COLUMBIA – Community members can expect not only to be more informed about Columbia School Board decisions during the 2009-10 school year, but also more involved in the process.
Board members and other district officials reviewed and revamped some of the board's goals and practices at a retreat Tuesday. Increased community involvement and improved communication methods were recurring themes throughout the discussion.
"I am so upset when in large communities or mid-size communities there are civic meetings and nobody shows up," superintendent Chris Belcher said to a room whose spectators included a few journalists and four or five others.
David Lineberry, Missouri School Board Association associate executive director for education, explained that the state's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan was specifically engineered to encourage community members to help make decisions for the schools.
"What I really want to see from our CSIP is to get the public involved with the goals," Belcher said. "I'd like to see that it's more of an action of the community than of the system."
Lineberry encouraged the board to develop, and follow through with, a strong plan for the 2009-10 school year. In 2009-10 the program begins its fourth year in a five-year cycle.
The group also considered other proactive methods that might get community members more directly involved with the School Board and its decisions.
One suggestion included reorganizing board committees to encourage community members to seek positions within them. Lineberry said this option would help the board identify possible future candidate
School Board member Michelle Pruitt said she thought the board should be more committed to the bigger picture of communicating with members of the community than with getting them involved with board committees. Pruitt suggested the board "strategically think about who's being affected" by an issue if it wants increased community input.
The board also brainstormed ways to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its communication to achieve this input.
Belcher said he doesn't think the Columbia Public School District's Web site nor its blog effectively communicates information to the public.
"I would like to use technology better," he said. He jokingly suggested the School Board utilize the social network Twitter to keep the community aware of new developments.
Nick Boren, Columbia School District chief operations officer, showed the board the latest addition to the district's Web site over the past few weeks. In the next few days the "Board of Education" tab will include a new link listed as "Board Committees," which will include a calendar that posts the board's committee meetings, as well as the agendas and minutes for these meetings.
"This is going to be very important to keep current," Boren said.
Many in attendance exuded ambition and a sense of accomplishment upon the retreat's adjournment, even though they had been deliberating at 1818 W. Worley St. for nearly five hours.
"We're not going to engage in all this community growth and community involvement only to accomplish a third of our objectives," Lineberry said.
The School Board will likely hold a special meeting sometime in early August to discuss further developments.