Board hears presentations on No Child Left Behind program and state special education review.
By: Jill Matthews
MONTGOMERY At a busy meeting Tuesday night, the Board of Education heard presentations on the school district’s No Child Left Behind program and the results of a state review of its special-education program.
Under federal legislation, districts must annually report their NCLB program information to the public, said Superintendent Stuart Schnur.
Though the district only receives a little over $100,000 annually in NCLB funding, the money is put to good use, said Chris Manno, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
"It’s not a lot of money over the grand scheme of things … but for what we use it for, it’s very helpful," said Mr. Manno.
Montgomery receives NCLB funding for professional development, health literacy and character education, its mini-grant program and a very small amount for English-as-a-second language programming.
Board members questioned how much time the administration spends putting together NCLB reports and how the legislation has changed the way the Montgomery district is run. Because the district is so goal-oriented and data-driven, it already has much of the information it needs to report, Mr. Manno said. Although reporting information for NCLB has taken a decent amount of his time, the program has not had much of an effect on how the district runs the schools, he said.
In other business, the school district recently received a favorable report from the state Department of Education after the DOE reviewed the district’s special-education program compliance.
The DOE’s Office of Special Education reviews all school districts, using a two-year process to evaluate each district for systematic compliance with state and federally mandated codes. The first year of the program involves self-monitoring by the district and the second has state monitors come in to look through school records and meet with parents for their feedback.
"We have gone through a good process of soul-searching to see the efficacy of our program," said Superintendent Stuart Schnur.
In the summary, the state commended the district for its "exceptionally comprehensive" self-assessment and for being in compliance in several areas, but also listed areas the district needs to improve in order to comply.
The report noted that district officials have been "able to reduce their classification rate by improving their pre-referral procedures, by providing staff training, by implementing more effective interventions, as well as by expanding general education resources." The report also cited an increase in the number of students with disabilities participating in general education programs and noted that a large percentage of graduating students with disabilities are continuing their education either in college or post-secondary training.
The report included a long list of areas where the district was consistently compliant and a lengthy list of areas that need to be improved and brought up to compliance.
Nancy Novak, district director of pupil services, said the state monitors did not observe classrooms but only went through files to check compliance issues. She also said most of the areas of noncompliance were minor and that many had already been corrected.
Special education is "very paper-intensive and there are mistakes that inevitably happen" if, for example, someone forgets to date a page, she said.
The district is required to revise and resubmit an improvement plan to the DOE within 45 days of receiving the report.
The state’s summary is available on the state Department of Education and the district Web sites.