Source: 

A director of administrative services shares her best practices for putting together a committee, analyzing data, and engaging the community.

Before embarking on a boundary change, it is critical to have a game plan. When I led a change in the Wayzata Public Schools system last year, I began by breaking the process into multiple steps.

It all begins by identifying all the "players," then deciding their role and how you will engage them in the process. The players include district experts, selected committee members, the school board, community/parents, and a facilitator. Each of these groups has a role to play, as well as different approval timing and strategic insight. In the end, it is important for everyone to know that the cross-functional committee makes a recommendation and that the school board makes the final decision. I led a planning committee selection process utilizing an application process that helped me pull together 19 members with a wide range of expertise who were geographically dispersed throughout the district with a minimum of two members per school.

As they say, "garbage in, garbage out," so identifying the right data is critical up front. It was important for us to examine birth records, housing and enrollment trends, census data, building capacities, and new development reports. We also chose to use a geovisual analytic software tool called GuideK12 to run real-time scenarios, visualizing and layering data for a fresh perspective. The ability to overlay growth projections, boundary proposals, and other data on our district map was incredibly valuable to our team. Having a central, customized platform with consistent data was essential for a smooth, transparent, and timely process.

The timeline for a boundary change needs to meet the strategic goals and be short enough to have a sense of urgency--but not so unrealistic that steps get skipped. Considering the timing for the announcement and what needs to happen around that is important to setting the start date.

Next comes one of the most important steps, defining the "rules." Setting the rules ahead of time with the board alleviates last-minute changes of course. The rules need to be clear, well defined, and understood by all. There are many, many factors you must discuss when creating the rules, such as:

• Transportation costs and times;
• transportation parameters;
• socioeconomic parameters;
• grandfathering;
• sibling rules;
• walk/bike areas;
• feeder patterns;
• high-impact neighborhoods; and
• program locations.

 
Below is just a sampling of some of the Guiding Principles our committee created:

1. Attendance areas will serve the district for at least 3-5 years with a goal of 5-7 years.
2. Attendance areas should be largely contiguous.
3. We will allow for relatively small school populations in schools with high anticipated growth rates.
4. Attendance areas will need to accommodate possible changes in school start times.
5. All children will be expected to attend their new school. The district's intra-district process will continue to be in place.
6. Transportation routes should be as efficient as possible, giving consideration to minimizing ride times within acceptable parameters.
7. Neighborhoods should be assigned to the same school whenever possible.
8. We will adhere to state and federal laws and guidelines.

Once all of this groundwork was in place, the planning committee got to work creating and analyzing scenario after scenario until there are some agreed-upon options. GuideK12 allowed multiple teams to run scenarios and instantly see the impact of their selections to determine feasibility and then adjust. From spring break until late May 2015, the committee met, created scenarios, and discussed. Once we had reached a consensus, we presented our recommendations, first to the school board and then to the public for input.

In parallel to this scenario-building work, it is important to develop the fan base and get parent support started so people are on board with the project. Timely, accurate, and engaged communications (including input sessions) keep the committee plugged in and help them avoid facing an angry mob at the eleventh hour.

Towards the end of the process--at the "two-minute warning" as I call it--it is easy to consider new data or let a small group of loud voices cloud the process. It is then that the rules and analysis that has been done have to be king. The facts and the work need to speak. Do not let emotions hijack the process.

Be prepared: Immediately following the approval announcement by the school board, people will need their questions answered. Boundary maps, online look-up tools, orientation activities, timing, and expectations all need to be ready to go before the announcement is made.

Last summer, Wayzata's School Board approved a final plan that was announced publicly the following day with strong support. The combination of clear guiding principles, a diverse committee, excellent data, and a geovisual analytic tool helped us create a winning plan that the community supported and that allowed the district to evolve and grow.

Kristen Tollison is the director of administrative services at Wayzata Public Schools in Minnesota. She can be reached via email at tollison.kristin@gmail.com She is hosting an upcoming webinar where she will dive deeper in to these topics and more, to register or get more information, click here.