About 50 USD 257 patrons, with a sprinkling of school staff, fleshed out five focus areas within a fledgling strategic plan for the district.
“Today is a most important part of the process,” Bart Swartz said at the beginning of Tuesday’s five-hour session. Think in terms of “three to five years. You won’t accomplish anything if you want it all ‘right now,’” he said.
Swartz is director of administrative services and leadership programs for Greenbush, the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center.
Participants were asked “to chart a course for the future,” added Steve Parsons, another of the facilitators and former superintendent of schools in Humboldt and Chanute.
Focus areas:
— Recruitment, retention and rewarding of staff.
— Facilities, new or improved.
— Student attitude, pride and responsibility.
— Having students college and/or career ready.
— School, parent and community partnerships.
TO ARRIVE at how to best approach each topic entailed 2½ hours of group discussions. Afterward, decisions on how to proceed were shared.
Angie Linn, a district administrator, gave thoughts about recruitment, retention and rewarding teachers.
Recruitment, now much a seller’s market with fewer students pursuing education as a career, would be helped by contacting students while in college with letters of encouragement. “We also could look at how others recruit,” and duplicate their efforts, with Thrive Allen County, Iola Industries and Allen County Regional Hospital as sources. Advertising positives of USD 257 and Iola, as well as the remainder of the area it serves, would be helpful.
Providing “a positive work environment” is important in retention, Linn said, and none is more important than the district being competitive with salaries and benefits.
Having a visible administration, on hand to inspire, is a reward teachers appreciate. Linn said focusing a specific part of the budget on salaries goes a long way. “Also involve the community,” she said.
Ryan Sparks, who has had a hand in developing housing in Iola and keeps his finger on the community pulse in insurance sales, said, “We need steps to improve facilities for kids,” and, while it might be difficult, success would be enhanced by hearing “the community’s voice. If we could get 1,000 people to give an opinion, it would help” design and pass a bond issue.
Points his group laid out for facilities:
— Learn views of residents.
— Acquire land near existing schools.
— Assess facilities, to determine educational as well as physical needs.
— Explore partnerships with Allen Community College and area high schools.
— Propose a bond issue, for new or improved structures, after determining voters’ preference.
— Have plans for displaced buildings ahead of time.
Whatever is done should be an “effort that’s community-driven,” Sparks said.
To ensure students have well-founded and conducive attitudes, pride and responsibility, school uniforms would be a start, said Georgia Masterson, who strives to lift up the poor through Thrive and other programs.
Another approach would be to “set high expectations with consequences and rewards,” she said, with a mentoring program a definite advantage. That could help create and provide role models.
Yet another out-of-the-box type of suggestion was to have community service as a graduation requirement.
Doug Dunlap, a BOE member, said surveying graduates at one-, three- and five-year intervals should give a handle on how to meet students’ needs in preparing them for college and/or careers. Hands-on instruction would be helpful in career paths, along with close attention to students’ desires.
An innovative thought was mating such things as welding and math, which often comes into play in construction work, for a practical educational experience. He mentioned looking at developing a consortium with colleges and tech ed centers to better prepare students.
“For a long time test scores were used to define success,” said Swartz. “Now, we’re looking at a broader view with career education.”
School, parent and community participation would be strengthened by improved communications, said Jennifer Coltrane, a parent. She pointed to a district-wide calendar, to avoid date conflicts among elementary and secondary schools, as well as taking advantage of the wide range of social and traditional media, newsletters and even a digital sign strategically placed in a high-traffic area.
To involve students with business and industry, job fairs and mock interviews would be of service.
The district also might look into hiring a public communicator.
SWARTZ SAID information put together Tuesday would be compiled, with amplifications, and made available to the board at its Nov. 23 meeting.
Once board accord is reached, the document will be reviewed by a group of students and then returned to the board for approval.
Similar things being mentioned in several areas may lead to winnowing ideas, he said. The board also will be expected to prioritize to make best use of financial and other resources, Swartz said.
