The State Board of Education says a reaffirmation of its commitment to excellence in education will be its first response to a critical perception study.
After 12 hours of meetings Friday and Saturday, the board hammered out four main goals to address weaknesses outlined in the Hendrix Study. The goals will be finalized in the next couple of weeks and fleshed out with both short- and long-term objectives over the next year and a half.The $26,000 study was conducted by a California consultant, and its conclusions were based on interviews with 45 individuals concerned with education in Utah.
It was critical of the board's operations, its inner relationships and its interactions with other members of the education family, including Superintendent James R. Moss and other educational shareholders. The board has promised to announce concrete measures for resolving the problems at a Nov. 9 meeting.
Besides its determination to keep educational improvement as a prime objective through implementation of its Shift in Focus strategic plan, the board agreed:
- That it will become a policy-making body and will stay out of the administrative arena.
- That it will address behaviors and procedures that impede relationships between itself and others, particularly the Legislature, State Office of Education staff and local education leaders.
- That it will become more active in setting educational priorities and expectations, such as increasing performance standards in mathematics and reading.
The board did not address its relationship with the superintendent Friday or Saturday but will do so before the Nov. 9 meeting, said Chairwoman Ruth Hardy Funk. The group will meet again Nov. 7. Some members of the board were absent from the weekend meetings.
The tenor of the Friday/Saturday meetings was that the board is resolved to become less a directional body. It will, instead, become a "servant leader" to assist and facilitate educational restructuring in the state.
"The board is not the cornerstone of education, but the mortar that holds it all together," Moss suggested.