School Board Considers Strategic Planning for Future

The Parsippany Board of Education learned about a new approach to strategic planning for the district at its Thursday meeting at the administration building.

The body heard a presentation by Dr. Charles Ivory of the Educational and Informational Resource Center, a public nonprofit firm that, according to its mission statement, provides "support services to those who teach, raise, care for and mentor children," including school systems.

Ivory was there to sell the board on one of EIRC's offerings: strategic planning workshops, a community-based approach for creating goals for the school district.

The company's plan, which Ivory said has been successful in many school systems including the Willingboro and Kingsway Regional districts, is to bring together board members, elected officials, community leaders, law enforcement officers, educators and families for a series of public gatherings.

"The heart of the proposal is three evenings, 90 minutes each," he said, noting that the meetings usually are held once per month. "In the course of those three meetings we will accomplish everything you need to move forward with an understanding of infrastructure for strategic planning."

During those three meetings, school board members would participate in interactive activities with community members to consider overriding questions and to engage with one another in formulating goals for the school system. The final decisions regarding the strategic plan to try to meet those goals would be made by the BOE.

"We use cooperative learning strategies—no speeches, no talking at the audience," Ivory explained. "It's about the engagement of people around three strategic questions."

One question would be the centerpiece of each of the three community meetings:

1. What is it about the Parsippany school district that makes it successful?
2. If we were here three years from now, what have you seen improve as a result of the plan crafted by the group?
3. What action plan can be developed by the group (using goal areas that emerge from the second meeting)?

 "After every meeting, every idea is recorded, placed on the website and emailed to attendees, so no one feels cut off from the information flow," Ivory said, adding that most districts come up with between five and seven goal areas.

He added that some areas have a fourth night allowing the board and the public to look at data including enrollment projections, rateables, student achievement statistics and more. 

Ivory said that once the meetings are completed, EIRC assists the board as it writes the strategic plan. He said the company bills $100 per hour for this service up to a maximum of $2,500.

The speaker initiated an interactive exercise, one employed in the strategic planning community meetings, that featured board members and citizens sitting together around a common table, speaking as equals, laughing together and trading ideas.  

The participants seemed to enjoy the experience.

School board President Susy Golderer said the activity showed her that by sharing ideas side by side, "you find you have more things in common than not."

"The potential is tremendous," said member Fran Orthwein.

Member James Carifi agreed.

"It makes for better communication," he said.

"That makes for better relationships," Ivory said. "That's what happens as a result of this project."

Golderer asked Orthwein to research the program and report back to the board, which would make a decision regarding the workshop idea.

The president noted that she and Orthwein learned about EIRC at a school board seminar and that member Frank Calabria found it worthy of consideration as a means to increase BOE transparency.

"I figured having some independent help would make the community more likely to participate," Golderer said. "It's important to have participation from the community. I'm hoping that everyone takes advanage of the opportunity that Dr. Calabria started and Mrs. Orthwein is [overseeing] to participate."

She added that EIRC's "rates are very low."