I watched with interest and an open mind last night’s Guilford County Board of Education discussion of Superintendent Mo Green’s strategic plan. It was an even bigger snoozer than President Obama’s press conference, which, by the way, I also watched with interest and an open mind.
I’m honestly not trying to pick on the board, but the questions — from those few who asked questions —- indicated to me that they know very little about what the strategic plan is trying to accomplish. That’s a little scary. By the same token, perhaps the board members who didn’t ask questions understand the plan and simply had nothing to add. That’s hard to believe, though.
The board almost seems tentative about weighing in on the plan — like they have to ask permission to provide input or approval. Green had to explain to the board their role in implementing the plan, saying that “at no time am I thinking the board will be approving the plan in total.” That said, he added the board would be required to approve related budgetary or policy issues. But Green’s overall message seemed to be that it was his plan and the board needed to act only when told to do so. That really drives home who’s running things on Eugene Street.
Instructional inprovement officer Lewis Ferebee also discussed a specific benefit of regionalization. Ferebee expalined that the system currently has a school support office and an academic improvement office that houses the instructional improvement office. What regionalization will do, Ferebee explained, would combine school support issues and academic improvement issues in one office, thus creating a more streamlined approach in dealing with those issues. It seemed simple enough to me, but it took board member Garth Hebert a couple of tries to catch on.
Board member Paul Daniels tried time and again to find out how the plan would affect the board, but he couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that a board meber might have two or three regional superintendents in his or her district. The district configurations make no sense as they stand, board attorney Jill Wilson explained. For example, Brooks Magnet, Kiser Middle School and Grimsley High School —all pretty much on one site — don’t have the same board representative. So while having more than one regional superintendent per board district might not be optimal, it wouldn’t be a radical change from the way board members oversee their districts now.
The bottom line is this is Mo’s plan and he’s putting it in place, and I have to question whether or the board has the will to speak up when they see something isn’t right. Given the plan’s scope and the lack of available details, there could be quite a lot that’s not right.
