Memorandum from Mary Kay Murphy
Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D. District 3  School Board Member marykaymurphy@aol.com

May 8, 2009 

Communication in Gwinnett County 
Public Schools 

Thank you to the remarkable community members, parents, teachers, students, staff, business partners, and all others who support public education in Gwinnett County. 

As the 2008-09 school year comes to an end, I reflect on the many different ways that we have worked together as home, school, and community to communicate the importance of public education and the ways that we can continue to work together for continuous improvement in student achievement and in closing the achievement gap. 

The following are some of the most meaningful ways we communicated the message of excellence in public education in 2008-09: 

District III Area Board Meeting at Norcross High School. At one of five area board meetings held in April 2009 at Norcross High School, more than fifty community members spoke to the Gwinnett County Board of Education and Superintendent Wilbanks on April 21, 2009. Mr. Jonathan Patterson, principal of Norcross High School, and I collaborated in hosting the meeting attended by more than four hundred interested public education supporters. Those speaking at the meeting reported to Board members their support for programs such as Reading Recovery, their concerns for changes of school personnel, and their appreciation for the system’s uninterrupted employment of teachers and staff members in a time of local and national economic decline. 

Local School Council Meetings at District III Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. Another key component of communication among home, school, and community is the Local School Council meeting held at every school in District III and throughout Gwinnett County Public Schools. Parents or business partners serve as Chairs of these meetings, with local school principals and teachers comprising the elected group at each school. At each of these meetings, reports of student discipline infractions, academic results, program initiatives, and the status of the Local School Plan for Improvement are discussed. These meetings provide vital information necessary for clear and effective communication between school, home, and community. 

Local School Plan for Improvement (LSPI). Each year the Local School Council, a group composed of elected local school leaders, provides input, review, and direction for the development of each school’s Local Plan for School Improvement. This vital communications tool identifies the key academic goals for the year, the outcome measures that will be used to determine if the goals have been reached, and the key leaders who will be responsible for achievement of the goals. The LSPI is the essential communication tool that the school system uses to evaluate the effectiveness of the Principal and it is closely linked to the school system’s Results Based Evaluation System, a weighted measure of academic outcomes achieved by the school during an academic year. The LSPI focuses on the Flexibility and Accountability measures in the IE2 five-year contact between Gwinnett County Public Schools and the State Board of Educaiton. 

Results Based Evaluation System (RBES). This communication piece is the key document used for home, school, and community to determine gains in student achievement and the results of steps taken to close the achievement gap among students of different ethnic groups. Each school produces an Accountability Report that is posted on the school’s web site and reached through the icon RBES. Parents, community members, business leaders, teachers, policy makers, and all others interested in the outcomes of public education at the local school level in Gwinnett County find the RBES document to be a goldmine of information related to student achievement as well as of the school’s achievement of goals in its LSPI. 

Gwinnett County Public Schools Web Site. A major communications component for District III as well as for Gwinnett County Public Schools is its web site accessed at www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us. This 21st Century method of communication is essential for parents, community members, business leaders, and all others to study the mission and vision of GCPS as well as to learn the significant details of the system’s operations. Local schools have a web presence within the GCPS web site that is essential for study and mastery by consumers of public education in Gwinnett County, the State of Georgia, and beyond. 

Public Meetings of the Board of Education. Once each month, the Board of Education and Superintendent hold a monthly business meeting as prescribed by law. At these meetings, communications are formal and one-way on the part of those addressing the Board. These are not meetings where citizens and Board members or the Superintendent exchange comments, engage in communication back and forth; or participate in a question and answer format. The purpose of the monthly Public Meetings of the Board is only for the Board and Superintendent to listen. This format differs from the Area Board Meetings where citizens address the Board and individual Board members respond at the end of the meeting. 

Thank you to the citizens in District III for your support of public education in the 2008-09 academic year. Through these key components of communication, we have worked together to increase student achievement and to further our mission and vision of creating a system of world-class schools. We look forward to continuing our pursuit of public education excellence at the 2009-10 school year begins in a few short months.

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