District Begins Community Engagement Outreach
by Daphne Dorsey
June 25, 2008
Residents Encouraged to "Look Inside, Look Ahead -
Make U City Schools a Destination"
The School District of University City is embarking on a new community engagement program which will help define the future of its schools, students and University City itself.
The initiative, which is being coordinated by St. Louis based UnicomARC communications and focuses on the theme of “Look Inside, Look Ahead…Make U.City Schools A Destination,” will be led by a facilitating team consisting of 23 community members. Nicole Adewale, a Flynn Park Elementary School parent and former Board of Education Director, David Harris, are co-chairs of the Facilitating Team (FT).
For the past several weeks, the FT, along with members of the District’s administrative staff, which includes Superintendent Joylynn Wilson, have met to discuss various topics related to the community engagement process. Once the topics are determined, a series of focus group meetings known as Community Engagement Sessions (CES) will be held throughout the district. The first two CES meetings, which will be held on Tuesday, July 15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Barbara C. Jordan Elementary School and on Saturday, July 19 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Julia Goldstein Early Childhood Education Center, will allow residents, parents and other stakeholders to comment on various issues that are impacting the district.
Click here to download the Community Engagement calendar. Adobe Acrobat required.
More specifically, the goals of the Community Engagement program are to inform stakeholders about the District, its challenges and successes; incorporate data obtained from recent District committees and focus groups that relate to future planning and implementation efforts, finances, future use of facilities, facilities and improvements, demographics, technology, and the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) into a final report and/or recommendation that will be presented to the board of education at the end of the year.
Joining Adewale and Harris on the Desitination UCity Facilitating Team are Ellen Bern, Herbert Buie, Greg Byrne, Bryce Cooper, Walter Daniels, Petree Eastman, Todd Gilyard, Pearl Jones, Jay Lawrence, Ed McCarthy, Susan Mello, Marva Miller, Stacey Miller, tom Peters, Acme Price, Gene Ruth, Jonathon Spetner, Jesse Swanigan and Yolanda Williams.
For more information about the Destination UCity community engagement program call 314-290-4016 or send an email to destinationucityschools@u-city.k12.mo.us.
