Community works on vision for school district

From keeping up with the global market to engaging all students in the learning process, community members shared their ideas of creating an ideal school district.

"What we do know is the economy is changing," said Tom Hughes. "Jobs that used to exist don't exist now. We need to prepared them for those jobs that do exist, not just locally but globally."

Hughes was one of about 70 parents, teachers, city leaders and other members of the community that participated in a two-hour brainstorming session at Carson Middle School on Saturday morning.

The group was tasked with creating a vision for the future of the Carson City School District.

Carson High School English teacher Cheryl Macy, who is this year's Nevada Teacher of the Year, gave participants some guidance in setting goals before being broken into groups.

She said she is a graduate of Carson High School and is pleased to be back teaching there.

"I am very proud of our district," she said. "We are a very good district. At the same time, we could be a great district. That's why we are here today. What can we do to move from really good to great? What do we envision us to be?"

Groups focused on three questions asking them to identify the characteristics of a quality district, a quality school and a quality student.

City supervisor and mother Molly Walt said she'd like to see more cohesiveness throughout the schools in the district.

"We don't want to seem like we have a shopping cart where parents feel like they can go shopping for what they want in the different schools," she said.

Todd Westergard said schools as institutions need to be able to change as quickly as the world changes around them.

Mother Karen Burrows said students should be given freedom to learn in a less-structured environment.

"All students should be treated as creative," she said.

Several groups also suggested increasing partnerships between the school district and businesses and other community groups.

Moderator Robert Morin, political science professor at Western Nevada College, said the ideas from each group would be collected and synthesized then used as a starting point for the next community meeting.

Community members who did not attend the meeting may still participate in the discussion by answering the same questions posted on the school district's website at carsoncityschools.com.

The next meeting will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 6 in the cafeteria of Carson Middle School with the goal of completing the vision statement by the first week of October.

Carson City School Board trustee Ron Swirczek, who championed the process, said once a vision statement is settled on, a plan will be developed to put the vision into action.

"We're going to do it," he said. "If we do this right, Carson City will once again be a thrivingcommunity."