According to this article in the Winston-Salem Journal one of the members of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Board of Education is spearheading an effort to set up an advisory committee that will be constituted of residents, and not necessarily residents with kids in the school system.  An excerpt from the article:

Jill Tackabery a
member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board, hears pretty
regularly from teachers, parents and students telling her what they are
happy about – or what they’re not so happy about.

But Tackabery says
she is afraid that she doesn’t hear enough from the 75 percent of
Forsyth County residents who don’t have children in the school system.

“I really would like to see more engagement with our school system from folks who aren’t connected to us,” she said.

“I feel guilty
asking them for money all the time if they don’t have the information,”
Tackabery said. “I’m very proud to say I’m a school-board member, and I
think we do good things and I’d like to talk about the good things we
do.”

Three school-board members currently have children in the school system.

A couple of things about this article surprised me:

1. I’m amazed that only 25% of Forsyth County residents have children in the school system. I would have guessed closer to 40-50%.
2. I’m also surprised that only three members (out of nine) of the school board have children in the system. I realize that these are political positions that carry a lot of clout in the community, but I’d think that without the added self-interest of having kids in the system that a school board position wouldn’t be the most desirable given how much abuse they get, the time commitment, etc.
3. Finally, I’m surprised that there wasn’t already a community advisory committee in place.

This is a great concept and in particular it’s nice that they’re inviting all residents.  Schools make up a huge amount of our local public spending so all residents should have a say in how the schools are run, and since an educated populace is part of the "common good" for the community it’s important that the schools have the benefit of the wisdom of all of our residents.

One potential shortcoming could be how they develop the committee.  From the article:

Tackabery said she has asked each school-board member to submit two to five names of possible members.

She is also asking community members to volunteer.

The problem I see with this system is that you’ll have personal acquaintances of board members, which doesn’t exactly widen their exposure to folks from different walks of life.  Volunteers are great, but experience with other organizations has taught me that volunteers are usually folks who are already more involved or attentive to community projects than average citizens.  I’d recommend that the school board set up a nominating process so that folks who know somebody who may not think of themselves as community leaders but are viewed by their peers as community leaders can be nominated.  It wouldn’t be hard to set something up on the school system’s website and they could really expand the audience that way.

Finally I think Ms. Tackabery should re-think this:

The meetings would be driven by whatever people wanted to talk about, she said.

“I wouldn’t want to
have a set agenda, although what we could do is take a topic, like
curriculum, and say ‘What do you think of curriculum? What do you think
our children should be taught? What kind of technology do our graduates
need to be able to do?’”

Again, drawing from my experience with other groups I will say that this could turn out to be a mistake.  One thing most people hate is having their time wasted.  If you don’t have a well structured meeting process with properly defined goals you will end up with a glorified cocktail party that is not very productive.  You will also find that meetings will be driven by the most passionate, outspoken individuals in attendance and that the vast majority will sit on the sidelines wondering why they are there.  They should seriously consider engaging an expert facilitator who will help define the discussion and make sure that all voices are heard.  That will help keep the committee on track, keep everyone coming back and provide the school board with the best returns for their efforts.

All that said, I think Ms. Tackabery is on the right track and I hope they get this thing off the ground.