Sandra Walker presents AIG plan; board approves 2025–2028 submission to state

The Polk County Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the district’s Academically or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) plan for 2025–2028 and authorized staff to submit the plan to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for review.

Sandra Walker, introduced by the chair as the presenter, summarized the plan’s key elements and state standards. "The philosophy is that AIG should be all day every day," Walker said, describing goals to make identification and differentiated programming clearer and more equitable across grades K–12. She told the board the district identifies roughly 15–20% of students for AIG screening but receives state funding that covers about 4% of the student population, which constrains programming capacity.

Walker walked the board through Standard 1 (student identification) and Standard 2 (programming), noting the district added criteria for younger grades though she cautioned that identification at those levels will be limited. She described classroom differentiation for K–5, pull-out enrichment in middle school, and honors/AP/early-college opportunities at the high-school level. Walker also said some advisory-group ideas—additional positions for early-grade talent development and expanded STEM enrichment—were not included in this submission because of budget limits.

Board members thanked Walker for the work. The chair called the actionable item; after a motion and second the board approved the plan 7–0. Staff will file the approved plan with North Carolina DPI; the state may return edits if nonnegotiable requirements are missing.