One thing Jim Carrel pushed for before he resigned his seat was the development of a special board sub-committee tasked with determining how the board could best win back public support. So the board voted to establish the "Community Engagement Task Force ". They held a bunch of meetings, as board-established task forces are wont to do, and on August 11, 2008, the committee's recommendations were presented to the board.
One key question the task force was charged with was answering the question,
"What can the School Board do to get community input into their work?"
The committee's answer came in the form of three suggestions. Each has been annotated with a simple "Yes/No" to indicate whether any action has been taken to-date.
1.Establish an on-going standing committee
ACTION RECOMENDATION
NO Enabled to call a community response team / study circle for use on specific issues
NO Use same methodology as the community response team for the high school
NO The community engagement committee will guide and review the implementation of these and future community engagement recommendations
2.Improve Board member accessibility
ACTION? RECOMMENDATION
NO More face-to-face interaction
NO “Meet the Board” sessions
NO Listening sessions (at schools and within community)
NO Booth at Corn Fest/community events / public venues
NO Host/attend community/city events
NO Town Hall Meetings
3.Leverage the Web (it is the future)
ACTION? RECOMMENDATION
NO Public forum links
NO On-line bulletin board
NO On-line comment card
NO Redesign website
NO Call-in radio web show
NO Set up/maintain blog
So....what are we waiting for, board members. Signs suggest that many more community members have become less enthralled with your behaviors and your direction.
What do you have to say for it?
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