OXFORD – Larry Rowe calls it an “open kimono” policy.
“You bare it all,” the former Johnson City superintendent explained last night to the Oxford school board and the community members and staff who sit on the district’s capital project planning committee.
Rowe, who has volunteered to facilitate the group, has recommended that the board throw out its accelerated timeline in favor of a framework which will allow more interaction and input from the community and the district’s faculty and staff.
By doing so, he explained to them, “You are going to build what I call trust.”
Rather than keep to the established meeting schedule, which included a meeting tonight and subsequent meetings on Feb.1 and 22, Rowe suggested they hold off on further meetings until they have given the district’s staff an opportunity to formulate their thoughts and needs regarding any potential project.
“There hasn’t been enough interaction with staff,” he said. His recommendation involved allowing the school’s support, administrative and teaching staff time to meet in small groups, by grade level and discipline, to discuss how the facilities are currently serving the district’s educational needs, how that could be improved by changing grade configurations, etc.
“The need for a project should really emanate from those working most closely with your children,” he explained.
Staff representatives would then share that input with the committee and the public, who would be encouraged to attend the meetings and given the opportunity to give their feedback at the end. Summaries of each of the meetings should not only be posted to the district’s website, he added, but also mailed out to residents perhaps once a month during the process.
“I agree whole-heartedly that we need to open the lines of communication,” said Middle School Educator Tim Paden, one of the staff representatives who has been asked to sit on the committee. According to Paden, those lines weren’t open enough last week to allow administrators to get “adequate feedback” on a survey they circulated regarding the grade re-configuration proposed by the committee.
“If this is not going to be a ‘we,’ this is not going to happen,” he said.
According to Rowe, the goal should be to provide quality education at a reasonable cost.
“Let’s be honest, this is not the most economically receptive climate to be doing this in,” the facilitator said.
Despite the board’s interest in getting a potential project to vote by this fall, Rowe recommended they take time to have the back and forth interaction with staff and the community first, in order to build both trust and consensus.
Even with the extended timeline, he said, “by June 15, you ought to be able to make a decision whether it’s a go or a no go.”
After getting feedback from the committee - as well as the staff, administrators and community members present - the board agreed to follow Rowe’s recommendations. As a result, the next step in the process will be allowing the district’s staff to determine how long they will need to formulate responses to a set of questions determined by the committee.
Those questions will also be posted to the district’s website so that community members will have an opportunity to comment as well, according to Board President Robin DeBrita.
Once stakeholders have had that time, the committee will resume meeting at which point administrators and staff representatives will be asked to present their feedback and explain their reasoning.
“The ‘why’ is very important,” said Rowe.
In the meantime, the capital project planning meetings scheduled for Jan. 26, Feb. 1 and Feb. 22 have been canceled. The next regular meeting of the district’s board of education will be held at 7 p.m. on Feb. 8 in the Primary School Multipurpose Room.
Documents related to the building project can be accessed at www.oxac.org, by selecting the Facilities tab under the Departments heading.