Though the state no longer funds gifted programs, the Snowflake Unified School District is still required by law to provide one. The district serves its gifted population by offering advanced courses and providing enrichment activities for students.
As part of Cycle 5 monitoring and guidelines, the district is required by the Arizona Department of Education to have an approved gifted scope & sequence on file with the state.
Ron Tenney, the district’s federal programs director, explained why he was recommending approval of the Scope and Sequence for gifted at the Feb. 12 district governing board meeting.
“If at any time the state decides to fund this program, we can go out and buy the different tests,” he said. “To be in compliance with the law, we have to bring this before you to show how the scope and sequence would work.”
Tenney noted that he met with Navajo County Superintendent of Schools Linda Morrow, and she is considering hiring someone who could go to each school on the county level and serve as a liaison to help students if they need to be tested for the gifted program.
Tenney said there are no changes to the scope and sequence this year.
Superintendent Hollis Merrell explained that previously there was a person hired to fill this position, but the position was lost when the funding was pulled by the state.
The governing board approved the scope and sequence for the gifted.
In other action, the governing board approved an intergovernmental agreement for Beyond Textbooks with the Vail School District. Merrell explained that the Navajo and Apache County Superintendents meet regularly and had decided to have one of their attorneys review the agreement rather than have each district pay for an attorney to review it.
