By Michael V. Hannigan
The $59.9 million bond election recently called by Athens ISD is just one part of a more than year-long effort to develop a comprehensive road map for improving the district.
Back in the summer of 2014, the AISD school board and administration embarked on a mission to develop “a three- to five-year strategic plan.”
According to information from AISD, “Strategic planning, when properly implemented, provides a roadmap for the future and clarifies the most valued beliefs and goals held by educators and community members.”
Toward that end, Superintendent Blake Stiles and the school board started the process by establishing six areas of focus. They are:
- Teaching and Learning
- Human Resources
- Funding and Finance
- Facilities
- Technology
- Communications and Parent Involvement
A 30-member group of teachers, administrators and community members further expanded the scope of the effort by developing objectives for each of the six areas.
Then each area was assigned two action teams — totaling 12 teams — to help develop “concrete plans” for reaching the objectives. Those plans were presented to the school board, and approved, earlier this year.
In all, about 100 individuals played some part in the process, which resulted in the creation of action plans under each of the six areas of focus. The community members who participated were recruited through a variety of venues, including announcements at board meeting and civic organization gatherings. Not all of the action teams were open to community participation; for example, the “Teaching and Learning” team, by its nature, was exclusive to professional educators.
When the AISD school board recently called a bond election for Nov. 3, it was doing so, in part, based on the recommendation of one of the action teams.
There were 15 individuals assigned to the Facilities action teams, and they were broken into “building and equipment” and “safety issues.”
There were nine people assigned to the “building and equipment” team, four of which were community members not connected with the school district. According to school officials, this team of nine “all agreed the best course of action for our district was to call for a bond proposal, which was the recommendation forwarded to the board.”
Officials also said that school board members, of course, did their own research as well and did not rely solely on the recommendation from the action team when calling for the bond election.
“The seven school board members are, by design, elected representatives of the community whose responsibility it is to gather information and set a course,” said Athens ISD Communications Specialist Toni Clay. “In this case, Athens ISD took an extra step by assigning another team to study the facilities issue in addition to the team of board members and the superintendent.”
((EDITOR’S NOTE: Read other coverage of the 2015 Athens ISD bond here.)