Dothan, Ala., shares its ideas for improving its schools

Community prepares to tell Dothan City School Board its expectations

by Jim Cook

September 9, 2008 | Dothan Eagle | Dothan, Alabama

Liz Tiller went to her first Yes We Can! Dothan meeting unsure of what to think of the grassroots education reform organization.

She left the meeting so enthused about its efforts to reach out to the community that she agreed to host one of its events.

“It really gave you the impression that they wanted to hear the voice of parents and the children as well,” she said.

Now that Yes We Can! Dothan has listened, it’s getting ready to tell the Dothan City School Board what local parents want from their schools.

The grassroots education organization is nearing the end of its community conversations — forums which allowed the various communities and interest groups in Dothan to talk about the city schools.

About 686 Dothan residents have participated in the community conversations so far, the best-attended meeting being one held by the Dothan Area Young Professionals, which had about 50 attendees. The last community conversation will be held on Sept. 15. After the last conversation is held, Yes We Can!
Dothan will present common themes and ideas brought up in the meetings to the city school board in October.

Virginia Christian, a spokesperson for the organization, said in an e-mail interview that Yes We Can! Dothan hadn’t analyzed all the information from the meetings yet, but some common themes brought up throughout the process were safety, discipline, accountability, dress code, funding, parental involvement and graduation rates.

After Yes We Can! Dothan makes its presentation to the city school board, committees made up of school administrators, teachers, students, parents and community leaders will work on creating plans to meet Dothan’s expectations for the city schools.

Yes We Can! Dothan is modeled on a similar grassroots education movement in Mobile. The Mobile Yes We Can initiative led to an influx of new teachers, administrators and funding for the city’s lowest performing schools and also helped foster more communication between the community and school leaders about the progress of Mobile’s schools. The system now places dashboards of student data in every school for the public to see. This information is kept current and is used to direct instruction, Christian said.

Yes We Can! Dothan is being funded by a $150,000 grant from the Wiregrass Foundation. In-kind management services are being provided by the Education Foundation for Dothan’s Future Inc.

http://www.dothaneagle.com/dea/news/education/article/community_prepares_to_tell_dothan_city_school_board_its_expectations/35669/

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