Table Top Discussion to focus on educational aspects of school configuration
By Sharon Haught
November 1, 2011
667
The extensive facilities optimization process being undertaken by the Wooster City School District is ready to move into its next phase.
On Nov. 9, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the Shisler Conference Center on the campus of OARDC, the district will hold a Table Top Discussion, the second in a series, at which time district officials will share the results of a review of educational literature on a wide variety of possible building configurations, ranging from grade level buildings to neighborhood schools, and will seek input from the community on possible building configurations.
The community input session will utilize the same World Café model used by the district in September to obtain feedback on the results of the study of the condition of the buildings that make up the Wooster City School District by the facilities optimization committee.
During the focus group session, participants will work in small groups and focus on responding to a single question - What do you feel is the optimal grade level/building reconfiguration for the Wooster City School District?
At the conclusion of the small group discussions, each group will prepare a summary of the feedback provided by the participants. All of these summaries will be reviewed by district officials and posted on the districts website.
While the district has already sought input from the public on the results of the review of the physical condition of the educational buildings that make up the district, this second Table Top Discussion will focus on the actual educational aspects of building configurations.
During their Oct. 25 meeting, Superintendent Michael Tefs advised members of the districts board of education that through the districts literature review of available materials on building configurations were finding that there is nothing perfect in the literature when it comes to this topic be it grade consolidation, grade specific schools or neighborhood schools.
You usually get five to 10 quality articles and you look at the references within those articles and you know youve completed your literature review when youre seeing the same authors roll through time after time, said Tefs.
Were not there yet, said Tefs, adding, were still reading articles and were still coming up with some good names.
The literature review is coming and were still learning from that, said Tefs, indicating that the literature review process should be complete before the Nov. 9 Table Top Discussion.
Tefs noted that all of the articles reviewed to date by the district are available in digital format. Any member of the public is welcome to request a digital copy of an article by sending an email to info@woostercityschools.org.
He also advised the board that as part of the facilities optimization process a survey is being sent to members of the districts faculty and staff to get our own internal perspective into this process.
Tefs plans to open the Table Top Discussion by sharing the literature review bibliography and some key studies that have really helped us. Then I will move to the faculty survey and the data we got from our own faculty.
During the November and December board meetings Tefs will share what the district learned during the Table Top Discussion with the board.
Those wishing to take part in the Nov. 9 facilities optimization Table Top Discussion should RSVP by calling 330-988-1111, ext. 1264.
For more information on the districts facilities utilization activities, visit the districts home page at http://www.woostercityschools.org and click on the Facilities Optimization link.
