MONTGOMERY: Outgoing school board members look back

By Stephanie Vaccaro, Staff Writer
   MONTGOMERY — When David Pettit and Charlie Jacey ran for the Board of Education for Montgomery Township schools in 2005, they did so with the hope of helping to bring about a greater degree of transparency and more collaboration among the board itself and the wider community.
   Now that they’ve decided not to seek re-election, they think they have been fairly successful.
   ”One of the things that seemed to be a feeling throughout the community was that you couldn’t speak freely to the board,” said Mr. Pettit. “There was a putting off between the board and the public.”
   ”We wanted to bring a more open leadership style,” said Mr. Pettit.
   ”One of the first things we focused on, and it subsequently led to Dave becoming president and me becoming vice president, was the concept of creating committees so that the board would run more like other successful organizations around us,” said Mr. Jacey.
   While the board did have a couple of committees, we expanded that, said Mr. Pettit. In doing so, it allowed for more thoroughness of the evaluation of concepts and a greater degree of transparency.
   ”Also, it makes more effective use of the skills of the board members instead of just the president being the key person,” said Mr. Jacey. “We distributed the management of board activities among nine people.”
   ”One of the concepts of high performing teams is that you distribute leadership so that all the members of the team have the opportunity to provide leadership,” said Mr. Pettit. “One of the great things about our town is that there are a lot of very talented people. That they’re willing to bring their talent and skills to the board is just invaluable.”
   ”A byproduct was as we created committees, the district aligned key district people to serve as staff, and this helped and really facilitated the development of a number of good educators and helped them broadened their perspective,” said Mr. Jacey.
   ”To the issue of transparency, one of the things we had done is introduced a lot more opportunities for the community to get involved,” said Mr. Pettit. “So, we’ve had countless town meetings on issues, controversial and strategic, to get the community’s input. But one of the things that I loved the most was that we had a conversation with the community, which was how we launched our strategic planning process to get an idea of where the community really wants to take the district.”
   From that conversation, they put together a community group who helped to outline goals that have guided the strategic planning for the past four years, said Mr. Pettit. In that same vein of long-term vision, the finance committee has been developing three-year plans, where previously they had only done it on an annual basis.
   ”Doing that three-year long-range planning is giving us a more strategic view to enable us to weather the storms that are coming,” said Mr. Pettit.
   ”We’ve saved millions of dollars now because of an energy program we put in place a few years back, so that’s been paying back,” said Mr. Pettit. “Millions of dollars in savings in transportation, millions of dollars in savings in bond financing.”
   In December 2009, they went out and voters passed a referendum for $14 million, while the state contributed $10 million, which allowed the board to pursue construction projects at favorable rates, given the economic climate, said Mr. Jacey.
   ”After all the work is done,” said Mr. Jacey, “we will have been able to do more work than originally proposed and have money available to return to the voters in the form of reduced taxes.”
   Building strong, trusting relationships through the district and the community is another accomplishment Mr. Pettit listed under their tenure.
   ”Being able to have a strong relationship between our administration and our teachers and all of our staff has helped us be able to get through a lot of trying times in a way that kept the school community together and moving forward,” said Mr. Pettit. “I think we were able to get significant concessions from our associations this year because of that feeling of trust, because we are really all in this together. I think everybody truly feels that way.”
   ”Coming onto the board there wasn’t necessarily that level of trust, and now I think there is a good sense of community within the schools,” said Mr. Pettit.
   He attributes this to several factors. One is that Superintendent Earl Kim has opened up the budgeting process, allowing teachers to be a part of it, thus increasing transparency. Mr. Kim and Mr. Pettit also had regular meetings with the union leadership to talk about what’s going on the community and the schools and how they can work together to move things forward.
   ”I think involving folks, so you’re not springing surprises on them, but you’re actually valuing them as a team member with you, that’s what’s been helpful in really creating that trust,” said Mr. Pettit.
   They created advisory panels with regard to the bond refunding and invited members of the community who possessed an array of skills – accounting, finance, and the operation of large companies – to sit in during deliberations. So, they were able to move forward with support beyond that of the board, said Mr. Jacey.
   ”Formalized in both our strategic plan and in Earl’s philosophy of education is collaboration and having teachers in all the schools work in effective teams helps us address one of our principal goals over these six years and that is our educational system reaches all of the kids,” said Mr. Jacey.
   After receiving feedback from the community about the lack of attention given to kids in the “middle,” deliberate focus was placed on them so that everyone would benefit as they passed through the schools.
   It took the form of a change in the understanding of assessment. “In essence, the teachers themselves are being asked to assess their performance,” said Mr. Jacey. “That gives rise to looking at the environmental circumstance of learning.” They do this by meeting in collaborative teams.
   ”In the best of circumstances, it gives each child an individual learning plan,” said Mr. Jacey, “as opposed to being bombarded with grades from teachers who don’t talk to each other.”
   ”We have focused on trying to get the best and the brightest people in the district, not only teachers but from the superintendent down,” said Mr. Jacey. “That often resulted in paying a little bit more than we paid the predecessor in that job, but we think that striving for that excellence has paid remarkable dividends in the way of savings that we have achieved and the team that’s in place to run this district at this time. That’s why we both feel comfortable stepping aside.”
   ”Our high bond rating is directly attributable to Tom Venanzi’s financial leadership and Earl’s leadership,” said Mr. Pettit. “It pays back, over and over again.”
   On the decision not to seek re-election, Mr. Jacey said, “Six years is a considerable period of time. We actually came onto the board to bring fresh thought and observed people with long tenures. I wouldn’t be averse to seeing a term-limit.”
   ”We wanted to make sure that we brought in some visionary leadership that could really take the district to the next level,” said Mr. Pettit. “So, getting that leadership in place and giving him some time to really grow roots was important. So, now that that’s in place, I feel better about going.”
   ”In the end, everything we do should be creating a greater sense of community and better relationships so that we’re stronger going forward,” said Mr. Pettit. “At the end of the day, our sole responsibility is to make sure that we are preparing all 5,400 children to be successful in using whatever gifts it is that they have, to make sure that we’re setting all of our students up to be successful.”