By Russ Wise

Last week the Saint John School Board voted to spend up to $40,000 to develop a long-range plan for the school system, something I’ve been advocating for more than four years. No business of any size can hope to improve or expand in a haphazard manner, but government agencies seem to do it all the time.

It’s almost an article of faith that government is reactive rather than proactive. Stoplights rarely are installed until there’s a fatal accident. Schools are rarely built until sometime after an area has been developed and officials suddenly find that nearby schools are suddenly overcrowded. Saint John public schools may be about to break out of that mold.

Much of the money is to be used to pay a facilitator, a person who will coordinate the efforts of a volunteer task force that will be named to design the plan.

Superintendent of Schools Michael Coburn says he has been talking to some people at the University of New Orleans about taking the job, but I hope he doesn’t stop there.

Other universities have people with solid backgrounds in education or other fields, and there are probably a lot of non-academics out there who would be equally able to handle the job.

I’m not certain that the facilitator has to be an educator. Many businesses often use a task force approach to problem solving, and that’s a resource that mustn’t be overlooked.

The man, woman, or group of people chosen to do the job should be firmly instructed that they are being hired to coordinate the efforts of the task force, not leads it in a particular direction.

The task force itself should represent everyone with a stake in public education and the educational process itself. Large businesses and small, parents of regular-ed and special-ed students, and perhaps even a student or two themselves.

It should include educators but it shouldn’t be dominated by them. Elected officials should have a seat at the table but not necessarily at the head of the table. The heart of a master plan for the first decade of the new millennium should bring fresh ideas and new approaches to problems that have plagued the system for a long, long time. It could be that most of that must come from people outside the educational and political establishment.

RUSS WISE represents District Eight on the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board.