Great Schools, Together-visoning meeting 11/28/07

Posted on Nov 29, 2007 in Champaign Government, Unit 4

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I did think that last night’s visioning meeting for Unit 4 was something that many people would be interested in so I am back to posting.  The meeting last night was well attended by the committee members and members of the community also attended.  School Board President Dave Tomlinson described the meeting as, “the begining of a great conversation”.  And admitted that, “the Board and staff realize we have a large task in our hands”. 

We also learned that unit 4 schools is the 3rd largest employer in the County, 9,300 students attend the schools, and 40% of those students are eligible for the free lunch program (meeting low income guidelines).  The cost of our schools currently is $3.70 per $100.00 of assessed valuation (down slightly).

We learned that the visioning committee will be delegating to the “working groups” to really formulate plans for how to achieve the goals articulated by the committee.  Additionally at least 10 public forums will be held to make sure we have community input in the process.

After the intro remarks the committee was told the ground rules:

1.  Actively participate

2. Use facts to inform decision making

3. Consider what is best for the entire community

4. Respect and consider other opinions

5.  Be time sensitive- allow time for all to participate

6.  Keep yourself updated on the developments of the process

Peter Fox then asked how the planners arrived at a 25 year timeline for our plan.  His comment prompted a discussion about how far out the planning should go.  We finally settled on 13 years- the amount of time one child spends in the school district. 

Next the committee was asked to define a vision of success for the schools, teachers, parents, students along with how to get to that vision.  The questions were more detailed than what I have written but I didn’t copy them down.  We discussed, wrote on sticky notes, and discussed more.  We came up with broad catagories for success and ideas and suggestions on how to get to the visions of success we had defined. 

Then, we were basically out of time.  We elected Bruce Knight, City of Champaign Planning Director as the chair of the committee.  We were left with homework to identify dilemmas and difficulties for unit 4 and for reaching the goals and to develop key questions to be answered to achieve success. 

We were also asked to start identifying community members who would be interested in being part of the working groups.  So, if you are interested in participating in this process please let me know.