But the program that helped Leo discover his love of writing is now in jeopardy by Veers Mill. I'm losing The federal title I grant is the key to payment. of fulfilling teacher And other positions.three other Montgomery County elementary schools; There is a school Similar predicament.
These four campuses are part of 58 participating schools in Montgomery. community qualification regulations; Another federal program that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students at certain schools Highly necessary.Through it, Montgomery County Public Schools It says it is feeding more children for free than ever before.
However, schools participating in the program must apply for free or reduced-price meals, a metric that the Montgomery School District has traditionally relied on to measure school poverty and provide Title I funding. Not collected.
There are now concerns that the school system's new methodologies may not adequately capture how many needs there are. Schools that are on campus and require additional federal funding may not be able to do so. get it. This is also due to an overall decrease in Title I funding due to the changing demographics of Montgomery County Public Schools.
Last school year, approximately 75% of Veers Mill students received free or reduced tuition.[price lunch, Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Chris Cram said. But under the district’s new metric, the poverty level fell to about 65 percent. Under the new estimate, Viers Mill Elementary will lose its Title I status in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
During an October 2022 report, the Maryland Department of Education warned of an “inevitable disparity” for schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision: “These CEP schools will then intrinsically have a lower FARMs rate than other schools who are not participating in CEP, even if the student population is identical.”
The state’s Department of Education said at the time that it would work on an “alternative income eligibility form” that could capture some of the students that are missing in the data. But while the agency initially promised to create that form by 2023, it isn’t expected to roll out until the 2025-2026 school year.
Poverty calculations are vital to establish which schools qualify for Title I status, a designation that enables campuses to receive extra federal aid. In the Montgomery school system — which has 45 Title I schools in the 2023-2024 school year — the funding has helped establish summer programs and recruit staff.
Census data on an area’s poverty levels is used to determine how much Title I money is distributed to school divisions like Montgomery. The district receives a preliminary allocation of money from the state Department of Education in the spring, Cram said.
Last year, Montgomery received about $52 million to split among schools, but it has not received an estimate for the upcoming fiscal year. However, the school system typically will make its own estimate of potential Title I funding by reviewing census data. This year, with census data from 2022 indicating there were fewer students in poverty in Montgomery, school officials project the division will receive less Title I funding in the coming school year.
With some schools no longer collecting the free and reduced meal applications, the school system used a different method to decide how to distribute its Title I money. The new “direct certification” process uses data from public benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to estimate the poverty level of a school — a method that follows guidance from the federal government, according to a document issued in February 2022. The district then ranked schools by amount of need.
That method “changed the ranking of the schools quite drastically,” Peggy Pugh, the Montgomery district’s chief academic officer, said during a February school board meeting. “Some of the schools slipped [in the ranking]. Some of them rose much faster than we expected. ”
During the school's Title I status; can “We couldn't have predicted what actually happened this year,” Pugh said.
In addition to the changes at Vier Mill, At Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland, the number rose from 72% to 66%. At Oakview Elementary School in Silver Spring, that number dropped from about 74 percent to 65 percent. However, the biggest decline was at Strathmore Primary School, which fell from 73 per cent to around 60 per cent. Each school lost about $360,000 to $520,000 in payments to staff and other programs.
Conversely, 6 new The school was identified as Title I. Through this method, the poverty level of schools was revealed. East Silver Spring Elementary School rose from Approximately 62% to approximately 80%. Other schools that demonstrated higher need in new ways include: S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School and Waters Landing Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland. Benjamin Banneker Middle School in Bartonsville, Maryland. Meadowhall Elementary School in Rockville. and Strawberry Knoll Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
In February, principals at the four schools that lost their Title I status began notifying parent-teacher associations of the changes. A letter from Brookhaven Elementary School Principal Xavier Kimber explained that the school would lose several important learning interventions, including summer school and key staff.
“This loss has had some significant impacts on our school, staff, and most importantly, our students,” Kimber wrote in the letter.
Parents were perplexed by the switch. One of her schools that lost funding, Oak View, only serves students from third grade through her fifth grade. However, its feeder school, New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, which serves children from preschool through second grade, maintained its Title I status.
“Our numbers didn't change overnight,” said Daniel Ring, parent of a fifth-grader at Strathmore Elementary School. “Compared to what we've seen in previous years, it's been pretty consistent.” He said the methods the school system uses exclude undocumented families because the school system relies on public benefits. He added that it seems like there are.
Assistant State Superintendent Donna Gunning said state officials are working on ways to help school districts with schools in the Community Eligibility Clause identify more students who may need help. .
Meanwhile, Montgomery County Public Schools is seeking a grant to pay for resources provided to the four schools that lost their Title I status. “Obviously, no matter which Title I school we have, our focus on equity remains the same,” Crum said.
Parents and school students want more attention to this issue.
This month, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at Veers Mill Elementary School who Some local Girl Scout troops organized a walkout during class. Elementary school students called on the school system to maintain teachers and programs.
Nine-year-old Leo had been reluctant to write about it, but decided to cover the rally as his first reporting assignment. This change will likely affect the accelerated math and enhanced reading classes he takes.
“I'm a little sad that they won't be able to receive the same level of education as me, and that some teachers will lose their jobs,” Leo said. “What's really pissing you off is MCPS? What did we do?”