2016-2018 GATE plan approved by Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees

By Lauren Farberman

Staff Writer

The 2016-2018 GATE plan was approved to be implemented into Manhattan Beach Unified School District schools starting in the fall, at the May 18 MBUSD Board of Trustees meeting at the May 4 MBUSD Board meeting.

The approved plan focuses on improving communication between GATE students and their teachers. At the end of 2018 the new GATE plan includes discontinuing the GATE identification test and instead, all students will receive the same GATE learning strategies.

The former GATE plan expired in 2013 and Dr. Brett Geithman Executive Director of Educational Services, formed a subcommittee in September of 2015 to discuss and formulate a new GATE plan. The subcommittee is composed of twelve MBUSD teachers, parents and administrators.

“The purpose of forming the subcommittee was to get insight of what wants to happen in the classroom when it comes to GATE,” Geithman said. “This way parents could chime in for what they want GATE to look like in the coming years.”

The subcommittee has met eleven times this school year, beginning in October. Its members have been working on a plan to determine what GATE will entail for the school years from 2016-2018, including increased interaction from teachers for GATE student assignments. Geithman first presented the subcommittee’s work at the May 4 Board meeting.

“Coming to the Board meeting and presenting the work the GATE subcommittee has accomplished so far this year allowed us to get feedback,” Geithman said. “We can use the feedback to guide the remainder of our work as a subcommittee.”

At both the May 4 and May 18 Board meeting Board subcommittee parents of GATE children made public comments to voice their frustration. Parents voiced their complaints that students that are gifted and deemed GATE deserve increased academic rigor.

The GATE subcommittee’s new plan GATE will go into effect in the fall for a three year period from 2016-2018. GATE will eventually transition into an idea of “GATE for all”, which gives all students the benefits of GATE based concept learning. This would happen in 2018 at the end of the proposed three year plan.

“ ‘Gate for all’ ” basically means equal opportunity for all students,” Geithman said. “It would give a personalized learning experience for all students.”