[Speed Gibson,
Saturday April 26, 2008 at 11:41pm]
Wrapping Up the 281 Vision
The Robbinsdale Area Schools, District 281, has been doing a fast-paced visioning process the past month. This was deemed necessary before the referendum last year, and especially after it was defeated. I have posted my support for this process and participated in six of the many community visioning sessions: two general, one each high school, middle school, elementary, and ECFE.
Today, Saturday, was the big wrap up meeting where all that raw input and preliminary scoring was presented to a group of 32 "community leaders" drawn from the School Board, District Staff (principals and below), city government, business, parents, and taxpayers. I was honored to be invited by the Board as one of those 32 evaluators.
This went from about 8:30 am to nearly 3 pm, with only a quick lunch for a break. A number of initiatives for change were developed, including action plans. Much as I would like to share those outcomes, the Board and Staff will now work this up into a formal document to be presented at the Monday, May 5 School Board meeting. I'm going to be respectful and let the Board present it at the Monday, May 5 regular session at 7 pm. I will be out of town that day, but will have the DVR record it via Comcast channel 22.
I will share this: Superintendent Stan Mack made an interesting observation at the end, expressing some surprise that class sizes didn't make the final cut. It appeared throughout the raw data, but apparently the other issues around it always seemed more important to us. I agree with Mack, this is surprising indeed, having heard this over and over at the community visioning sessions I attended.
But now that I think about it, this could be evidence of a successful process today. For while both staff and parents cite class size as a concern, when listed with other issues it took its rightful status as a symptom. Address the other issues like funding, scheduling, and testing, and class sizes will take care of themselves.
I found this whole process very helpful to me, gaining considerable understanding of how the district works and what the parents expect. But now it's time to resume my quest for understandable financials, possibly as part of one or more initiatives developed today.
Today, Saturday, was the big wrap up meeting where all that raw input and preliminary scoring was presented to a group of 32 "community leaders" drawn from the School Board, District Staff (principals and below), city government, business, parents, and taxpayers. I was honored to be invited by the Board as one of those 32 evaluators.
This went from about 8:30 am to nearly 3 pm, with only a quick lunch for a break. A number of initiatives for change were developed, including action plans. Much as I would like to share those outcomes, the Board and Staff will now work this up into a formal document to be presented at the Monday, May 5 School Board meeting. I'm going to be respectful and let the Board present it at the Monday, May 5 regular session at 7 pm. I will be out of town that day, but will have the DVR record it via Comcast channel 22.
I will share this: Superintendent Stan Mack made an interesting observation at the end, expressing some surprise that class sizes didn't make the final cut. It appeared throughout the raw data, but apparently the other issues around it always seemed more important to us. I agree with Mack, this is surprising indeed, having heard this over and over at the community visioning sessions I attended.
But now that I think about it, this could be evidence of a successful process today. For while both staff and parents cite class size as a concern, when listed with other issues it took its rightful status as a symptom. Address the other issues like funding, scheduling, and testing, and class sizes will take care of themselves.
I found this whole process very helpful to me, gaining considerable understanding of how the district works and what the parents expect. But now it's time to resume my quest for understandable financials, possibly as part of one or more initiatives developed today.
BTW, do you have a new official start date for summer to begin? :-) My parents are snowed in at Park Rapids.
In simple terms, we keep pouring more money into education, hiring more teachers and reducing class sizes, but without results. Change the environment and you could educate for half what we're spending now.
As for my idea of summer, I'm about ready to rescind spring!