Community involvement solicited
by Sue Mroz of The Review staff
PLYMOUTH – School Board President Mark Rhyan provided an update at Tuesday’s meeting on ideas generated at the recent Committee of the Whole meeting for better educating and engaging the school community in school district matters.
The board has established five pillars of excellence for the school district – among them, community involvement.
To increase community involvement, the board has established three goals:
. Perform a community survey. School district officials sent a survey to 6,000 school district residents and received 1,000 responses. Information regarding the survey is contained on the district’s Web site www.plymouth.k12.wi.us
.Increase the level of understanding on the district’s financial state .Increase the level of participation in the schools by community members and partners. Specific strategies to improve community involvement are:
.A weekly column in The Review, written by various school district staff members.
Board President Mark Rhyan said, “Our survey showed that 71 percent of residents use The Review as their source of news.”
.Web 2.0 online collaborative projects .Common area for volunteer opportunities . Climate surveys entailing general feelings about the climate of the school community .Citizens’ budget team, community feedback forum .Open house with classroom/student experiences .Students as technology experts for members of the community . School Board members more visible at PTO events, etc. .Educational summit, with educational leaders invited to share their views
.E-mail correspondence between school staff and the community.
Rhyan said the district must do a better job of involving the community. “We must educate them and let them know we look at their schools as part of a much bigger community,” he said.
In other business discussed, the next Committee of the Whole meeting will be a town-hall-style meeting, held in the PHS amphitheater at 6:30 p.m. April 12. Tom Beebe, an official of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, will be the guest speaker.
