrenewed because they’re expired. So we can actually hire those folks back, which in many respects, we expect to do,” he said.

In another school district, President Coleman said she was notified that her contract would not be renewed, but by the time those leaders came around to hire her back, she had already taken a job with MPS.

“It’s really disturbing, the quality of people you could lose,” Portis said. “Young people are not like us. They don’t stay around.”

MPS leaders' employment contracts set to expire in next year

While the superintendent’s contract is not set to expire until 2025, Chief School Financial Officer Arthur Watts’ will lapse at the end of June. In the April board meeting, members began an early discussion of negotiations and potential renewal for each leader.

“We don’t want to get into a habit of rolling over contracts, as we have done in the past,” Coleman said. “We want to make certain that we know before November where we’re headed.”

Watts is currently paid almost $200,000 a year, according to District 1 representative Keith. In a letter to the board, District 5 representative Cloud said Watts requested a raise of “$32,400 plus some other things.”

“I was offended. I think we need to look for another CSFO, and I’m not kidding,” Keith said. “I’m saddened to say what I’m saying because I have never in my life enjoyed a CSFO more than Arthur Watts.”

Brown interjected to suggest that the board members not mention salary details publicly.

“If I may, just so everyone can save face a little bit,” he said. “Having drafts go back and forth and discussing those privately is typically a little more beneficial than trying to put all that information out.”

As far as Brown’s own contract renewal goes, representatives from the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce attended the April board of education meeting to support him and celebrate the two-year anniversary of his selection to the role.

“The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors affirms steadfast support of Dr. Melvin J. Brown as a critical asset to Montgomery’s future and hereby commends the Montgomery County Board of Education for its wisdom in selecting and supporting Dr. Brown,” an April chamber resolution stated.

Carver Ninth Grade Academy may not be ready by start of 2024-25 school year

During the monthly update from the company running the MPS capital improvement project, Volkert Inc. Vice President Glenn Slater said the Carver Ninth Grade Academy is currently 50 percent complete and on schedule.

However, “on schedule” means the building will be ready to open by the end of September. That could cause problems for the first two months of the 2024-25 school year, as Carver’s student population is rising beyond current capacity.

“The contractor is pushing to get through ahead of schedule,” Slater said.

The reason for building the Ninth Grade Academy in the first place is that Carver High School’s enrollment numbers are expected to grow by about 800 in the next three years as Carver absorbs Sidney Lanier High School.

That kind of expected growth calls for a larger space than the current 200,000-square-foot building.

District 7 representative Arica Watkins-Smith asked what would happen in the event that the Ninth Grade Academy is not ready to open and receive all of the would-be Lanier students in the fall.

Superintendent Brown said he did not want to discuss the contingency details “in this venue” of the public board of education meeting. Instead, he said he would share details privately with the board member.

“We do have a contingency,” Brown said. “Our conversation has been that we need to be in there in August.”

All MPS rising freshman are able to participate in the Summer Bridge program this year

The Summer Bridge program, run with the help of GPS Educational Services, allows 9th graders to spend two weeks in their new high schools, getting acclimated before the school year begins.

MPS Chief of Staff Jamie Wilson said the program has been running successfully in G.W. Carver High School and several others for the last few years.

This year, Wilson said, the goal is to expand the programs across every traditional and magnet high school in the district.

When District 5 representative Cloud brought up the fact that many of the magnets already have programs like this in place, Wilson affirmed that the GPS Summer Bridge would support existing traditions, not replace them.

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery school board highlights: 116 teacher contracts not renewed