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School board and council meetings part of growing trend

March 22, 2007|Katheran Wasson

The Jessamine County School Board spent several hours last weekend meeting with school council members from each of the district's schools, touching base on the good, the bad, and the support still needed across the county.

Each school-based decision making council, made up of school faculty and elected parent representatives, presented their accomplishments, challenges and support requests to the board, and then had informal conversation about their talking points, Superintendent Lu Young said.

"(There were) No real surprises, except that we were really pleasantly surprised about the level of consistency about the initiatives going on throughout the district," she said. "They are being very strategic about individual children, especially those in achievement gap areas, free and reduced lunch and special needs."

The district will soon lose grant money funding technology resource teachers in schools, and council members urged the district to continue funding that program through its budget. They also asked for continued support for math and literacy coaches at secondary schools, and for help funding text books at the high school level.

School council members requested that the school board stay on top of population growth issues in the county, and give them support for dealing with disruptive students.

The board adds the anecdotal information gained from the sessions to empirical data from testing and other sources to help it make decisions.

"It's an official, but informal way for school boards and school councils to work together," Young said.

Across the state, the trend of meetings between school boards and school councils is on the rise, said Susan Perkins Weston, an independent consultant for school councils.

"That is a growing practice and a very good one," she said. "It builds really good connections and I think it tugs councils in a really good direction."

Perkins Weston said the meetings allow school boards to set and communicate priorities for the district, which can be challenging in larger communities.

"The larger you are the more challenging it is to get people to feel they all know each other," she said. "People have to be more intent to make it work, because for example, you're not going to get much out of running into people at Kroger."

The school board meets again March 26.

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