Transparency

Initiate greater community involvement with an open agenda segment for true community input regarding 5-year strategic plans. Not only does MN Statue require this, but many parents and community members involved in the recent 5-year strategic planning committee and community cafes noted fully pre-planned agendas were followed without open discussion driven from the community’s point of view. These processes were fully driven by district administration and people did not feel they had real input into the process or the final outcomes. The school district should reflect the community values it works for. Inviting and implementing real community input through tweaking current processes will ensure the district more closely aligns with their community and aligns with MN law that requires districts to include significant community input into the schools that serve them.

Further, ensure every school reimplements a parental committee advisory board district-wide by creating a district policy making this a requirement. Additionally, the policy should include wording to avoid appointing majority district employees to parental committee advisory boards, their spouses and/or family members to avoid conflict of interest and allow the broader community real input into their school system.