This year, the WT Page PTA successfully advocated with Montgomery County Public School central office officials to help ensure that Page students received sufficient resources and access for our new Language Immersion and World Language Programs. The Page PTA held a well-attended general meeting with officials from the Office of the Chief Academic Officer and from the Facilities Department in December to answer parents’ questions about the Immersion program and the implications of this program for our kids and school. The PTA Board also established relationships with parents from Rolling Terrace Elementary School where students would be coming from for the Immersion program. In January, the Page PTA presented testimony at the Board of Education budget hearing, that called for sufficient staffing and resources and increased access new World Language and Immersion Programs at Page. In April, the Page PTA Board met with the MCPS’ Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Maria Navarro, and her staff to advocate for increased teaching allocation for the World Language Program, increased access for current Page students to the Immersion Program and on-going engagement in the curriculum selection process for the programs. In an important advocacy victory, MCPS agreed to all of the Page PTA’s requests. Through this process we demonstrated that we had engaged and organized parents at Page and that we were a force to be taken seriously. In the coming year we need to monitor the implementation of the Immersion and World Language Programs and continue to advocate for a high quality, well-reourced program. The Page PTA will also be involved in the selection of the new MCPS curriculum that will replace Curriculum 2.0. The timetable for this has been pushed back, but we will continue to make our voices heard for the Page community.
