Rossford: Focus groups' input compiled

3/23/2005
BY KARAMAGI RUJUMBA
BLADE STAFF WRITER

The Rossford Exempted Village Schools district completed a series of community focus groups last week to help formulate the school district's goals.

Improving school facilities, curriculum, and testing were some of the key issues that community members discussed, Superintendent Luci Gernot said.

Education officials now say they are ready to start reviewing what a master plan for the district might look like.

Diana Hersch, the district's communications liaison, said this year's review process is especially critical because the last time the school district formulated a strategic plan was in 1994, and it's been long overdue. The information gathered will be compiled into reports, which will then be reviewed by a committee. The next step will be setting up the committee.

"The committee will be comprised of board members, parents, and members of the community," Ms. Gernot said. "We will then develop some major goals and a series of sub-goals, which we hope to follow over the next few years."

The 13 community focus groups included business leaders, parents, government officials, higher education representatives, and other members of the community.

"We have gotten so much information from many people, especially because each group had its own characteristics and different ideas, which were really interesting," she said.

In the last couple of years, the district has been operating under a continuous improvement plan, which had three major goals: to improve reading, problem-solving, and communication skills, Ms. Gernot said.

"We hope that we can put together a master plan that is not set in stone, but one which we can change when changes need to be made," she said.

The new master plan will be reviewed every year.

Contact Karamagi Rujumba at

krujumba@theblade.com or

419-724-6064