more on engagement (part 1.5)

In reference to an earlier post.
Found some very interest (and quite dusty) sections in the Board Policy.

811/R – Education Equity Excellence Committee

Purpose
“The Board of Education’s goal is to provide an educational system that meets the needs of all students and leads to the attainment of educational excellence by all students, including students of diverse backgrounds. The Board recognizes that educational excellence and equity require open channels of communication with the community. The Board believes the District will be most successful when the community is aware of and understands the District’s efforts and goals. The purpose of the Education Equity Excellence (EEE) Committee is to foster a climate of equal opportunity, educational excellence and success for all students. Additionally, the committee will foster two-way communication and collaboration between the District and its stakeholders.”

oops. It is my observation that the community is quite clueless about much of the District’s efforts and goals. I agree that the District would “be most successful when the community is aware of and understands” these things. On the bright side, I see the efforts of Dr. Wiegand, Dr. Taylor and several other administrators that are trying to build bridges and form pathways of collaboartion. It is very slow, but it is progressing. Having said that, I still believe the EEE should be disbanded as it exists today.

805 PUBLIC INFORMATION PROGRAM

“The Board of education endorses the concept that public schools belong to the people by virtue of the fact that the public schools are created by the people and supported by taxation of the people. Public support enhances the Board’s goal to provide an educational system that meets the needs of all students and leads to the attainment of educational excellence by the students.
Continuing support for public schools depends on the community’s awareness and understanding of the District’s efforts and goals. The Board recognizes its responsibility to provide the community with information regarding the policies and programs of the District. The Board intends to provide channels of communication through its own efforts and those of the administrative staff to carry out its responsibility.

The Board directs the Superintendent to plan, and implement a public relations program. The District’s public relations program will be driven by the following objectives:

1. To develop public understanding of all aspects of school operation; to ascertain public attitudes toward issues in education; and to discover the public’s aspirations for the education of their children.
2. To secure adequate financial support for a sound educational program.
3. To help citizens feel a more direct responsibility for the quality of education provided by their schools.
4. To earn the good will, respect, and confidence of the public with regard to the schools’ staff and services.
5. To

en·gage·ment (part 1 of 2)

From the Free Dictionary *:

en·gage·ment  (n-gjmnt)

1. a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war
2. a meeting arranged in advance
3. a mutual promise to marry
4. the act of giving someone a job
5. employment for performers or performing groups that lasts for a limited period of time
6. contact by fitting together
7. the act of sharing in the activities of a group

*the initial definitions at the top of the page are bogus; “the act of engaging”, something that engages… seriously?!?

Typically when I use the word “engagement” on this blog, I have in mind definition #7, one of collaboration and mutual involvement. It is with that thought in mind we gathered at Houlihans this past week for a fun and very tactile discussion of where to put a new Central High School.

It was a good trial run; I personally rather enjoyed working with such a large format, being able to draw circles, move the little red monopoly hotel around, etc. I even cut out a rough 1.5 mile radius polygon to scale, and it was HUGE – things like this really give pop to the details. Most significantly, in my mind, the options that we explored were totally independent of the ones “discovered” by the Public Engagement firm (there’s that word again) hired by the school district. I make this point because it is interesting that we (in general) have so many different opinions and so many different ways of making our opinions heard.

So one big announcement; we decided to postpone plans for March 24th since that is coming up way too quick. Instead, we are aiming at April 7th (location and time TBA, but probably 1-4:pm). This will give us more time to better prepare and advertise. We will be attending the March 25th Board Meeting to invite participation, as well as contacting the local media (press release?). Our plan is to do two more before the end of May. Note to self: generate a PDF which can be sent to schools and posted on websites.

I am told that the Steering Team has decided on their final recommendations to be made to Dr. Wiegand later in April, and those recommendations will be presented to the Board in May. However, after asking several times and several people, no one has shared with me what those recommendations are.

What exactly are we doing on April 7th?

photo courtesy of Chuck Jackson

Unity in Action Magazine : Jan 2013 issue

The latest “Unity in Action” magazine has come out, with two short but good articles to read ([note: the software used to browse the magazine is a bit kooky, not unlike the NG epaper]). The first is about government and us voters taking responsibility for those we vote for and holding our government accountable, of making your voice heard and perhaps most significantly, focusing on community. This is very much like the “Letter to the Editor” I wrote last month. Good stuff! The second article is an interview with “Big D”, a poignant and succinct account about coming out of the prison system; his last statement really hits home – “The issues with felons is something that is really destroying our community.” I feel for this guy, and others like him. I have known a couple convicts and tried to work with them on re-entry issues, and the system is totally screwed up; most often, it is easier and more lucrative for felons to go back to a life of crime. We have totally failed that segment of society.

 

Why is this on a blog about schools? Because I firmly believe schools are not silos, they are not independent of the society, the culture and the community around them. We have to be cognizant of all the players and all the moving pieces. If we build better communities, we build better schools. If we build better schools, we build better communities (the last is from the Unit 4 PR stuff). And trust me, you don’t want the alternative.

Recent email exchanges

I am beginning to think that perhaps email is not the best tool for me to use when I try to engage larger groups as a whole. I am going to post three emails that I have sent in the last month or so; my point and purpose is to expose my own thinking, to see where the train of my thought is going. My second point is to generate discussion (that should be implied on this blog – if I post it, it is my hope that we can start talking about it).

 

[I have to apologize ahead of time for the awful way WordPress totally mangled the formatting of the below notes - I tried to make them look better, but I am still struggling with it]

 

Suggested changes to Schools of Choice (Policy 705.09)

I sent the first few notes before I had an opportunity to listen to the November 5th Board Meeting. After listening to said meeting, I realized the board had some good questions for Dr. Zola and ultimately tabled the part of eliminating Proximity – however, on tonight’s Consent Agenda the Board will vote to approve (or disapprove as the case may be) the other two recommendations (1. merging Magnet registration a little more with “regular” registration, 2. changing when wait lists expire). Still very curious about the Choice Task Force and what work Alves has done and will do.

 

 

Transparency and Accountability

I sent this note to the PTA Council officers at first, and then forwarded it to the PTA Council email list. I have received zero responses so far, but two folks have told me that they agree 100%. While that is certainly gratifying, I yearn to find those who disagree as well.

 

 

Working Together

After listening to the Nov 5th Board Meeting, I was quite impressed with several things. I sent this note with a sincere desire (and perhaps unspoken expectation?) to learn what the Board thinks the community can do. I am still waiting to learn.

 

 

PS – email communication is funny. And challenging. I do not make it a practice to post emails because there is an expectation that the message stops at the target audience, and I want to be careful about how to treat that expectation. Again, my point is to give context to where my thinking has gone and to generate discussion. And ultimately to provide ground for action steps.

Advocacy: what comes to mind when you hear/see that?

At tonight’s inaugural Parent Advocacy Committee meeting, the one major action item is to go out and ask other people how they define “advocacy”. It is expected that we all have different mental images of this concept, different dictionary definitions. And since I blog, you are my lucky audience and in this case, participants.  Don’t worry, I know a number of you trollers so I’ll be dropping you a personal email in the near future to ask about this. I am hoping that at least 20 of you make a comment below.

What is Advocacy?

For those that want to read the meeting documents first, you can skip down to the bottom of this post.

The first meeting, as you might expect, was a “sending out the feelers” kind of gathering. Tony Howard and Cheryl Camacho introduced themselves and how Dr. Wiegand charged them to essentially research what advocacy is and how the district can best implement it; this idea came out of the June 21st Board Retreat, along the lines of creating safe environments for discussion and empowering parents to become more involved. Both Tony and Cheryl have done a lot of planning and both are obviously very passionate about this topic. In fact, when listening to Mr. Howard introduced himself, it was a pleasant surprise to hear how involved in the community he is. I am reminded that people all around us are already doing amazing things and most of the time we simply do not know it. One thing in particular is that Mr. Howard will be hosting a Minority Parent Round Table for anyone that considers themselves a minority at the Champaign Public Library next Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It sounds like this will be a great listening event when staff from Edison will simply listen to what Edison parents have to say. He has hopes of doing something similar with a larger audience and at venues like the Douglass Branch Library (there was a conflict for this time around).

As other committee members introduced themselves and spoke about

NG article on the “Futures Conference”

I added some comments to Meg’s Saturday article:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/education/2012-10-20/residents-asked-take-part-champaign-school-decisions.html

 

[really wishing there was a way to get an rss feed on comments...]

 

I think if DeJong/Fallon really puts their noses to the grind and actually gets the ball rolling on going out to the community by using the bridges already being built by folks like Dr. Wiegand, Dr. Taylor and board members, this effort of hearing what the community thinks could be awesome. We really need something that brings us all together – we have way too many divisions already, we don’t need more. Meg quoted Dr. Wiegand as saying “[s]ince the schools belong to the community, the community needs to have a voice.” I very much believe that. And so while I am going to stick it to DeJong and Unit 4 to go get that voice, I also see my role to help however I can. We cannot sit around and write our little nice opinions so that people can nod their heads and we can all be one happy family. No, we need to get out there and pound a path in our neighborhoods, knock on doors, and get local gatherings started. And that takes time and effort – I know! But it is an investment. If you disagree, please share.

 

I realize it is election time and folks are getting sick and tired of all the surveys via phone calls and door knockers. I don’t know what to do about that. Bad timing? We could possibly wait until December, but that is hardly better with all the holidays. Here is where I would love the media outlets to use their massive resources (relative to me *grin*) to instigate and spur local conversations. I would love to see “social/public journalists” initiate a 3-month story that gets little groups of conversations started, like little fires in our community. Heck, for that matter, why can’t we hold these conversations in our churches and be open in our dialogue so as to share among  each other? Egads, we wouldn’t want that to happen! </sarcasm> Or even better, combine social journalism and churches. (I can hear the outrage now….)

 

Here is where I am at – this is an awesome opportunity for our community to shape our future! If schools become a huge community concern (“concern” in a positive, constructive way, not the negative way it most often is), this also drives (or at least, should drive if we do it right) how future development in Champaign is planned out, including the dynamic plans for housing, commercial spaces, open spaces, recreation and even the jails. I see these things as all connected, each affecting the other. I am excited because, if we do this right, we could light the fire for some excellent whole-community conversations. But I am also afraid this will turn into another failed attempt. So my perspective is that I am excited about the possibilities, cognizant of our past, yet applying my energies for the former.

 

What about you?

Unit 4 posts a weekly newsletter

In the past, Unit 4 put out a district-wide newsletter about once every 2 months or so. It looks like they might be stepping up to once a week now:

http://www.champaignschools.org/news/news_files/2012-09-13_WeeklyNewsletter.pdf

 

In this first issue, Dr. Wiegand emphasizes the need to connect with the community, and how this newsletter is hoping to “open the door even wider”. The bulk of her update deals with facilities; how exploding growth in enrollment is rapidly driving a need for more and better equiped buildings. She recognizes how the community needs to be a part of this process and expresses a desire to be transparent in the process, explaining that this is the root reason they have hired DeJong-Richter (URL to the RFP Proposal included). One of the nice things about the proposal which I missed before is that it includes a rough time-line. Now I only hope they provide a well-maintained dedicated webpage to this project.

 

One of the events listed at the bottom of the newsletter is the Social Justice Committee on Sept 27. Chuck Jackson and I spoke with Dr. Laura Taylor this morning, and we are all very much excited about her plans. She indicated that she will be posting minutes and such, but I hope she is a bit more ambitious and posts her plans, notes and thoughts, etc. Dr. Taylor has been busy making personal invitations to various groups and churches and passing out flyers. They are expected a very large turnout. Dr. Taylor also expressed the hope that perhaps satellite groups would host future Social Committee meetings. Along the vein, I spoke with William Jones (co-owner of the Rose & Taylor Barbershop) and he is very interested in hosting a satellite meeting. Keep your eyes open. I am also asking Board Member Ileana Saveley about the possibility of bringing a satellite meeting out to Shadow Wood.

 

PS – Karen, you have raised some points in previous comments. I still intend to get to them, but I am really hoping that Dr. Taylor will respond in one way or another.

Houlihans July 25: tackling the bigger issues

So Chuck and I plan to be at Houlihans tomorrow (right, Chuck?). We will probably be talking about our efforts to exert a change in Board Policy, but we always welcome fresh ideas from old friends and new. Over the past couple of days, I have had the opportunity to float this idea pass several Board Members and the reactions have been mixed (which is a good thing – I would be worried if I received a homogeneous, standard response). Some repeated themes so far are that the Board has tried several attempts to further engage the public over the years, all of which kinda sputtered out. So while all members I have talked to so far have expressed a desire and interest to connect with the public, they are not exactly certain how to do that.

As stated earlier and echoed in the undertones of what I hear the board members saying, what we really need is a change in society. That is a much larger and more complex issue to deal with. The quintessential question seems to be “How do we entice more engagement?” Many things have been tried and none have been sustainable. Why is that?

Allow me to tangent a little and talk about the Board Meeting last night. I still don’t like the wording of the Champaign Telephone Company contract, but putting that aside, Meg Dickinson wrote an article about the need for nine new hall monitors at the high schools. This got me to thinking about

Stuff: board meeting video, Houlihans, community interaction

I. For starters, the July 9th Board meeting video is now available (right-click and “save” if your browser cannot play the video):

http://www.cb-pta.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=44

II. Houlihans: I plan to be there tomorrow, anyone else? I have a meeting at 10:am with Dr. Wiegand and can report on that, talk about the Board Meeting, or my new plan to introduce new Board Policy that aims to increase interactions with the public (cue “taking over the world”). Which is an excellent segue into ….

III. Community interaction

Kathy Wallig wrote a guest commentary for the News-Gazette on Sunday, July 8th entitled “Urbana school board needs to repeal Board Policy 2:82″ (unfortunately, not online). Ms. Wallig does an excellent job of painting the picture on a large canvas to help us understand what is really going on. She uses the example of Jed Bartlett and quotes the line “that’s where all the governing that really matters to anybody really happens” in the context of school boards. Ms. Wallig goes on to point out the many problems of Policy 2:82, but more importantly

Letter to the Board: “April 23rd Board Meeting”

My letter to the Board follows – I am linking this to my previous post about the board meeting.

[sheesh, this wordpress formatting is HORRID - some kind of div fetish....]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Board,

I was unable to attend yesterday’s Board Meeting but I did intend to state a couple of things in Public Comment. So I am resorting to email as a secondary method to communicate.

First, I wish to again congratulate the Board on their choice of Ileana Saveley, and wish Ms. Saveley a satisfying and most successful term(s) of service with the Board.

Next, I wish to again implore the Board and the Administration to further seek out ways to achieve transparency and build trust with the community. There are two areas of immediate relevancy in regards to the direction of the School District and the community. For each, I list the issue and a possible solution – I am open to other possibilities as well.

1. High School Options. 
Issue: During the Feb 27th Board Meeting,

Learning from others: “Crossing the Streams”

I apologize for subjecting you to yet another bout of news from Springfield; I had some excellent conversations today and am compelled to share them. This is a long post;  the top 2/3rds deals with Peggy Cormeny, the bottom 1/3rd with Pete Sherman. The overall theme is of bringing parents and teachers together. I am reminded of Ghostbusters and the power of crossing the “streams”. What you read below is very much like that.

[note: any factual errors are bound to be my own - if you know of any discrepancies, please let me know]

The first one was with Peggy Cormeny, the Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) at SSD 186. I have been trying to get a hold of her for a little while and our schedules finally overlapped. My first question to Peggy was about the history and genesis of FACE. To provide a full context, she had to rewind all the way back to the early 90′s.

Roughly 20 years ago the Ball Foundation contacted the Springfield School District and started a partnership that is just now winding down. The Foundation provided grant monies to fund teacher home visits and teacher collaboration initiatives, opportunities that allowed teachers the incentives to visit with children and their families. Peggy related a story of one elementary school in which the 5th grade teachers were able to meet and visit with all the 5th grade families before school began. Wow. Around the same time, the “Parents as Partners” program was kicked off, a vital bridge between home and school.

When Peggy joined the team,

Community Engagement: what does it look like?

This is a two-for-one post. I want to make a quick announcement that Majora Carter will be at the NCSA on Thursday. Just awesome stuff! More on this at the bottom of the post. Be there!

I have already talked about the fine work going on in the Springfield School District. I have decided to integrate that into my “platform” for tonight’s Candidate Forum (you will see that this is posted while I am being interviewed, and I have no electronic devices with me).

I spoke with a Springfield BOE Member, Scott McFarland, this afternoon. It is just so exciting to hear about what they are doing. The Faith Coalition for the Common Good continues to push forward; one of the many things to come out of the Education Summit is a Education Task Force Committee (cannot find a URL link, yet). One of the things that was really important to the SSD 186 was improving their website. As I mentioned previously, I was quite impressed with the website. I have recently learned that one of their employees, Dave Heinzel, is the man behind the curtains and largely responsible for the entire thing. He is an accomplished graphic artist and the website really shows off his skills quite well.

During our conversation, Mr. McFarland mentioned how FAITH working with SSD 186 procured a high school improvement grant which they used to build a special room dedicated to community collaboration, including holding classes for community members. It is a part of the initiative to use the building even after school is out, in the efforts of creating a community center. I love this idea!! Awesome stuff.

I was asking Mr. McFarland about his opinion of FACE (Family and Community Engagement), and a quote I am going to steal from him is “You have to have community buy-in before the Board pitches an idea.” How true, so very true. And this is a Board Member, keep in mind.

I also called the Springfield Administration Building and asked further questions. One more thing I learned is that FACE is essentially one coordinator (Peggy Cormeny) and her assistant. They have a “FACE team” at each school that either replaces or works along side PTOs (like our PTAs, kinda sorta). I am so envious.

 

And finally, back to Majora Carter. You have to go watch some of her videos (1,2). Here is someone with a passion for improving the lives of people around her, who is so overflowing that her sincerity and genuine concern drives her to push and push and push to get injustice eradicated. Her outlet is “environmental justice”, but that phrase means so much more than hugging trees.

New role model

Previously I mentioned a trip out to Springfield. In the last few days as I have attempted to define myself in preparation for the public Candidate Forums on April 16th, I have realized that many of my desires and goals coincidentally align with a very special department in the Springfield School District, Family and Community Engagement (F.A.C.E.).

The front page of FACE that greets you is not exactly the most impressive thing you can find on the internet. However, after digging around, I was very excited. Take for instance this quote from the “About” page:

“Springfield Public School District defines Family and Community Engagement as school, family & community partnerships built on trust and meaningful communication that creates strong academic support systems for all students.”

FACE has also 

Filling in details for the April 17th Open Forum

At our Houlihans meeting this afternoon, we covered a lot of ground. Much of it was discussing ideas for the April 17th Open Forum, although we did briefly talk about a certain candidate forum as well.

While I cannot say we have finalized anything, our Houlihans session was really good at uncovering some very nice ideas. For instance, next week we are planning on having “wondercards” (as Chuck calls them) at the open discussion on Tuesday; if you wonder about something, have an idea, a question or a comment, fill out a card. Our intention is to have a display board or three that we can group the cards on and at the end of the evening have a full board that we take pictures of and post online. These will be our proof that many people had a hand in developing ideas – far be it from us to be the sole voice. The whole point of these forums is to open up communication channels. We are also talking about using a 12-minute Ken Robinson video as a way to break the ice and jumpstart conversations.

An overall list of goals we think we want to address would be:

• Communications: The current system of communication has a couple holes. We don’t necessarily have all the answers, but the major reason we are having these forums in the first place is to kick the tires, uncork our brains and see what happens.
• Teacher/staff isolation: After talking with some teachers, we learned that some teachers would appreciate a little more support, and a little more connection with other teachers, not to mention with Administration and community members.
• Student Climate: This one we intend to address bullying and lack of respect; not merely from students to teachers, but also the other way as well.

Again, this is just a working prototype, something to

Voices: first thoughts as a response to a letter I received today

Today I received what appears to be a bulk mailing from Don Kermath asking folks to get more involved and speak up at the April 9th Board Meeting. For the curious, the following link is to a word document of my best effort to reproduce that letter electronically:

Don Kermath letter, April 5th

 

While in principle I totally agree it is awesome to get more folks involved at Board Meetings (and interacting with Board Members), there are a couple things that pique my curiousity.

1. Why isn’t the letter online? It is from “AVoiceforSchools.com” but not on that website. And not on the Voice’s facebook page. Weird. It’s not like the Board Member’s contact information is private.

2. I dislike the baggage of emotional buzzwords like “backdoor referendum” and “The Board broke its promise”. Maybe I am the only one of the 2300 petition signers that do not think these terms are appropriate. I kinda doubt it.

3. Where are the suggestions, the constructive critique, the alternatives? It doesn’t sit right with me to merely slap someone on the wrist.

4. Along that line,