Public invited to share vision for schools

Trustee Ron Swirczek is calling on the public to join him and fellow Carson City School Board members in creating a "vision statement" for the school district.

"The beauty of this being a shared vision is the community takes ownership of the educational system," Swirczek said. "When a community takes ownership, so many good things happen."

Swirczek ran for the school board on the platform of creating community partnerships and was elected in November.

At last month's school board meeting, trustees approved the vision-setting workshop planned for Saturday to work with community members and local businesses to start the process.

"We have to know where we're going," Swirczek said. "It's not about where we are."

More than 20 members of the community, representing varying interests as varied as business, law enforcement, political groups and child advocacy, attended the board meeting to show their support.

"You're not standing alone," Sheriff Ken Furlong said at the meeting.

The ultimate goal, Swirczek said, is to create a network of partnerships with business and industry.

"The traditional school district by itself cannot fulfill the needs of all these students," he said. "We need to create a support group of partners."

Saturday's meeting, to be run by a facilitator, will be the first step.

"Once you establish the vision, then you establish the strategic plan to make it happen," he said. "That's where community partnerships come in."

He said the entire process should be complete in about three meetings, and he addressed skeptics' assertions that the "partnership" premise is too general.

"There is something very certain that's going to happen based on raising the level of student achievement and success," he said. "With the community's help, we're going to make this happen."

If you go

WHAT: Vision setting workshop with Carson City School Board

WHERE: Carson Middle School, 1140 W. King St.

WHEN: 9-11 a.m. Saturday

Possible topics of discussion

• What would the ideal school district look like?

• What does having a quality school mean?

• How do you envision the school district in five years? Ten years?

• What are the characteristics of a world-class educational system?

• What are the global challenges that our students and community face?