In the area of track and field, athletes, from year to year, strive to improve on their performance each day. In order to do this, many set up systematic ways to monitor their progress. For instance, a high jumper may clear a height of 6’2”, today, but has a goal of jumping 6’6” by the end of the year. There may be some intermediate goals along the way. However, it would be a mistake for this high jumper simply to make a goal of jumping higher than last year. This would mean that if he or she jumped a millimeter higher than the year before, that would be deemed a success.

Likewise, a distance runner who, today, runs a mile in 5:14 may have a goal of running 5:09 by mid-year, and ultimately, 5:00 by the end of the season. To simply have a goal to run faster than last year, again would be a mistake, because without defined goals, running a half second faster than the year before would also appear to be a success.

This is why it is so baffling to read that the USD 489 Board of Education spent all this time at a retreat to come back with their number one goal listed as “improving public relations.” Although the thought of improving public relations is a good thing, how will this progress be measured? At the end of the school year, how will they know if they’ve been successful or not without any concrete way of measuring their progress.

Optimizing class sizes is another stated goal. If the goal was to reduce class sizes, this is something that can be monitored and reviewed throughout the year. So if class sizes are 30 per classroom today, and by December they are 28, and by the end of the year down to 26, this could be a way of measuring success.

But to have these nebulous goals with really no way to look at and review any progress or success makes a person wonder how anyone will know if anything has been accomplished at year’s end. Lance Bickle also mentioned that not all of these goals needed an action plan or timeline. Why not? It makes one wonder why any goals should be established at all if there’s not going to be a measurable way to monitor if a goal has been reached or not, and over what time period is being considered.

Teachers provide grades to students and parents each semester so that they can have a measurable way of seeing how things are going. Why isn’t the school board doing the same?

Tim Schumacher, Hays