Central’s Renovation Raises Questions About Planning Process and Communication

Last August, without debate or public comment, the Board of Education adopted the facilities plan prepared by its consultants last spring. With this green light, the administration accelerated its efforts to develop a plan to renovate Central High School. In a recent blog post on the Rapid City Journal’s Learning Curve, reporter Kayla Gahagan complained that the press had not been invited to the planning meetings that led to the development of the new design for Central.  Board member Doug Kinniburgh responded:

…Over the recent 6 months or so, the full board has met on at least two occasions at Central for a public advertised study sessions as well as the Facility Committee has been meeting once a month specifically on this topic. The staff and building administration meetings in recent months with the design team has been for the design teams purpose of gathering the necessary data to develop the design concept that was unveiled last week. These were merely interviews and not meetings. The next stage of this design process will incorporate more input from parents, students, staff, and administration as specific details are incorporated into the design. You, of course, will be welcome in participating in this part of the process as well.

Kinniburgh’s comments raise a number of issues for all of us, including board members, administrators, journalists and members of the public. Most important, has the public really had the opportunity to learn about and understand the recommendations in this report? 

Let’s start by looking at what the Rapid City Journal has done. When the study was first released in June, 2008 the paper provided some background prior to the unveiling at a meeting of the Board of Education. The day after the meeting, the paper highlighted key elements of the report  noting that the 10-year plan called for closing some elementary schools and one middle school, renovating other schools, changing boundaries and building new schools. The total ten-year budget was expected to be about $200 million. Read the rest of this entry »