Work groups to help guide school board

By By Lynette Wilson / staff writer
Jan. 31, 2003
The Meridian School Board voted Thursday to appoint 23 teachers, administrators and community leaders to two work groups designed to help guide the search for a new superintendent.
Wile said the two groups, "New Expectations," and "What Works," will hold open meetings, and that public participation is encouraged. Their input will help the board chart a new course based on identifiable and realistic community expectations of the school district, and help guide the search for a new superintendent to replace Dr. Janet McLin, who will retire at mid-year.
The work groups may also tackle such prickly issues as declining test scores, increasing re-segregation, and declining student population.
George Meyers, co-chair of the New Expectations work group and chairman of the Meridian Workforce Council, said he thinks "new expectations," is probably the best title for the group and he hopes the group will be successful in generating new ideas.
Ed Lynch, school board vice-president, will co-chair the New Expectations work group with Meyers.
Sylvia Autry, assistant superintendent and the board's choice for an interim superintendent, said she and Robert Markham, who recently joined the central office from Carver Middle School, worked with the board to choose the members of the What Works work group. The two will co-chair the group together.
Autry said she thinks that the work groups will be more useful than the board intends.
She said the group will present those programs that have worked well and will have hard data to prove it.
Lynch, school board vice president, said the board tried to get a good cross section of people together for the New Expectations group.