THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE AND VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 83 lines
The School Board has come up with eight conceptual goals that will lay the groundwork for a strategic plan to guide the division into the year 2000.
The goals were among the payoffs of a 2 1/2-day weekend retreat, only the second official meeting of the new School Board that is made up almost entirely of people with a few weeks to a few months of experience.
Along with giving Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney and his senior staffers a guide for the board's expectations for the city's schools, the retreat gave the board members a chance to figure out individual and group roles and to get to know each other.
While the wording behind each goal is being crafted, the board narrowed more than 200 individual ideas into these areas of focus:
Curriculum
Technology
Safe schools
Finance
Diversity
Community relations
Employee accountability and development
Board efficiency and effectiveness
The division's last strategic plan, developed under former Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette, was never more than a paper document, school officials said. But Jenney said he and his staff hoped to present the board with a plan to achieve the new goals by the end of September.
``This gives me marching orders,'' he said. Once the plan has been approved by the board, the division's efforts will be ``pushed and focused to the achievement of these things,'' Jenney said.
The training part of the retreat, which began Friday morning, was led by consultant Elaine Biech of EBB Associates. She spent much of the first day guiding the members through exercises aimed at revealing how they work together as well as what each brings to the board individually.
After having the group answer a timed, 12-item survey about leadership, Biech told them they asked good, direct questions, but pointed out that they'd interrupted each other almost 60 times in 24 minutes.
Interruptions are a problem if they prevent listening or understanding a position, but can also be a sign of consensus, Biech said.
When it came time to clarify the board's role in the division's operations, the issue of micromanagement came up as something members uniformly did not want to do. The thornier issue, however, was defining micromanagement.
Vice chairwoman Delceno C. Miles suggested ``when we actually start doing the jobs of staff,'' as a definition.
Others questioned whether inquiries made of staff members would be considered micromanagement.
``I draw a real distinction between gathering information and trying to tell someone how to do their job,'' said Nancy D. Guy.
While the weekend's work was frequently marked by jokes and laughter, there also was spirited debate, from the wording of individual goals to how best to shorten board meetings to how requests for information from individual staff members should be handled.
Many of the items were left unresolved with the understanding that small groups of board members would bring a solution back to the whole or that staff would offer suggestions.
A survey done by the board prior to the retreat and again after the first day, showed participants' ratings of issues like board morale and trust increased after they had worked together Friday. While Biech praised the group for the progress, she also warned participants that they still had considerable work to do as a team and that they would have to learn to transfer their skills outside the room and to use them during far harder conflicts.
Still, by early Sunday afternoon, several board members clearly felt that progress had been made.
``One of the things I was impressed with was the positive nature with which this was conducted,'' said Paul J. Lanteigne. ``I hope that continues.''
Rosemary A. Wilson said she was impressed with the group's growth in ``cooperative relations.''
And Daniel J. Arris said the experience had been enlightening and educational for him.
``I don't see how we can help but achieve,'' Arris said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MORT FRYMAN\The Virginian-Pilot
Tim Jackson, left, and Dan Artis listen as Neil Rose makes a point
at the session.
KEYWORDS: RETREAT VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB