Montgomery Township board begins 2021–22 goal-setting, emphasizing social-emotional learning, equity and curriculum review

Montgomery Township — The Montgomery Township School District Board of Education opened a multi-step process to set district and board goals for 2021–22, with members emphasizing social-emotional learning (SEL), equity and a review of curriculum and assessment practices.

"This is the beginning of, just a discussion about the goals. We will not finalize anything tonight," Board President Mary said as the board launched an informal discussion and a plan to gather input from principals and school leadership teams before bringing draft goals back for approval at the August 24 meeting.

Board members and stakeholders identified several "big buckets" for the coming year: addressing learning gaps and social-emotional needs that followed the COVID-19 disruptions; integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into curriculum and instruction; and conducting a comprehensive assessment of curriculum, resources and student outcomes to identify problem areas and data needs.

Jim Dolan, president of the Montgomery Township Education Association, praised the collaborative process: "The process is awesome ... we're not creating goals in isolation," he said, noting that buy-in improves when teachers, administrators and association leaders participate. Assistant Superintendent Damien Papa and other administrators described a multi-stage plan: collect ideas from the board, principals and school leadership teams, then convene a district leadership team to draft actionable goals for board approval.

Discussion items included: - Social-emotional learning and trauma-informed practices as a district priority, and the difficulty of measuring SEL outcomes; board members asked for clear action plans and measures of progress. "How do you measure it? It's really hard to measure," a board member noted during the discussion. - Curriculum review and resource audits, including requests to examine books and materials to ensure they reflect district values and students' experiences. - Strategic planning: several members proposed using this year to gather data and identify problem areas that would inform a comprehensive strategic plan in a later year rather than launching a full strategic-plan project immediately. - Board training and onboarding: board members requested a system of internal training and "one-sheet" summaries for committee responsibilities to help new members catch up and to improve questions and oversight at committee meetings. - Community concerns about course labeling and tracking: an unnamed resident raised a concern that removing "honors" labels in upper middle school math had created pressure among fifth graders preparing for placement tests; board members discussed that the issue is layered and not solved by labels alone.

Board members said the district would form action plans under these buckets, ask principals and school leadership teams to develop building-level ideas, and present draft goals to the board in August. The board also asked chairs of standing committees to prepare short summaries of prior-year work to aid new members’ orientation.

Other items raised in the meeting included a summer food distribution program (described by the president as an SSO pickup on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Blue Spring Road and the high school) and early enrollment numbers: the district reported it had registered "over 300" students so far for the year but did not provide a net-enrollment figure or an estimate of the financial effect of recent housing development.

The board set the process in motion and asked administrators to return with draft goals, metrics and proposed timelines for action.