School district trustees rolled up their sleeves and hammered
out a list of six key goals that will guide their decision making
over the next few years.
School district trustees rolled up their sleeves and hammered out a list of six key goals that will guide their decision making over the next few years.
At a special Wednesday meeting, trustees said increasing student achievement topped their priority list, followed by enhancing fiscal accountability, facilities, safety, communication, and teacher recruitment and retention.
“We’re setting the district on the right path toward promoting academic achievement as the overall goal with the necessary support of our other goals,” said Javier Aguirre, president of the Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees.
The draft document trustees produced with the help of professional facilitator Tim Dunkin is still fluid and will be available for public review and suggestions before final approval, trustees said.
Although trustees and district staff hit a few minor road bumps over syntax and semantics – and trustee Mark Good joked about resolving disputes with arm wrestling – trustees said they were satisfied with the end result of their three hours of debate.
“This was right on target,” trustee Rhoda Bress said. “I think it’s aligned with my vision for the district. Our goals are a way of communicating with the community. It’s important that every word is very clear.”
In addition to spelling out six specific goals, trustees delved deeper, breaking each goal into several objectives and devising means to achieve each objective.
The focus on raising student achievement claimed the bulk of the discussion as trustees mulled over how to go about accomplishing this goal. By meeting or exceeding federal standards – which require all students to read and do math at grade level by 2014 – creating rigorous classrooms, and developing two “excellent” comprehensive high schools and alternative high school programs, the district will achieve its foremost goal, trustees decided.
Dunkin cautioned trustees against setting their expectations too high after trustee Fred Tovar said he’d like to see students exceeding, not just meeting, federal targets. This year, only five out of 14 district elementary, middle and high schools met the federal bar, which required about 45 percent of students to read and do math at grade level. The bar will continue to rise until it reaches 100 percent in 2014.
“You want to make (goals) realistic,” Dunkin said.
Trustees hoped the objectives and strategies they mapped out will also increase the district’s college-going rate and make excellence a priority at every school.
“That’s what we’re all about,” school district Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
In terms of fiscal management, the district will aim to establish a mechanism to identify savings and possible sources of money, and will align board goals and priorities with budgeting.
Hiring and retaining qualified teachers will require the district to further develop its professional development and support systems ,and set uniform standards for success in each classroom.
As the evening wore on, the depth of discussion on each topic waned, but trustees said they will revisit their goals at an Oct. 22 board meeting, and welcomed public comment. After finalizing the board goals and objectives, trustees will hand the document over to Flores to establish strategies, ways of measuring progress and timelines.
Board’s top goals
-Increase student achievement throughout the district across all subgroups
-Enhance fiscal accountability that ensures sound fiscal management processes and practices
-Recruit and retain a highly qualified work force
-Ensure facilities provide equitable, sound learning and working environments
-Keep schools safe and orderly
-Improve communication within board and with stakeholders
