June 2009
Dear Friends of Gifted and Talented Education,
The Louisiana Department of Education has assigned a Task Force
to review Bulletin 1706 (the Bulletin 1706 Revision Task Force).
Bulletin 1706B is the document that establishes Gifted and Talented
Programs under the Department of Special Education as it currently
resides.
There has been a suggestion that Gifted and Talented Programs be
removed from the Department of Special Education and administered as
part of Regular Education. This would result in the elimination of
IEP's (Individualized Education Programs) and Procedural Safeguards
(Due Process) for G/T students other than that provided for regular
education students. This move would profoundly impact funding and
system support for G/T programs across the state and in East Baton
Rouge Parish.
The Officers of the Baton Rouge Association for Gifted and
Talented Students (BRAGTS) oppose this suggestion and have sent the
attached letter to representatives of the DOE.
The GIFTED and TALENTED Students of East Baton Rouge and the State
of Louisiana need your help:
1) Please review the
attached letter and share it and
this e-mail with anyone that you know that would be interested.
2) Send your thoughts to the recipients of this e-mail and any
others you know that may have input to this process. Do this by any
means you desire: e-mail, letter, phone call, etc. (contact
information follows). If you send an e-mail please copy BRAGTS (br_agts@agts.net)
so that we may keep up with your input. Also, if you receive any
feedback, please notify us at the same e-mail address.
Thank-you for your help and support of Gifted and Talented
Education in East Baton Rouge Parish and the State of Louisiana.
Donald Jennings, President - BRAGTS
Link to letter sent from BRAGTS to LA DOE
in June
BRAGTS Upcoming Events:Board Meeting
The next BRAGTS Board Meeting is scheduled for
Wed. Sept. 9,
2009
from 7:00 - 9:00 PM at IRC Building on South Foster Dr. Board Meetings are held every second Tuesday of the month starting
at 7 PM and are open to the public. As an exception, this meeting
will be held on a Wednesday. Topics for discussion include
planning of events for the coming year.
Improvements to the Gifted Program:
The EBRPSS School Board held its regular meeting on Thursday,
October 16, 2008. At this meeting, school administration
officials presented an update from the EBRPSS Task Force that
met over the summer to discuss the BRAGTS proposals and other
recommendations.
At this meeting, the school administration recommended and the
School Board unanimously approved a motion to:
1) Establish Talented Services for all Grades at Woodlawn HS in
Fall of 2009.
2) Establish Gifted and GREAT Scholars programs for grade 9 in
Fall 2009 and add one grade each year through 2012.
Other recent actions:
In April, the School Board approved accelerating the addition of
Self-Contained Gifted classes at Parkview Elementary. Parkview
has Gifted classes for K-2 this year and will have
Self-Contained classes for K-5 in Fall of 2009.
The GREAT Scholars program has been added at all Gifted Middle
and High School sites.
Advertising and publicity has increased and the Gifted/Talented
Programs were included in the EBR Mania event in 2007.
A procedure for Universal Screening of Kindergarten students for
Gifted services has been implemented for the 2008-2009 school
year. To help accomplish this, a four member dedicated appraisal
team has been established to focus on testing and evaluating
Gifted/Talented students.
These changes were supported by BRAGTS Officers, Board Members,
BRAGTS Task Force members, and supporters of Gifted/Talented
education over the past year. THANK-YOU to everyone that
attended the meetings, contacted school administrators and
School Board members and attended the School Board meeting on
Oct 16 and previous meetings over the past year. Everyone's
efforts combined to make a difference in these programs and to
assist with the changes that are being made.
BRAGTS Recent Events:
10/14/2008 - General Fall meeting was
held.
06/04/2008 -
There will
be a general meeting of our Association on Monday, June 9th,
from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm in the Veranda Room of the IRC
Building on South Foster. We will be discussing the latest
developments with regard to the proposal (link at our
website) which we submitted to the School Board and EBRPSS
staff in March. Please try to attend if possible so that we
may get your input in this important endeavor. Feel free to
bring your children.
03/04/2008 - The BRAGTS Task
Force has completed its recommendations addressing critical
issues in the EBR Gifted Program. The Task Force
Recommendations have been posted to the web site and are being
circulated among EBR System Administrative, Professional and
Board personnel. We are asking Members to support these
proposals and contact their Board Member with personal comments.
11/14/07 – BRAGTS hosts the 2nd
Task Force meeting with 18 in attendance.
At this meeting, the leaders of the
subgroups report on their progress over the prior two weeks.
Mr. Paul Vallas speaks of his experiences in establishing
programs in Phildelphia, Chicago, and (currently) New Orleans
school districts.
11/01/07 – BRAGTS hosts the first
Task Force meeting with 15 in attendance.
At this meeting 6 subgroups were formed to
deal with specific issues relating to areas of interest and
breakout brainstorming sessions were conducted.
10/23/07 – BRAGTS Fall General
Meeting
At this meeting, many parents of gifted
children and gifted teachers spoke passionately about their
concerns for the future of the gifted program. The majority in
attendance strongly favored dedicated gifted sites. A Task
Force of volunteers is formed to address how to best implement
dedicated gifted sites. Approximately 120 were in attendance.
10/16/07 – BRAGTS Board Meeting with
EBRPSS Superintendent and Staff
At this meeting, the BRAGTS board asked
Charlotte Placide, EBRPSS school superintendent, to form an ad
hoc committee to determine how best to establish dedicated sites
for the 2008-2009 school year. However, Ms. Placide is pursuing
a more cautious approach and does not see the need to created
dedicated gifted schools at this time.
October 2006 – BRAGTS conducted a
survey of its membership. 140 completed surveys were received.
Over 98% of the respondents strongly favored the created of
dedicated gifted schools.
Current
enrollment statistics for the EBR G/T Program
(click here, *.pdf requires Adobe)
Background history of our Dedicated G/T Schools Agenda
(click here, *.pdf requires Adobe)
