Vision for CMS future

What should Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools look like in the future and how can leaders get it there?  The school board will hold a special work session at 6:30 p.m. today to follow up on its planning retreat with exercises on envisioning the future.

The two-day retreat in September brought a mix of practical and theoretical talk.  I'm watching the First Ward/University Park merger in hopes of seeing a before-and-after case study of one of the key issues.

Board members, Superintendent Heath Morrison and facilitator Nancy Broder talked about doing a better job of spelling out the reasons,  goals,  costs and anticipated benefits of board actions.  That's not exactly a  groundbreaking idea,  but so many decisions are made in a cycle of deadlines and pressure that the big-picture questions tend to get lost.

Case in point:  Turning the two elementary arts magnets into one multi-track year-round school.  The plan came as part of a flurry of closings,  mergers and other changes rushed through in fall 2010,  with the prospect of budget cuts and teacher layoffs being touted as the driving force for change.  For the past two years,  staff have been working intensely with faculty and parents to carry out the highly complicated mandate launched by then-Superintendent Peter Gorman and the 2010 board.

At the Oct. 9 meeting,  the board was slated to push the "start" button on the 2013-14 merger by approving a year-round calendar,  with parents starting their paperwork later in the week.  Superintendent Heath Morrison,  board Chairman Ericka Ellis-Stewart and Vice Chairman Mary McCray were not part of the original decision,  and zone superintendent Tyler Ream struggled to explain the rationale to parents who still aren't sold on the change.  The "fiscal implications" listed on the agenda boiled down to, essentially,  "yes, there are some,"  with no details provided.

As the meeting approached,  I was pushing the trio of new leaders on whether they could answer the questions being posed by parents:  Why do this?  Is it still the right decision two years later?  How much will it save,  and what are the ongoing costs?  The morning of the meeting,  Morrison, Ellis-Stewart and McCray decided to postpone the vote until they can answer.

"We've crossed the threshold for me to say, 'These decisions were made before I got here.'  Now the decisions are mine,"  Morrison said at a news conference the next day.

Of course,  any follow-up action will be second-guessed.  There's a reason school reform is often compared to fixing a plane while it's flying.  Parents and faculty at both schools,  but especially University Park,  have lived with uncertainty and stress for two years,  and any delay or change in plans would relieve some and frustrate others.

Still,  I'm eager to see how the new crew does at laying out the scenario.  Maybe we'll eventually take it for granted that the board and the public will have a full understanding of important votes.  Or maybe the crush of deadlines and mandates will squeeze out the best intentions.