State education officials recommend release of Montgomery schools from intervention, set December release date

State education staff told the Alabama State Board of Education on May 13 that Montgomery Public Schools has met key conditions of a state intervention and recommended the district be released from educational intervention effective Dec. 1, 2021, provided it maintains academic progress, a minimum 1.5 months financial reserve and adequate operations in transportation and child nutrition.

The recommendation was read aloud in the meeting by an Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) presenter: “The Alabama State Department of Education suggests the release of Montgomery County Board of Education from educational intervention effective 12/01/2021, conditioned upon compliance with the following.” The presenter set out three conditions tied to academic performance, fiscal sustainability and operational capacity.

ALSDE staff and Montgomery officials outlined the work done since the state began intervention in 2018. ALSDE intervention staff described seven initial deficiencies cited in the show-cause letter — including financial procedures, child nutrition, student transportation and accreditation concerns — and said ALSDE placed experienced financial leadership in the district as a first step. The intervention team described hiring Arthur Watts as chief school financial officer early in the process and said he helped produce two budgets and bring the district into compliance with state budget timing requirements.

Montgomery leaders credited staffing and operational changes for the turnaround. Montgomery superintendent Anne Moore and board members who appeared at the meeting said the district has tightened finance procedures, reduced expenditures and focused on instruction and accreditation. Chief school financial officer Arthur Watts and other Montgomery officials described a multi-year recovery that included a financial recovery plan, reductions in force and a set of accountability practices for central office and school-level bookkeeping and budgeting. District officials said they ended fiscal year 2020 with a roughly $34 million fund balance and projected ending fiscal 2021 balances above the state-required level; the ALSDE presenter said the state-required fund balance is about $18.4 million.

ALSDE presenters and outside reviewers presented academic data showing gains on the state accountability report card and a Cognia accreditation review that shifted most indicators from red/yellow categories in 2018 to “good” status in 2020. ALSDE staff said 86%–100% of Montgomery schools showed improvement across several subcomponents of state accountability between 2017 and 2019; the presenters also pointed to steep increases for some historically low-performing schools.

Board members asked for additional, school-level detail before the district’s formal release. Several members asked specifically for ACT and other high-school level results broken down by school, and for continued clarity about how “adequate academic progress” will be measured after the release. ALSDE staff said monthly monitoring and an ongoing technical-assistance presence will continue between May and the planned Dec. 1 release, and the department will keep five office-of-school-improvement staff working directly with Montgomery schools.

No formal roll-call vote to adopt the release appeared in the transcript. Several board members and ALSDE officials expressed support for release if Montgomery maintains the stated conditions, and members voiced requests for school-by-school academic data, ongoing monitoring schedules and continued focus on safety and magnet programs.

The ALSDE presenter said the release recommendation will be conditioned on ongoing monitoring and a written action plan and that the department may return for periodic review. Montgomery board members and district leaders said they expected to continue working with the department and emphasized summer programming and continued principal coaching and technical assistance.

What’s next: the department will continue to monitor Montgomery monthly and said it expects to finalize the administrative steps needed for any formal release on or before Dec. 1, 2021. Board members asked ALSDE to specify monitoring targets for “adequate academic progress” and for a school-by-school package of data including ACT scores and high school indicators before the release is complete.