WJCC Board Sets 11 New Goals

By Amber Lester Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Williamsburg-James City County School Board announced Tuesday it has set 11 new goals for itself in an effort to develop “a premier public school system.”

The goals include challenging children academically, creating a climate of mutual respect and promoting continuous improvement. The board came up with the list of goals during a recent retreat, according to a press release.

“The Williamsburg-James City County community has long demonstrated a desire to be involved in making its local public school system the best it can be,” said Jim Nickols, school board chairman, in the release. “We set these goals with a keen eye toward building and keeping positive, constructive collaborations going with our citizens and business partners. Recent test results show that doing so is having excellent results; we believe things will continue to improve if we continue to place a high priority on collaboration and partnerships.”

The eleven goals are:

• Vision: The board will strive to develop a premier school system that expresses the unique character and potential of our community.

• Standards: To set school board policy priorities to establish standards so that all children are challenged and receive a quality education, and to identify students who need extra or different instructional support to succeed.

• Climate: Complete a staff engagement survey and identify areas which need improvement. Design and implement an action plan accordingly. Our goal is to model mutual respect and professional behavior in school board meetings and when dealing with the school division superintendent and staff.

• Accountability: We will use student performance data for the establishment of division priorities and for the evaluation of the administration and school board.

• Continuous Improvement: Our goal is to promote continuous improvement as an integral part of every policy and decision. The board is serious and interested in things that are working well, as well as things that are not working well.

• Assessment: To broaden the local assessment system to complement the state assessment system through the inclusion of additional areas of knowledge and skills that will allow the monitoring of individual students and their progress and be accessible for early intervention.

• Alignment: To deliver a premier education by aligning the resources of the WJCC school division with its vision statement, mission statement and strategic goals.

• Collaborative Relationships: Our goal is to work collaboratively to exploit the unique resources of our community in order to enhance and broaden our students’ educational experience.

• Board-Board Relationships: The WJCC School Board operates on the assumption of good faith and mutual trust, treating one another with mutual respect. We honor the value of each board member’s contribution. We generate outstanding results for our schools and community.

• Board-Community Relationships: Our goal is to collaborate with community members, agencies, and organizations to strengthen public education in WJCC.

• Board-Superintendent Relationships: We will hire a new superintendent by December 2010 and establish a positive and productive working relationship.

The board also identified a task force to develop a process for shared decision-making to involve the community in an effort to articulate standards for the division’s mission of “lifelong learning, independent thinking and responsible citizenship.” The task force includes Nickols, board member Elise Emanuel and Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services Dianna Lindsay.

The members agreed on a budget development process that will include opportunities for board and public input and set a timeline for the process. After approving a budget shortly before it was due to the city and county for approval last year, board member John Alewynse suggested the board make an effort to get started earlier on the budget process. Read more about last year’s budget process here.