Sonoma schools leader seeks shared vision

Superintendent wants community input;‘all voices to be heard’|

Socorro Shiels, the new superintendent of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District, shared her process for creating a shared vision for the Valley’s schools at the Oct. 9 school board meeting.

Through November, the district will be engaged in a massive information-gathering process, reaching out to students, parents, community members, staffers, teachers and administrators through means including in-person meetings, online and mail surveys, Shiels said at the meeting.

“What we need to do first is develop what the questions are,” Shiels said in an interview after the meeting. “We want to learn everybody’s values so we can reflect that in our school district and be coherent across all grade levels.”

The superintendent, who took the reins in July, repeated what is becoming her refrain: “We want all voices to be heard.”

To that end, public information-gathering meetings will be held in different locations and various times – morning, noon and evening, she said.

Shiels said she wants to find out such things as what’s important for high school graduates, what kinds of classrooms students might want to see, as well as broader questions which will be suggested by the various groups.

The information-gathering will end in November or December, at which point the district will begin to analyze the results, sniffing out trends and figuring out what people want.

The district has recruited graduate students from Sonoma State University’s organizational development program to act as an independent group of experts facilitating the process, Shiels said.

“In January or February we’ll be writing the results up, presenting them to the School Board and the community the same way we did the information gathering,” Shiels said.

“Whether it’s professional development, resources, deciding between different kinds of programs, this will help us decide what is the right next step,” the superintendent said.

In January or February, the mission will be finalized. The next few months will be spent figuring out how to accomplish the mission.

During February through June 2019, an action plan, priorities and 3-5 year goals will be reached, and in September through December 2019, metrics collections and strategy refinement will take place, according to the plan Shiels set forth before the School Board.

Helen Marsh, who served for 10 years on the Sonoma Valley Unified School District board, said, “I support Socorro’s efforts to get good feedback from all segments of the community. We have gone through similar processes in the past, but a lot has happened since we last did so.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Marsh added.

Marsh said she is looking forward to the results of the information-gathering.

“I hope there is significant participation from the many segments of the community Socorro is trying to engage,” said Marsh, who attended the Oct. 9 meeting.

The former school board member said there are certain groups she particularly would like to hear from, including students and retirees, who do not have children in school but still have a significant interest in the quality of the schools.

Parents of school district graduates are another important group, she said.

“They have seen their kids out of school for 10 years and can comment on what works and doesn’t work since their kids graduated,” Marsh said.

Marsh also noted that it’s important to learn what employees are feeling about the district, “first and foremost.”

Reach Janis Mara at janis.mara@sonomanews.com.

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