PREPARING AMERICA’S FUTURE
(11/28/2008) By Gerlind Dubey

Planning for Ellicottville Central School‘s near and distant future is the objective of a series of brainstorming sessions held in conjunction with the ECS Strategic Planning Meetings. Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, and how it’s going to get there. In the case of ECS the objective is improving education and social skills, and communicate with the community in order to better accommodate today’s students as well as future scholars.’

The challenge parents and educator’s face is to prepare students for what lies ahead; whether it is secondary education, an apprenticeship, or a career, today’s graduates face both opportunities and challenges unlike any before them. It is a fact that 80% of jobs that today’s Kindergartener’s will have upon graduation do not yet exist, causing many new hurdle’s that must be overcome. Due to technologies constant advances, workplace skills necessary at present may be obsolete ten years down the road. Students must leave high school with a rock-solid grounding in the academic, social and workplace skills needed for their next big step towards adulthood.

On Thursday, November 20, the second of a series of Strategic Planning meetings was held at the school. Superintendent Mark Ward opened the meeting with a brief synopsis of the October meeting, and then went on to review with attendees the overall purpose of strategic planning. Superintendent Ward emphasized the need to hold a “conversation” with all stakeholders in an effort to develop a comprehensive vision for the future of the ECS school system. This will be accomplished through the meetings, and activities that will engage in, the use of surveys (internal and external); the surveys will ask questions, seek input and help ECS establish priorities.

The attendees of the meeting were then separated into four core groups with an educator as group leader. Each group was asked to rate the importance of critical issues facing the school as they relate to ECS. The groups kept some, deleted others and added their own!

The second activity had the four groups work on three specific areas; Community Relations, Facilities/Buildings and Grounds, and Student Achievement. This time the groups were asked to develop questions they would like answered through the strategic planning process.

Get involved! The ECS Strategic Planning sessions are open to everyone in the community whether you are student, new to the area, retired, seasonal owner, staff member, parent or grandparent. The meetings give everyone an opportunity to join in and get involved in positive and constructive discussions that examine the present and research a vision for the future. Please refer to the ECS web site www.eville.wnyric.org or this paper for updates and additional information. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, January 15, 2009.