Progress Report on the Craftsbury Community School Collaboration
February 9, 2010
The Steering Committee, a sub-committee of the School Board, has assembled a group of Craftsbury residents, referred to as Stakeholders, to participate in a collaborative process, with the intention of ensuring that all demographics and viewpoints about Craftsbury Schools are represented. The group remains open for anyone to join, but usually between 25 and 45 people attend the Thursday evening meetings. The emphasis is on bringing diverse people with many different points of view into the same room to create a proposal for the School Board to consider regarding the future path of Craftsbury Schools.
Up to this point the School Board has drafted proposals for the Town to review and vote on. The collaborative process will recommend a proposal for the School Board to consider. The facilitator, Heidi Krantz, is a volunteer who has a wealth of experience facilitating collaborative processes.
The job of the Stakeholders is not to promote pet projects or lobby for personal agendas, but to listen carefully, share ideas, consider new information, ask questions, and ultimately co-create a path forward. Heidi has been doing a wonderful job keeping the meetings up beat and on task.
Stakeholders have spent several meetings identifying what questions we have about the schools. We will use those questions to generate information so that we can prioritize and consolidate the topics and develop our proposals. We spent one session touring the entire school physical plant with Chris Young, the Principal and Harry Miller, a School Board Member who has extensive knowledge about building codes and previous renovations done at the school. We received a site assessment and a packet of other information, including the plans for future renovations and the current demographics and course offerings at Craftsbury Schools. Now we are working on further prioritizing and condensing our questions to boil them down into core ideas that will guide us in seeking information. From here we will develop proposals for further research, and when we have additional information we will get into the nitty gritty of discussing and deciding upon specific proposals to bring to the School Board and the Town.
We meet the first and third Thursday of every month. You are welcome to join us!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Minutes from February 4 Stakeholder Meeting
Unapproved Draft
Craftsbury Community School Collaborative
Minutes of Stakeholder Meeting
Thursday, February 4
1. Anne Volmer called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Anne reviewed the ground rules and noted that the Minutes for the last few meetings will be reviewed, modified if needed and approved at the next meeting. She also noted that the next meeting would be held on February 18 instead of February 25 as originally listed.
2. Our facilitator Heidi Krantz summarized the prior work of the Stakeholder Group in developing draft Requests for Proposal (RFPs) designed to identify questions that need to be addressed in considering alternative models. She stressed that the drafts should synthesize the prior work of the Stakeholder Group, that all points of view should be reflected and that personal agendas should be subordinated.
Heidi also noted that our future plan is to convene one or two panels of outside experts who can speak with knowledge about some of the alternative approaches under consideration such as magnet schools or charter schools. She urged participants to speak to Steering Committee members about issues they would like to see addressed and suggest individuals who might be invited to participate.
Subsequently, participants agreed that these panel discussions should be designed to assist the Stakeholders in their important work and should be billed as Stakeholder Meetings. As is the case with all Stakeholder Meetings, they are open to the public and new participants are welcome.
3. Participants broke into four groups to continue working on the draft RFPs.
4. The full group reconvened at 7:45. Three groups had completed two draft RFPs and one group asked for additional time since this was their first time working together. The RFPs will by typed and distributed on or before the next meeting to all participants
5. The draft Progress Report was read, discussed and amended. (The revised copy is attached.) Modifications included: clarification that the Steering Committee was a sub-committee of the School Board; clarification that the proposals will be “for the school board to consider” rather than vote on; clarification that the Steering Committee is not solely responsible for all research.
6. Steve Moffatt reported that the warning for Town meeting did not include an opportunity for a verbal CCSC report. Participants reviewed a number of alternatives, which will be further explored and discussed at the next meeting.
Steve also gave a brief overview of an article in a recent Vermont School Board Association article that indicated a 13% statewide decline in school enrollment between 1997 and 2009 with little if any growth expected over the next 15 years.
7. Harry Miller reported that the Academy has located a buyer (Merchants Bank) for the $3 million bond passed a few months ago. He noted that there were several documents on the Vermont Department of Education web site that might be of interest to Stakeholders. (Several of these will be available for distribution at the next meeting.) Harry expressed his personal enthusiasm and support for the excellent work of the group and the invaluable assistance received from Heidi Krantz.
8 The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.
Next meeting: February 18, same time, same place.
Craftsbury Community School Collaborative
Minutes of Stakeholder Meeting
Thursday, February 4
1. Anne Volmer called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Anne reviewed the ground rules and noted that the Minutes for the last few meetings will be reviewed, modified if needed and approved at the next meeting. She also noted that the next meeting would be held on February 18 instead of February 25 as originally listed.
2. Our facilitator Heidi Krantz summarized the prior work of the Stakeholder Group in developing draft Requests for Proposal (RFPs) designed to identify questions that need to be addressed in considering alternative models. She stressed that the drafts should synthesize the prior work of the Stakeholder Group, that all points of view should be reflected and that personal agendas should be subordinated.
Heidi also noted that our future plan is to convene one or two panels of outside experts who can speak with knowledge about some of the alternative approaches under consideration such as magnet schools or charter schools. She urged participants to speak to Steering Committee members about issues they would like to see addressed and suggest individuals who might be invited to participate.
Subsequently, participants agreed that these panel discussions should be designed to assist the Stakeholders in their important work and should be billed as Stakeholder Meetings. As is the case with all Stakeholder Meetings, they are open to the public and new participants are welcome.
3. Participants broke into four groups to continue working on the draft RFPs.
4. The full group reconvened at 7:45. Three groups had completed two draft RFPs and one group asked for additional time since this was their first time working together. The RFPs will by typed and distributed on or before the next meeting to all participants
5. The draft Progress Report was read, discussed and amended. (The revised copy is attached.) Modifications included: clarification that the Steering Committee was a sub-committee of the School Board; clarification that the proposals will be “for the school board to consider” rather than vote on; clarification that the Steering Committee is not solely responsible for all research.
6. Steve Moffatt reported that the warning for Town meeting did not include an opportunity for a verbal CCSC report. Participants reviewed a number of alternatives, which will be further explored and discussed at the next meeting.
Steve also gave a brief overview of an article in a recent Vermont School Board Association article that indicated a 13% statewide decline in school enrollment between 1997 and 2009 with little if any growth expected over the next 15 years.
7. Harry Miller reported that the Academy has located a buyer (Merchants Bank) for the $3 million bond passed a few months ago. He noted that there were several documents on the Vermont Department of Education web site that might be of interest to Stakeholders. (Several of these will be available for distribution at the next meeting.) Harry expressed his personal enthusiasm and support for the excellent work of the group and the invaluable assistance received from Heidi Krantz.
8 The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.
Next meeting: February 18, same time, same place.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)