coen Posted February 10, 2010 Report Share Posted February 10, 2010 Proceedings of the Strategic Planning Process Committee School District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana February 6, 2010 CALL TO ORDER Chair Barbara Bryan called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, February 6, 2010, in the Board Room of the Lincoln Center. Steering Committee members in attendance were Barbara Bryan, Peter Gesuale, Kathy Aragon (via phone), Teresa Stroebe, Joyce Weber, Superintendent Copps (ex officio), Nancy Hines (ex officio), Gail Surwill, Steve Arveschoug, Mark Astle, Leo Barsanti, Bryan Buehler, Nichole Card, Jim Duncan, Mary Susan Fishbaugh, Marge Flynn, Mike Foster, Mary Hernandez, Mary Lave, Scott McCulloch, Suzanne McKiernan, Sharon Peterson, Don Reed, Karen Rice, Bruce Schtling, Sandy Wong, and Trisha Zowada. Also in attendance were Lance Melton and Debra Silk of the Montana School Boards Association, and Leo Hudetz, District Clerk. Absent were board members Joel Guthals, Mary Jo Fox, and Malcolm Goodrich, and Steering Committee member Kate Hamlin (absent due to illness), and Dulce Whitford. COMMUNICATION FROM THE PUBLIC Hearing no communication from the public, Chair Barbara Bryan moved to the next agenda item. INTRODUCTIONS Barb Bryan asked Steering Committee members to introduce themselves. She thanked everyone for participating and noted the broad geographic distribution and expertise of the committee. She also talked briefly about the contents of the work packet, then introduced Mr. Melton. OVERVIEW OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS – Lance Melton Lance Melton gave a presentation titled “Developing a Knowledge-Based Governance Structure” and gave a hard copy of the presentation notes (attachment 1--see below) to each committee member. Key points made by Mr. Melton included: - The purpose of strategic planning is to 1) establish clarity and consensus regarding direction of the district, 2) help ensure open access to critical information by the entire community, 3) broaden the number of people truly invested in the district’s success, and 4) help the district identify and overcome barriers to success - Strategic planning without subsequent alignment of all activities to established values and goals is fruitless. For success, the board and district need to follow through and implement the plan, even when decisions are difficult. - Successful planning requires a commitment to norms of governing behavior, including: o A strategic focus on the interest of children o A culture of trust o A culture of inquiry o In a culture of inquiry, everything is questioned. Participants ask: How do we know? What are our assumptions? What if our assumptions are wrong? What are the alternatives? Are we talking about beliefs or facts? On what facts are our beliefs based?) o Internal and external transparency o Accountability Accountability does not mean punishment; it means constant monitoring and reporting to determine results and consistency with planning objectives) o Collaboration o Engaging the community o Commitment to continuous learning - Key steps in planning include determining our core purpose (the district’s reason for being), core values (timeless and enduring principles/qualities that guide all our work); envisioned future (a big audacious goal of what we want the district to be like); mega issues (internal and external issues that threaten success or create unknowns); goal statements; and action plans. - Knowledge-based decision making refers to a reliance on facts, not on opinions or feelings. It is the basis for sound decisions in any organization. - Knowledge-based decision making requires dialogue – conversation intended to enlighten, not to persuade. In dialogue, the parties take time to listen to one another and understand one another. - In deciding any issue using knowledge-based decision making, four questions need to be asked: 1. What do we know about the wants and needs of our members, prospective members, and customers that is relevant to this decision? 2. What do we know about the current realities and evolving dynamics of our community, marketplace, industry, profession, that is relevant to this decision? 3. What do we know about the capacity and strategic position of our school district that is relevant to this decision? (Capacity refers to financial capacity, staffing capacity, etc.) 4. What are the ethical implication of our choices? These questions should be asked for every decision. FACILITATION OF DISCUSSION ON COMMUNITY SURVEY – Debra Silk Debra Silk facilitated committee discussion of the draft Billings School Community Survey (attachment 2--see below) created by the Ad Hoc Committee and MTSBA. Ideas and comments expressed about the survey included: - The survey is too long and detailed. - The survey will tell us how to maintain the status quo, but won’t tell us enough about what people want for the future. Consider just asking the last group of narrative questions about the desired future. - There need to be ways to access the survey other than on the internet; some citizens are not computer-literate. - The survey should be anonymous, and this should be stated in the survey introduction. - The language needs to be simple and clear; don’t use planning jargon. - Do not lump everyone over age 65 into a single age category. Consider breaking this group down into ages 66-75 and ages 76-85. - In the survey intro, clearly identify the purpose and use of the survey - The overall purpose of the survey should be to gain information for improving educational opportunities for the BPS students - Should the Gazette and Outpost be referred to simply as print media in the question about respondent news sources? (After discussion, it was decided to leave these as separate choices.) - Add “Family & Friends” and “Internet news media” as possible news sources - Under the item on respondent roles in answering the survey, 1) don’t list “Voter/taxpayer last, 2) add grandparents as a choice (a lot of grandparents are raising their grandchildren), 3) school district employees shouldn’t be listed first, 4) consider identifying people who live in outlying elementary districts but are part of the BPS high school district, and 5) allow people to check more than one category - Consider using a polling company to do a statistically significant poll - People already know what the key issues are – funding issues, deteriorating facilities, an aging local population, etc. We don’t need to conduct a survey to find this out. After a very lively discussion, the consensus of the Steering Committee was to have the Strategic Planning Subcommittee shorten the survey to include the final narrative questions from the draft and the respondent profile (with key revisions suggested by the Steering Committee). Barb Bryan suggested that the survey be revised and emailed to Steering Committee members during the coming week for their input and approval. The Subcommittee would then review Steering Committee comments, finalize the survey, and arrange for the survey launch. It was also decided by consensus that in addition to posting the survey on the BPS website and publicizing the survey as already planned by BPS Communications Director Nancy Hines, public input into the planning process would be gained by: - Having Steering Committee members publicize/send the survey to their various constituencies (for example, Big SKY EDA director Steve Arveshoug stated that he can solicit survey responses from the owners/managers and employees of the community’s 100 largest employers. Other committee members expressed a willingness to make similar efforts. - Holding a public meeting calling for verbal input on the survey topics - Taking information on the survey out into the community (to Rotary meetings, club meetings, etc.) to encourage survey participation Nancy Hines explained that her plan for survey publicity includes newspaper articles, a community 7 program, inserts in student backpacks, and an RSS news feed to more than 5,000 citizens. NEXT MEETING Barb Bryan noted that at the next meeting the Steering Committee will review survey responses and will start work on developing core values for the district. The next meeting was set for March 6, 2010, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. in the Lincoln Center board room. This should allow enough time to launch the revised survey and compile results. ADJOURNMENT Barbara Bryan; Chair, Strategic Planning Subcommittee Brenda Cross, Recorder MTSBA Handout on Knowledge-Based Decision Making: http://www.billings.k12.mt.us/attachments/20100210150412283.pdf Draft Community Survey: http://www.billings.k12.mt.us/attachments/20100210150931488.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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