School City of Mishawaka board to hear consultants’ findings
By Kim Kilbride, South Bend Tribune, Ind. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"At one time,
Garatoni is the chairman of the "high-impact operations" group, one of five subcommittees of the
The study group includes dozens of parents, teachers, administrators and business people who volunteered their time to assess the school district on a variety of fronts, from its finances to its facilities needs and instructional practices.
After a failed
The
Garatoni spoke frankly, based on his involvement, about a number of issues he perceives as problems for the district, including
Aside from explanatory meetings leading up to the referendum, Garatoni said, district officials haven't made adequate effort to communicate with the community. "This perception of secrecy," he said, "has caused people to arrive at their own conclusions as to how
On the topic of improving public relations, Garatoni, and other committee chair people talked about the need for the district to have a marketing strategy and to potentially hire a marketing professional or marketing firm in an effort to make the community aware of the good things going on in the district's schools. That, they said, could help retain students currently enrolled and attract new families from outside the district's boundaries. The latter is increasingly important to schools since they receive state tuition dollars for every student enrolled.
Findings of other subcommittees include that the district has significantly more debt and a lower assessed valuation within its boundaries when compared with other school districts in the area.
The need for improved technology in the system's schools, including hardware, software and infrastructure, was referenced by more than one group, as well.
Her subcommittee recommends the district have open, transparent "community conversations" about neighborhood schools.
Superintendent
The consultants' report, he said, will say some very specific things about next steps the schools should take.
Barker said there weren't a lot of surprises, for him, that came from the committee members' recommendations. He said, "We've had many of the (same) discussions internally..."
During a Q&A session after the subcommittees' recent reports, a board member asked about the possibility of another referendum.
"My feeling is, you're a long way from a referendum," Speicher said. "You have a lot of other steps you need to take and the only chance you have to pass a referendum in the next two years is if you take this group with you," he said, motioning to the study group members in the audience.
Wojtysiak has said that he was pleasantly surprised to be asked to join the study committee. When asked recently how he feels the overall work of the committee went, Wojtysiak said he is reserving comment until after the consultants' presentation tonight.
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