Board members for all three Wabash County public school districts found themselves in the same room on Thursday evening to see a presentation on Studies for Advancement by the Community Foundation of Wabash County at the Honeywell Center’s Legacy Hall.
This proposed study plan is the result of months of planning and collaboration between the Foundation and the superintendents from all three county districts, as well as a representative from each school board.
After the board meetings were called to order, Community Foundation Executive Director Patty Grant talked about the reasoning behind their decision to back this initiative in order to better the lives of the Wabash County community as a whole.
“In 2012, the Community Foundation prioritized educational attainment as the county’s No. 1 most pressing urgent need,” Grant said. “We are all united by a common desire to grow and advance Wabash County to move more of our citizens from poverty to prosperity.”
Carol Lindquist, an experienced educator hailing from Fort Wayne, was selected by the Foundation to run point on these studies. Before diving into the nuts and bolts of the study, Lindquist put into perspective who exactly these studies would be helping. In addition to the current students, Lindquist pointed out that one of the objectives for this study would be to pave the way for the educational success of future students, ones that may haven’t even been born yet.
“We have to stretch beyond anything we’ve thought about in the past and include the unknowns and the experiences,” Lindquist said. “The job the school leaders here do every day is try to envision what needs to be done on behalf of the young people at the schools they lead.”
According to Lindquist, the two-phased study has two main objectives. The first one being to “create a meaningful and trustworthy research base,” with the second being to provide advice and perspective from outside professionals to help the districts optimize their service to students.
“This initiative, while it will cause us to raise many questions and have many conversations, is not intended to steer to an intended destination,” Lindquist said. “In fact, it may make work a little more challenging because of the questions we raise. It’s intended to be a tool to help do the good work (they’re) already doing.”
The study’s first phase will be broken down into five different categories that will evaluate different aspects of each individual district. Lindquist explained that the process of analysis would be the same for every school, but the results would be based on the information given and collected from each specific district.
The five study categories outlined by Lindquist were: demographics, facilities, a Wabash County workforce profile, academic audits and financial strength. The Foundation has called upon professionals with expertise in each of these areas to take a look at information that will help the districts make informed decisions in those areas. Lindquist also noted that there would be a “quiet period” during which the studies would go on.
“Most of them won’t know they’re happening because what we don’t want to do is disrupt the important work of teaching and learning in schools and so we’re going to quietly get the information,” Lindquist said.
Once the studies in phase one have been completed, consultants will meet with the districts individually and lay out the needs, challenges and opportunities for their schools and students. Lindquist stated that she expected the studies to be finished by late summer or early fall, at which time the schools would schedule their presentation days.
“There will be opportunity for questions, conversation so that each district feels comfortable with what the study has indicated and is able to ask for additional information if they want it,” Lindquist stated.
Lindquist added that there would be progress reports submitted to the Foundation over the course of the study and that a countywide summative report would be compiled by her once all the data was collected and verified.
Phase two of this plan would be less cookie-cutter than the first one and would differ according to whether or not each district decides to pursue further action and to what extent that they want to do so.
“We are asking school districts how they want to use what’s been learned through the study,” Lindquist said. “As they move into phase two, if they choose to do that, they will start determining how to start moving some of these things into action.”
The second phase would call upon the community to also weigh in on what they perceive as the needs of students, teachers and districts. Lindquist’s presentation talked about community surveys and facilitated forums to understand what the public wants for their education system. She also mentioned that phase two would also include legal analysis to ensure that any ideas are actually legal and feasible.
Regardless of the phase one outcomes or the districts’ decisions in phase two, Lindquist called upon the school leaders in the audience to think back once more to those youngsters who may not even know how to read or write yet, but will one day attend a Wabash County school.
“This is something unique and powerful. I’ve never seen an initiative that brought three districts together like this,” Lindquist said. “The bottom line is the work that we are trying is on behalf of the children. We want to keep them first and foremost in our thinking.”