District ponders what to do with results of reviews

Greg Lynch is out on the lecture circuit again, this time armed with a one-inch thick white binder with what he deems to be valuable information. The white binder contains the reports from two different outsider views of the school district which Lynch, the school district superintendent, is trying to take in and figure out.

Lynch spent three hours on Thursday afternoon talking to community groups and staff at Central Kitsap High School about the results of a management review and a review of district’s school improvement efforts.

“We want to get it out there,” Lynch said. “We want feedback (from the community). What we do, we are going to do together.”

Both reports offered insight into the district that Lynch said it would have taken him at least a year to find on his own.

He said at this point, the district isn’t sure what to do with the findings in the study and that after sufficient feedback is given, the district will go from there.

In a synopsis of the management review, it was noted that one of the weaknesses in the district is that each school has a school improvement plan but there is not one umbrella plan over the entire district.

The plans “appear to be developed with different approaches, depending on a givens school,” the synopsis states.

In addition, the review also found that the district lacks a “comprehensive long range or strategic plan,” which results in the district not having a clear vision.

The study also notes that in the last 15 years, the district has grown to become the 21st largest school district of 296 districts in the state. With that growth have come growing pains.

“The size of the school district and the increased complexity of the district’s agenda have placed some serious stress upon the district level administrative team,” the report states.

The report recommends that stress could be alleviated if there were more crisp job descriptions for the cabinet-level staff. It also recommends that job descriptions district wide be reviewed and updated.

The report states that the district has a smaller central staff in comparison to other districts its size and Lynch should have high visibility in the district. The report recommends the district “consider defining a job for a deputy, associate or assistant position” to allow the superintendent to stay visible in the community.

The management review was performed by Dr. Michael Boring, who was tapped by the Washington Association of School Administrators to get an inside look of several districts in the state. That study cost the district $17,597 out of a fund the school board has set aside for those purposes, said district spokesperson Laurie Cizon.

The Baker Evaluation and Research Group, based in Mill Creek, did the school improvement efforts study. This study cost the district $16,000 out of a school improvement effort fund, Cizon said.

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