By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The Grand Rapids Public Schools system expects a big turnout at five upcoming community dialogue sessions that will inform the district's strategy for establishing exemplary learning environments in its secondary schools and boosting student achievement.
The sessions will build on the community input gathered from over 150 participants at a day-long visioning conference held October 25, 2007.
The purpose of the sessions is to develop building organization and improvement plans for the district's high school facilities. The initiative comes after an aggressive facilities improvement campaign, launched in 2004, which spurred the construction and renovation of nine elementary and middle schools and a tenth school that's on the drawing board.
That Phase I building campaign, financed by voter-approved tax dollars, was completed on time and under budget, an impressive feat considering the skyrocketing costs of construction materials.
"The sessions will be very hands-on," says John Helmholdt, GRPS spokesperson. "This will be a 'roll your sleeves up and get your elbows dirty' chance for the community to form the future of our schools."
Additionally, the district will post an online version of the questionnaire on the district's web site for persons unable to attend the community dialogue sessions.
At the end of each session, participants will learn how the group responded to the questions. The district will mail and email the results of all the sessions to those interested in the results.
The 35-member Facilities Steering Committee will use several work sessions in January to review the information and make recommendations to the superintendent of schools. Planners hope to present the final recommendations to school board officials at a February 2008 meeting so the board can begin the final decision-making process on specific goals and the strategies to reach them.
Click here for the dates, times, and locations of the community dialogue sessions.
Source: John Helmholdt, Grand Rapids Public Schools
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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