Rockwood Planning More Venues for Public Engagement

As part of a renewed focus on improving its community engagement efforts, the Rockwood School District is planning to roll out two new communication programs.  

Earlier this year, the board formed a Communications Outreach and Public Engagement Committee headed by board members Darby Jo Arakelian and Keith Kinder. They held their first meeting this summer and presented their ideas to the full board at a meeting July 18.

“We established a few dates for new forms and venues in which would like to re-engage the public,” Arakelian said.

The first of these has been dubbed “board listening time.” It would be held once a month prior to a regularly scheduled Rockwood School Board meeting and would allow citizens a chance to meet directly with board members in a more informal setting.

The first one will be held from 5:30-6 p.m. Sept. 5 at Crestview Middle School. District residents are invited to come in and share their thoughts, concerns and opinions without the constraints, such as time limits, present during a formal board meeting.

“It’s not a time for us to provide feedback, but to really listen,” Arakelian said.

Rockwood Chief Communications Officer Kim Cranston said any information from the discussions would be recorded and compiled so the board could take action on the issue, if necessary.

The program will initially be done on a trial basis. Cranston said she wasn’t sure if it would encourage more participation or not, but at the very least would offer a different venue for people to talk with the board.

The second initiative would be a larger forum set up around specific hot topics in the community. Arakelian said these “community conversations” would be held on a rotating basis in the libraries of the district’s high schools.

District personnel would make a brief presentation on a specific topic followed by small-group Q&A in which parents and other district residents could participate. The first one is set for 7-8:45 p.m., Sept. 26, at Rockwood Summit High School and will be centered around curriculum.

Cranston said it would allow the board to stimulate conversation around specific questions and help them see what people are thinking and what their priorities are.

“We really want this to be a broad cross-section of people,” she said.

Future dates for the board listening time are Oct. 17 and Dec. 5. The upcoming community conversations will be Nov. 7 at Eureka High School, Jan. 30 at Marquette High School and March 5 at Lafayette High School.