Candidates want long-term plan
Three school board hopefuls looking for outline, then referendum
By Christena T. O'Brien
Leader-Telegram staff O'Brien can be reached at 830-5838, 800-236-7077 or christena.obrien@ecpc.com.
Three of four school board candidates believe a long-range plan needs to be in place before the Eau Claire school district puts another referendum before voters.
"Strategic planning has to become part of the district's DNA," said Doug Mell, UW-Stout's director of communications. "This is an absolute necessity and should be the No. 1 goal of the new board and new superintendent. (And) this process needs to be totally inclusive and transparent."
Mell, along with incumbent Carol Craig, Robert G. Janke and Adam Shiel, are vying for two seats on the school board in Tuesday's election. Incumbent Mike O'Brien, board president, isn't seeking re-election.
Last spring, voters in the Eau Claire school district rejected a three-year, $21.6 million referendum, forcing the school board to cut $7.5 million from the 2007-08 budget.
The projected deficit for the 2008-09 school year totals $2.98 million, but that figure is subject to change - and possibly increase - because of contract negotiations.
To plug the hole, the school board approved closing Little Red School at the end of this school year. District administrators also have proposed a shift in funding seventh- and eighth-grade athletics and recommended budget cuts, including teaching positions.
"I have a hard time imagining the school district not going to referendum at some point, but I don't know when that might be," said Adam Shiel, an electrical engineer at Silicon Logic Engineering.
"I do think it's absolutely imperative that before we go to referendum that we have a reasonable, long-range plan in place, so we can clearly explain to the taxpayers how we are spending our money and what we'll be giving up if a referendum doesn't pass."
Shiel, like Mell, is making his first bid for public office. Both men have children in school. Shiel, a 34-year-old native of Kansas, has lived in Eau Claire for eight years. He and his wife, Sarah, have two children who attend the Montessori Charter School. The 53-year-old Mell, a former Leader-Telegram editor, and his wife, Sue Kittelson, have lived in the school district for more than 20 years. Their eldest son, David, graduated from North High School, where their youngest son, Daniel, is a junior.
"It will take two years to pass a new referendum," Mell said. "The first year needs to be spent developing a comprehensive strategic planning process that is part of a total quality improvement process."
"The next six months should be devoted to developing the parameters of the referendum, using the comprehensive strategic plan as a road map. The same groups that were involved in the planning process should be involved in developing the outline of the referendum. The final six months should be spent advocating for the referendum."
Craig, who is seeking her sixth term on the board, has gone on record saying that the next referendum must have community involvement before the school board can prioritize.
"We need to inform the public of consequences due to staff cuts and delayed maintenance - in logical, organized forums whereby people can participate in respectful dialogue," said Craig, who recently retired from the Chippewa Valley Technical College Center for Behavioral Science and Civic Effectiveness and became executive director of OMNI Associates, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and programs for enriching personal and professional development.
"This community has consistently supported public education, including maintenance, adequate staffing levels and new facilities when they have been given the opportunity to help create the long-range plan," the 57-year-old Craig said. "So my priority is working toward the completion of my motion, (which passed unanimously Feb. 19), which requires the district to complete a comprehensive plan before a new referendum goes forward or before any more programs and services are cut."
Janke, a retired UW-Eau Claire geography professor, spent nine years on the school board. He attended Eau Claire schools in his youth, as did his two daughters, who went on to pursue careers in education.
"I think it's obvious (that we need to hold a referendum)," he said. "The normal budget tries to fund both building maintenance and staffing issues, and we know in the past few years there is just not enough ... "
"I honestly think we should appeal to the concept of the social contract to get people to accept their responsibilities as citizens of this community not only to their children, but to all children."
Showing posts with label Comprehensive Community Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comprehensive Community Planning. Show all posts
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Monday, July 16, 2007
Low Levels of Transparency Detected!
On June 26, 2007 a Work Session was held with 3 firms who had expressed interest in participating in the Comprehensive Community Planning Process (CCPP) with the ECASD. This meeting had been classified as a CLOSED session with the totally lame-o reason given that they were "negotiations". I challenged this decision of Pres. O'Brien's based on the reasoning that the ECASD could not possibly be anywhere near "negotiating" with consultants since absolutely no work at all had been done by the ECASD to define the project, the scope, the participants, the goals, the deliverables, nor the timeframe. Also, I am sure that pointing out that the Open Meeting Laws require government meetings to err on the side of being open when there is a question. The 3 firms presented very different approaches to the project, as would be expected when they were not given any sort of guidelines from the client.
Carol Craig shared a one page draft summary of what the ECASD wants to accomplish and what outcomes are expected with predictable categories like Facilities; Elementary, Middle and High School Delivery Systems; Administrative Services; Local and State Taxation issues; and Technology. Again, greater work must be done to develop the framework for the scope of this project.
Here is my take on the CCPP consultants:
Springsted, Inc., Public Sector Advisors was represented by Don Lifto a Senior VP and Director of their Public Education Sector. Their approach was 4 steps: RPCE for Research, Planning, Communication and Evaluation. Mr. Lifto concentrated primarily on the first step of Research with the 2nd step of Planning to be done by another group (Kaufman). This approach was very oriented to referendum passage. It focussed on developing a questionnaire for phone surveys of registered voters to determine what was the political climate and how to frame the referendum to voters. In my opinion, it was an approach that was not usable at this time for our district. It did, however, point out how rinky-dink and pathetic the Spring referendum was in terms of being not much more than a hope and a prayer on the pat of the ECASD BOE and Administration. Mr. Lifto did go into the 2nd step of Planning a bit and that begins to approach what I think our district and community needs now.
School Perceptions was represented by, former Middleton superintendent, Mr. Bill Reis and Mr. Tom Joynt, a Senior Consultant. Their focus took the research stage a little farther with their Survey Methodology Software. This survey technique involves many, many more people responding to questions and the data can be sliced and diced easily to get segment responses (students, teachers, parents, community members, etc...) to understand concerns. The 3 Phase approach would be as follows:
Phase 1: Summer Planning to define and develop the Project Strategy and priorities. Some concern was expressed by Cummins and Craig about the current Administrative "transition". Response was that the BOE and Administrative team must establish the Strategic Priorities. Based on this there could be value to waiting until a permanent Superintendent and Deputy are on board.
Phase 2: Fall Community Engagement to design and conduct the survey and analyze results. This would also help to identify for the district the "expectation gap" (which clearly exists here in Eau Claire) which is the difference between what people want and are willing to pay for and what the ECASD is providing.
Phase 3: Winter Planning for the Future Direction to develop a transition plan that would be evaluated quarterly. This would identify the top 3 to 5 priorities and a continuous process to sustain accomplishing them.
I guess that my thoughts on this presentation are that it goes farther than mere referendum passage but does not fully engage all of the " stakeholders" as active participants in the visioning and identification of priorities and strategic objectives that I have seen in other planning processes. They did identify the following keys to successful Community Engagement as being:
1. Build Ownership in the Process, 2. Educate citizens, 3. Inclusivity, 4. Identify and Mobilize Citizen Leaders and, 5. Use Good Data to develop planning and communication with the community. It just seemed like it was not as fully paticipatory and that it would not create shared responsibility for results in ways I have seen in the past.
The final presenter was Anne Sturdivant from the Latitudes Group. This presentation seemed to me to be the most comprehensive process to get the Planning process jump started and moving forward with everybody on board. From their literature: "The basic characteristic is a session with 50-70 or more people in the room representing multiple stakeholder groups. This group includes all types of community members and all types of school district employees, who come to a common vision of the district's future, strategic priorities and draft action plans for getting there. The advantage is broad-based buy in and ownership of strategic direction and the resultant ability for a school system to respond quickly to changes in public demands, student needs, availability of resources and shifting priorities." Using a very structured format in this large group and mixing up the stakeholders within smaller groups in a day and a half session she has seen great results in diverse community groups coming together. Pres. O'Brien questioned whether individuals would be willing to give up a day and a half for such an event and her response was that she has never heard of anyone objecting to that kind of time for such a valuable and comprehensive effort.
Well, that is my 2 cents on the topic. Clearly, the BOE and Administration have got to get their acts together to move forward and define more specifically their goals to get the best process for our district. Without a permanent Superintendent or Deputy in place, this will likely get put on hold for another year plus. Sadly, so many years were lost while previous BOE and Administrative leaders twiddled their thumbs as the district tanked financially and now we are so far behind on this crucial effort.
Carol Craig shared a one page draft summary of what the ECASD wants to accomplish and what outcomes are expected with predictable categories like Facilities; Elementary, Middle and High School Delivery Systems; Administrative Services; Local and State Taxation issues; and Technology. Again, greater work must be done to develop the framework for the scope of this project.
Here is my take on the CCPP consultants:
Springsted, Inc., Public Sector Advisors was represented by Don Lifto a Senior VP and Director of their Public Education Sector. Their approach was 4 steps: RPCE for Research, Planning, Communication and Evaluation. Mr. Lifto concentrated primarily on the first step of Research with the 2nd step of Planning to be done by another group (Kaufman). This approach was very oriented to referendum passage. It focussed on developing a questionnaire for phone surveys of registered voters to determine what was the political climate and how to frame the referendum to voters. In my opinion, it was an approach that was not usable at this time for our district. It did, however, point out how rinky-dink and pathetic the Spring referendum was in terms of being not much more than a hope and a prayer on the pat of the ECASD BOE and Administration. Mr. Lifto did go into the 2nd step of Planning a bit and that begins to approach what I think our district and community needs now.
School Perceptions was represented by, former Middleton superintendent, Mr. Bill Reis and Mr. Tom Joynt, a Senior Consultant. Their focus took the research stage a little farther with their Survey Methodology Software. This survey technique involves many, many more people responding to questions and the data can be sliced and diced easily to get segment responses (students, teachers, parents, community members, etc...) to understand concerns. The 3 Phase approach would be as follows:
Phase 1: Summer Planning to define and develop the Project Strategy and priorities. Some concern was expressed by Cummins and Craig about the current Administrative "transition". Response was that the BOE and Administrative team must establish the Strategic Priorities. Based on this there could be value to waiting until a permanent Superintendent and Deputy are on board.
Phase 2: Fall Community Engagement to design and conduct the survey and analyze results. This would also help to identify for the district the "expectation gap" (which clearly exists here in Eau Claire) which is the difference between what people want and are willing to pay for and what the ECASD is providing.
Phase 3: Winter Planning for the Future Direction to develop a transition plan that would be evaluated quarterly. This would identify the top 3 to 5 priorities and a continuous process to sustain accomplishing them.
I guess that my thoughts on this presentation are that it goes farther than mere referendum passage but does not fully engage all of the " stakeholders" as active participants in the visioning and identification of priorities and strategic objectives that I have seen in other planning processes. They did identify the following keys to successful Community Engagement as being:
1. Build Ownership in the Process, 2. Educate citizens, 3. Inclusivity, 4. Identify and Mobilize Citizen Leaders and, 5. Use Good Data to develop planning and communication with the community. It just seemed like it was not as fully paticipatory and that it would not create shared responsibility for results in ways I have seen in the past.
The final presenter was Anne Sturdivant from the Latitudes Group. This presentation seemed to me to be the most comprehensive process to get the Planning process jump started and moving forward with everybody on board. From their literature: "The basic characteristic is a session with 50-70 or more people in the room representing multiple stakeholder groups. This group includes all types of community members and all types of school district employees, who come to a common vision of the district's future, strategic priorities and draft action plans for getting there. The advantage is broad-based buy in and ownership of strategic direction and the resultant ability for a school system to respond quickly to changes in public demands, student needs, availability of resources and shifting priorities." Using a very structured format in this large group and mixing up the stakeholders within smaller groups in a day and a half session she has seen great results in diverse community groups coming together. Pres. O'Brien questioned whether individuals would be willing to give up a day and a half for such an event and her response was that she has never heard of anyone objecting to that kind of time for such a valuable and comprehensive effort.
Well, that is my 2 cents on the topic. Clearly, the BOE and Administration have got to get their acts together to move forward and define more specifically their goals to get the best process for our district. Without a permanent Superintendent or Deputy in place, this will likely get put on hold for another year plus. Sadly, so many years were lost while previous BOE and Administrative leaders twiddled their thumbs as the district tanked financially and now we are so far behind on this crucial effort.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Comprehensive Community Planning Process
I am very alarmed that the Comprehensive Community Planning (CCP) Process is starting out with the usual ECASD approach of the four "I's": Insulated, Isolated , Inadequate and Impulsively. Just the name of the group indicates that this should be broad based, strategic, and inclusive and we have just the opposite! Discussion about the formation of this effort began in February, and today is June 20th. Please see below the rather lengthy but important excerpt from Minutes of the Feb. BOE Meeting about the expectations of this process:
"Carol Craig drafted a proposal for the Board’s consideration. She said the purpose of the proposal was to make sure the public understands that the referendum is not a solution to the district’s long-term financial issues. She believed that the solution would come in the form of a long-range community plan to determine what services should be offered and what priorities should be set. She read a draft of a motion she developed.
The Board would direct administration to immediately begin developing strategies to complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of determining the community-wide consensus regarding short and long range educational priorities for the ECASD. This plan will serve as a blueprint for future budgetary decisions related to, but not limited to, operational, facilities, and capital expenses/reductions. A draft of the strategies for this comprehensive community planning proposal should be submitted for the BOE review by July 1, 2007, with an implementation target date of September 1, 2007.
Dr. Klaus said he hoped a committee could be put together in the spring so that an outline of the plan could be presented by July 1st.
The Board talked about how it would achieve community-wide consensus. It was stated that the purpose would be to promote community involvement in the process. Com. Craig said she would want a plan in place to begin community engagement to determine educational priorities in the community.
The Board discussed bringing in an outside facilitator to lead the group. Com. Evans pointed out that WASB assisted with the last strategic plan and did a very good job.
Com. Kneer urged the Board to involve teachers in the process as well. Com. Craig said she envisioned including teachers, senior citizens, and community members.
Citizen Terri Stanley said it was important to establish the process and have the community involved every step of the way.
Com. O’Brien suggested changing the wording of the motion to read, “…complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of developing community-wide consensus…”
Com. Craig moved, seconded by Com. Wogahn, to direct administration to immediately begin developing strategies to complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of developing community-wide consensus regarding short and long range educational priorities for the ECASD. This plan will serve as a blueprint for future budgetary decisions related to, but not limited to, operational, facilities, and capital expenses/
reductions. A draft of the strategies for this comprehensive community planning proposal should be submitted for the BOE review by July 1, 2007, with an implementation target date of September 1, 2007. Carried by unanimous roll call vote.
Superintendent Klaus said he believed the group should make the public aware of reductions already in place and to ask for priorities for reductions in the future."
Needless to say NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED. Teachers are not involved. Community members are not involved. Senior Citizens are not involved. A committee has not been formed. Nothing happened for months. Then I asked at the May 21st BOE meeting why nothing is happening. Then something started happening but, as usual, it was completely behind the scenes and out of the sight of anybody but the Administrators and some BOE members. At the June 18th BOE meeting they announced that there would be a Closed Session to interview candidates to help in the CCP but it was confidential because it involved "negotiations."
Can anyone tell me how an organization the size of the ECASD could possibly go from NOTHING on May 21st to "negotiations" with finalists scheduled by June 18th?!?! Again, this is a completely crazy process that will not give us a good result. To have only a couple of individuals making all of the preliminary decisions about this incredibly important process is guaranteed to lead to an expensive, ill advised, time-consuming, waste of community goodwill that leaves the ECASD in worse shape than before.
Please see below a link to the American Planning Association website about how to choose a planner.
http://www.planning.org/consultant/choose.htm
This website highlights the need to PLAN for planning including defining what our goals for the project are, setting a budget and timetable, defining the roles of the consultant and other members of the team (Administrators, BOE members, teachers, other staff, community members, etc...) Other steps include soliciting candidates using an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) which would tell us WHY they are qualified to help us and an RFP (Request for Proposal) which tells us HOW they propose to help us achieve our goals. Also "deliverables" must be identified by both parties to assure that at the end of the process we have precisely what we asked for and they know exactly what they are expected to do to satisfy the contract. Finally, what are the selection criteria identified by us to hire a planner that will meet our goals for this project? This is normally an objective score (rubric) which ranks qualities that we value and applies them mathematically across candidates.
I will follow this posting with a Comment that includes a copy of an e-mail I sent to BOE members and Administrators asking for this information. I have had no response from them.
This process is vitally important for the future of our district. More voices are needed to ask for participation or we will just be chasing down one more pointless and misguided folly led by inexperienced Administrators with poor BOE oversight.
"Carol Craig drafted a proposal for the Board’s consideration. She said the purpose of the proposal was to make sure the public understands that the referendum is not a solution to the district’s long-term financial issues. She believed that the solution would come in the form of a long-range community plan to determine what services should be offered and what priorities should be set. She read a draft of a motion she developed.
The Board would direct administration to immediately begin developing strategies to complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of determining the community-wide consensus regarding short and long range educational priorities for the ECASD. This plan will serve as a blueprint for future budgetary decisions related to, but not limited to, operational, facilities, and capital expenses/reductions. A draft of the strategies for this comprehensive community planning proposal should be submitted for the BOE review by July 1, 2007, with an implementation target date of September 1, 2007.
Dr. Klaus said he hoped a committee could be put together in the spring so that an outline of the plan could be presented by July 1st.
The Board talked about how it would achieve community-wide consensus. It was stated that the purpose would be to promote community involvement in the process. Com. Craig said she would want a plan in place to begin community engagement to determine educational priorities in the community.
The Board discussed bringing in an outside facilitator to lead the group. Com. Evans pointed out that WASB assisted with the last strategic plan and did a very good job.
Com. Kneer urged the Board to involve teachers in the process as well. Com. Craig said she envisioned including teachers, senior citizens, and community members.
Citizen Terri Stanley said it was important to establish the process and have the community involved every step of the way.
Com. O’Brien suggested changing the wording of the motion to read, “…complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of developing community-wide consensus…”
Com. Craig moved, seconded by Com. Wogahn, to direct administration to immediately begin developing strategies to complete a comprehensive community planning process for the purpose of developing community-wide consensus regarding short and long range educational priorities for the ECASD. This plan will serve as a blueprint for future budgetary decisions related to, but not limited to, operational, facilities, and capital expenses/
reductions. A draft of the strategies for this comprehensive community planning proposal should be submitted for the BOE review by July 1, 2007, with an implementation target date of September 1, 2007. Carried by unanimous roll call vote.
Superintendent Klaus said he believed the group should make the public aware of reductions already in place and to ask for priorities for reductions in the future."
Needless to say NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED. Teachers are not involved. Community members are not involved. Senior Citizens are not involved. A committee has not been formed. Nothing happened for months. Then I asked at the May 21st BOE meeting why nothing is happening. Then something started happening but, as usual, it was completely behind the scenes and out of the sight of anybody but the Administrators and some BOE members. At the June 18th BOE meeting they announced that there would be a Closed Session to interview candidates to help in the CCP but it was confidential because it involved "negotiations."
Can anyone tell me how an organization the size of the ECASD could possibly go from NOTHING on May 21st to "negotiations" with finalists scheduled by June 18th?!?! Again, this is a completely crazy process that will not give us a good result. To have only a couple of individuals making all of the preliminary decisions about this incredibly important process is guaranteed to lead to an expensive, ill advised, time-consuming, waste of community goodwill that leaves the ECASD in worse shape than before.
Please see below a link to the American Planning Association website about how to choose a planner.
http://www.planning.org/consultant/choose.htm
This website highlights the need to PLAN for planning including defining what our goals for the project are, setting a budget and timetable, defining the roles of the consultant and other members of the team (Administrators, BOE members, teachers, other staff, community members, etc...) Other steps include soliciting candidates using an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) which would tell us WHY they are qualified to help us and an RFP (Request for Proposal) which tells us HOW they propose to help us achieve our goals. Also "deliverables" must be identified by both parties to assure that at the end of the process we have precisely what we asked for and they know exactly what they are expected to do to satisfy the contract. Finally, what are the selection criteria identified by us to hire a planner that will meet our goals for this project? This is normally an objective score (rubric) which ranks qualities that we value and applies them mathematically across candidates.
I will follow this posting with a Comment that includes a copy of an e-mail I sent to BOE members and Administrators asking for this information. I have had no response from them.
This process is vitally important for the future of our district. More voices are needed to ask for participation or we will just be chasing down one more pointless and misguided folly led by inexperienced Administrators with poor BOE oversight.
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