Board president talks about excellence and perfection
The Greene County Schools board of education is returning to an old practice under the leadership of president Dr Mark Peters. Years ago the board began each meeting by reading the district’s mission statement.
The Oct. 18 meeting started with Peters noting the district’s vision and mission. “Expect excellence” is the district’s new tag line, and the district seeks to promote learning through real world experience.
He set the tone for his time leading the school board. About expecting excellence, Peters said, “This board expects excellence from everybody in this district. We expect it from ourselves, the administration, from our teachers, from our students, from all of our staff…. In my opinion, expecting excellence does not mean perfection. Perfection is unattainable. Nobody’s going to be perfect. We’re not going to be perfect and we don’t claim to be.
“But we really need to look at ourselves and how we do our job. What can we do to get better, and what can we do to make the people around us better? That’s how we’re going to go forward these next several months,” he said.
At a work session held prior to the regular meeting, board members discussed goals for the district in four areas – general board goals, education-related goals, finance-related goals, and facility-related goals. They attempted to name 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year goals in each area.
Board members had already submitted goals in each area and they were compiled before the meeting. The board prioritized them at the work session.
The board approved the five highest priority goals at the regular meeting as follows, not in any particular order: assess facilities and a potential bond referendum; increase interaction and communication between the board and students staff, parents and the public; meet a state mandate for a district plan to provide career guidance to students and attain a 100 percent graduation rate; build up $1 million in unspent balance authority over the next five years (the district now has about $320,000 in unspent balance authority); and to create an environment that encourages student enrollment and attracts/retains quality staff.
Also discussed were goals of having all students reading at grade level or above in five years; making expectations of the board, administration, staff and students more clear; exploring another early retirement offer and additional sharing opportunities; reducing energy costs by 50 percent in five years; putting a new roof on the elementary school; and continuing to update the bus fleet.
