Montgomery County Public Schools special meeting, Aug 31, 2026
2 h 13 min
This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 2 h 13 min.
- Who spoke · first speaks at
What happened
What happened at this meeting
Special Populations Committee reviews multilingual, special education, gifted and alternative programs 2:37
- The committee took up staff overviews of services for emerging multilingual learners, special education services and gifted and talented programming. 2:37
- Rita Montoya said the committee would move its annual work plan to the full board. 2:37
- During the alternative programs overview, a staff member said the school does not have a music teacher and has no media assistant or media specialist as a result of budget cuts. 1:51:30
- Rita Montoya announced that the meeting was adjourned. 2:12:35
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Item by item (6)
- Opening, agenda and annual work plan 0:11
- Rita Montoya called the meeting to order and described the committee's charge as covering special education, gifted and talented instruction, alternative programs and multilingual supports. 0:11
- Rita Montoya said the committee's annual work plan would be presented to the full board for approval. 1:27
- Rita Montoya said the committee would move the annual work plan to the full board. 2:37
- Emerging multilingual learner support services 2:37
- A staff member reported approximately 24,620 active emerging multilingual learners, representing 16.1% of total enrollment of 152,519 students, with 175 home languages. 4:11
- Grace Rivera-Oven asked what supports students receive before the action plan is fully implemented in 2030, and a staff member said Functional Language Approach training would be offered to all teachers in grades K through 12 this year. 20:31
- Laura Stewart asked about recruiting bilingual staff, and a staff member said the district connected with Georgetown University and the University of Maryland on a teacher pipeline that depends on federal grant funding. 34:22
- Special education services overview 36:26
- A staff member said the district serves over 24,000 students with IEPs and approximately 64% of those students spend at least 80% of the school day in general education settings. 40:36
- A staff member said fewer than 20% of students with disabilities are reaching proficiency in reading and math, and over 629 students are in non-public placements at a cost exceeding $66 million annually. 45:25
- Rita Montoya asked whether professional development would be open or required, and a staff member said training on designated professional development days would be mandatory but other offerings could not be required under contracts. 1:09:20
- Gifted and talented programming overview 1:22:19
- A staff member said the gifted and talented population makes up 19.4% of the student body, approximately 30,350 students. 1:23:41
- A staff member said emergent multilingual learners make up 21.3% of the total population and 1.4% of the gifted population. 1:28:05
- A staff member said the 0.5 Primary Talent Development coaches were not funded for fiscal year '27, and one board member said having zero coaches for primary talent development was really concerning. 1:33:58
- Alternative programs overview 1:51:10
- A staff member reported 36 Class of 2026 graduates and 34 Class of 2025 graduates from the alternative programs. 1:51:30
- Laura Stewart asked whether the lack of a music teacher was a vacancy, and a staff member said there is no allocation for one. 1:59:34
- The principal of alternative programs said a limited number of FTEs were provided and the program supplements music and other electives with online courses through Edmentum. 2:01:44
- Closing and adjournment 2:12:15
Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.
What was said
What board members said, in order
Stewart, I think you alluded to it on the how can the board support. But as we're working through our new regional models, how do you see we can be intentional about having access to gifted and talented learning throughout our regions in an equitable way? So no matter where you are in the county, you can get that support.Laura Stewart · Board member1:37:51
Other meetings
Other meetings of this board
Video: posted by the district as “Board of Education - Committee on Special Populations Meeting - 8/31/26”