Community leaders, parents, and school system employees will be asked to provide input into a five-year strategic plan for local schools being developed over the next five to six months.

John Osborn and Dr. Marcia Burke, who are on contract with the state Department of Education, explained to board members Monday night how the process will work. The state is funding the work, Superintendent Ted Watson said.

The system recently completed its reaccredidation process with AdvancedEd (formerly SACS). Osborn explained that the agency is putting increased emphasis on long rang planning, and the state department is interested in merging the process with its evaluation system.

Dr. Marcia Burke explained that information will be collected from a steering committee, from community forums and from anonymous surveys.

“We are asking folks to help plan their futures – both students’ futures, and your future as a system,” she said. “We’ll be looking at where we are, where we want to be, and how to get there.

“Your ideas, your information, will be the meat of it,” she said. “We are simply the technical facilitators. You could stop what you’re going and write your own strategic plan from scratch. On other hand, you’ve got to sail this ship.”

She predicted it will be an interesting time.

“People have to be very willing to tell you what their dreams are,” she said. “Let’s don’t put barriers on things. Let’s talk about what we want for students, what we want outcomes to be. If you don’t dream big, resources won’t be there.

The process is expected to begin in August, with the naming of a steering committee.

In other business, the board:

• Voted to enter a lease-purchase agreement with Regions bank for two new regular school buses and a special needs bus. Regions offered an interest rate of 2.99 percent.

• Named CCB Community Bank as its official depository for funds. The system is required to revisit and reevaluate this every three to five years.

• Accepted resignation of Marcey Farley as 8th grade English teacher.

• Transferred Candy Parker from sixth grade to seventh grade English teacher at AMS.

• Transferred Nancy Wilson from seventh grade English teacher to sixth grade English teacher

• Joy Sowards from music teacher at AES to eighth grade math teacher at AMS.

• Hired Candace Hudson as a bus driver

• Hired Tambry Henderson as an access lab paraprofessional at AHS.