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Superintendent Dr. Romain Dallemand and the Bibb County School District are embarking on a process unused by school districts across the country. Rather than setting the educational direction and goals using a small, core group of administrators, he has been working since his first day in the District to engage the entire community in the process.
“We must be committed to students, their achievement, and meeting their individual needs, and that is going to take dedication and effort from every person in our community,” says Dr. Dallemand. “By engaging all stakeholders, we will be better able to identify the needs of our children and how those needs can best be met.”
He invited parents, community and business leaders, politicians, faith-based representatives, and every employee to be a part of the Strategic Planning Process on September 19 and October 10, 2011. To be unveiled in January 2012, the Strategic Plan will guide the change and improvement needed during the next five years in order to ensure all children receive a high-quality education that will prepare them to be competitive and successful in a global economy.
“It is my goal – and the goal of our District – that we lead the nation in student achievement and education innovation,” says Dr. Dallemand. “I am enjoying working with the entire community as we commit ourselves to students and move our community forward through education.”
To begin the community conversation about some of the immediate changes that can be made in the District, Dr. Dallemand has been meeting with organizations and asking them to start thinking about the following changes:
School choice – Students would be allowed to choose which school they attend, regardless of attendance zone, and schools would have an international focus so students can be competitive globally. All schools must be highly effective schools in order to keep students engaged, whether that’s an International Baccalaureate school, a fine arts school, an engineering school, or a sports academy.
Year-round school – The community must seriously consider year-round school with quarterly assessments for all students. This will combat the “brain drain” of the summer months and allow educators to meet students’ academic needs throughout the year, as opposed to waiting for state-mandated testing.
Teaching Mandarin Chinese and using technology – Students would be required to be proficient in three languages when they graduate – English, technology, and Mandarin Chinese – if they are going to be successful. Students must be prepared to be competitive in THEIR world not ours.
The Need for Change
Disaggregating the data about student achievement and listening to all stakeholders, it became clear that the District was failing to meet the needs of a majority of students. While many success stories and high-achieving students could be put forth as examples of what is possible, it was obvious that education and those opportunities were not being provided to all students.
“What we were doing here for children was not systemic. We cannot consider ourselves successful if we fail to prepare even one child for success.” says Dr. Dallemand. “Our students don’t face an achievement gap as espoused by education analysts; they face an opportunity gap because if they are not prepared for success, then they will have fewer opportunities than their peers.”
Some of the indicators showing a need for fundamental change in the Bibb County School District include:
a 44.6% graduation rate for the 2007-2008 9th grade cohort;
703 students who dropped out of school in 2010-2011;
493 students expelled in 2010-2011; and
7,914 students suspended in 2010-2011.
“In a district of less than 25,000, we are suspending almost one third of them, and we lost or got rid of another 1,200.” says Dr. Dallemand. “This is unacceptable, but what should be an eye-opener for our community is that, in four years, we are graduating less than half of our ninth grade students.”
“It is obvious that what we are doing is not working, and a new direction must be taken,” he adds. “That work is going to take a commitment by more than just me, our administrators, or our teachers. It is going to take the will, the effort, the engagement, and the support of our entire community.”
To read more about the need for change, click here for an entry on Dr. Dallemand’s blog, Compass Points. Click Here
Ongoing Community Engagement
Though the Strategic Planning Process officially begins with the session on September 19, Dr. Dallemand has spent seven months meeting with every employee in the District – as well as parents and community leaders – to hear their opinions of the schools. Using individual meetings, small focus groups, large forums, and online surveys, he collected data and information about the District, including: student achievement data; parent, community, and employee perceptions; areas of strength and weakness; and community resources not being used.
Communication is a cornerstone of Dr. Dallemand’s administration and is playing an integral role in making the fundamental change needed to improve our children’s education. It began with his Entry Plan as he visited every school in the District and hosted six Forums for more than 900 people to voice their concerns. It continues with the Community Conversation Plan that will allow District leadership to continue receiving feedback throughout this process.
“I truly believe that every child in Bibb County can be successful, and I look forward with all stakeholders to build a system and community that is committed to all students and gives them the education, tools, resources, and support they need,” says Dr. Dallemand.
Superintendent Dr. Romain Dallemand expressed a need for a new approach to education in Bibb County during the first of the District's Strategic Planning Sessions on Monday, September 19, at the Macon Centreplex.
Dr. Dallemand's comments during the Strategic Planning Session, which also included a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Anthony Muhammad, emphasized the need to ensure all students receive a quality education and ultimately be successful in a globally competitive workforce.
"If we are to remain competitive we need to prepare our youngsters to meet the demands of the 21st century," Dr. Dallemand said. "We need to build a new system, if we're serious about preparing our students to compete, where at least 97 percent of our students walk away with a diploma."
Dr. Muhammad, the author of "Transforming School Culture" and one of the most sought after educational consultants in North America, spoke about developing the type of organizational and professional environment where every student can be successful.
"We have the opportunity to do something great if we would seize the moment – if each individual focused on what has to be done, rather than what you think can't be done, and do the work of developing these young people," Dr. Muhammad said.
The Strategic Planning Session was part of an initiative to envision the future of the District. Dr. Dallemand invited more than 4,500 parents, community and business leaders, politicians, faith-based representatives, and all District employees to be a part of the Strategic Planning Process.
After presentations by Dr. Dallemand and Dr. Muhammad, facilitators worked with participants in breakout sessions to begin determining where student achievement needs to be in 2020, and what resources and support can be leveraged to reach those goals.
"It gave us a chance to all get together and talk about what's going on in different schools so that we can put our heads together and come up with plans and ideas for the future," said Barden Elementary Schoolteacher Amy Dalton.
Erma Stevens, an English/Language Arts Coach at Northeast High School, felt the Sessions would raise community awareness of what is needed to make changes to the education system.
"I think they will fully realize now that we need the full support of everybody in order to help change our culture and our academic environment," Stevens said.
The Strategic Planning Process will continue on October 10 with another session at the Macon Centreplex.
In Monday's session, "we focused on two phases of the project: the Discovery phase and Dream phase," Dr. Dallemand said. "When we come back we're going to focus on two other phases, which is the Design phase and Destiny, which is where we're going to take those ideas and try to talk about what the system should look like."
To be unveiled in January 2012, the Strategic Plan will guide the change and improvement needed during the next few years in order to ensure all children receive a high-quality education that will prepare them to be competitive and successful in a global economy.
"I want for everyone in the room to walk away feeling that this plan belongs to them," Dr. Dallemand said following Monday's session. "I want for them to feel that the ideas that we've incorporated in the plan are their ideas that they came up with, and I want for them to have ownership of the plan because it's their plan that will be generated with their ideas."
Below are links to state and regional media coverage of the first Strategic Planning session. You can also read more about Dr. Dallemand's efforts on the District's website or on Dr. Dallemand's blog. We've also posted most of the pictures from the event on our Facebook page and on our photo gallery page and videos on our YouTube page.
The District has brought together a Core Team comprimised of 60 individuals representing a cross section of our District to help facilitate our Strategic Planning process. This includes assisting durring the community sessions, reviewing the data collected, identifying the themes and commonalities among the data, and outting the information into the Plan. Also assisting with the community session are members of the Distric's Leaders Academy.
Below are the videos from the Core Team training session Friday, September 9. In them, groups are sharing their visual representation of Bibb County School District in 2020.
