Recent School Board Actions and 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.

List of Reports with regard to the BRAGTS  Task Force Proposal to Address Critical Issues in the Gifted Program (most recent ones appear first)