ECISD goals

ECISD trustees met Tuesday morning to discuss overall goals for the board through an informal lunch meeting.

Specific goals were not addressed — the focus largely was on how to proceed to have more specific goals, particularly the relationship between the goals and the district’s ongoing strategic plan. After roughly an hour of discussion, trustees agreed to a framework using that strategic plan to judge the progress of the board.

"I think we would be more effective supporting that strategic plan," trustee Donnie Norwood said. He said the number of goals could be reduced from roughly a dozen in an old version from 2001 to just two or three main ones.

Trustee Fay Batch said she believes goals are important for accountability purposes, while Ray Beaty said he thought the strategic plan contained the basics of future discussion.

"Any of our goals are probably part of the strategic plan," he said.

Tom Pace said he thought any goals should be short-term in nature and also believed that the annual superintendent’s goals can provide a focus for what trustees want to see the district do each year.

Trustees ended the meeting agreeing to continue the talks at future lunch meetings starting Dec. 1.

"We can talk about our vision or goals for each part of the strategic plan, however we define that," board President Donna Smith said.

Superintendent Hector Mendez said the board has an important role to determine how to implement the strategic plan.

"This is an opportunity now that’s critical. Some things in the system need correcting, and the way that gets done is the board takes a stand and we can begin to look at policy," he said.