A Conversation On Education

Update: The date of the community conversation has been rescheduled to Saturday, April 9. It had previously been scheduled for Saturday, March 26.

Education spending accounts for more than three-quarters of our town tax dollars and we invest months finding the answers to education budget questions, but rarely do we sit down to talk about the very basic issue - what do we want out of education in our district? 

Earlier this year Killingworth received a $2,500 grant from the Graustein Foundation to host a four-hour long community forum on education, to discuss the "fundamental purposes of education." The foundation works to improve education for Connecticut's children and funds the Community Conversations about Education program, which has been engaging citizens from cities and towns throughout the state for over a decade.

The community conversation will be held March 26 at Haddam Killingworth Middle School.

"They describe the purposes of the conversation as helping citizens become more informed about their local schools, identifying areas of common ground among participants, about education issues, informing the community's efforts to educate students more effectively, demonstrate that positive broad-based conversations can take place, and set the stage for new and effective community actions on behalf of the schools and students," explains First Selectman Cathy Iino.

A friend of Iino's recommended the program, saying it was a "great experience."

"As she described, the best part was that the moderators are really good at fostering a conversation that is not a confrontation. It's not a debate, it's not a grandstand, it's not even really trying to come to consensus on an issue but to understand each other's positions or thoughts and then think through problems and get a common ground so that you can think about issues," she said.  

Iino felt such a program could benefit the district "because the school board has so much pressure on it to decide on how are we going to pay for this/how are we going to pay for this current issue that basic, basic issues about what we want out of education in our district never get asked ... let alone answered."

"I had heard from various people who are highly involved in the community some dissatisfaction with the schools so I thought this would be a good time to have this," she added.

The grant cycle opened again last summer for the program, and the grant came through to bring together 100 people from Haddam and Killingworth.

"The Graustein Foundation gives us about $2,500 to pay for expenses – food, invitations, and whatever we need. But the best thing they give us is trained moderators who know how to really foster a conversation without getting into a shouting match or a debate, so I'm really excited about it," Iino said.

Currently, there is a steering group of about 15 people, and an invitation list is in the works.

"We will pull in people from all ends of the community – not just education people but businesspeople, people from various congregations, senior people, people who've lived in town a long time and people new to the town."

"We were one of three places in the state who received grants for the first time this year but they encourage people to reapply. So, if it's a success, it may not be the only one," she noted.

There has been some confusion between the process of the education forum and that of the Strategic Plan. 

It's not the same process, but what comes out of the education forum may be useful to the Board of Education, she feels. "Also, with [superintendent] Mala leaving, one way to focus the conversation might be to say what will we be looking for in a new superintendent." 

Carolyn Anderson, who has been volunteering and helping with grant writing, "really put this together." Anderson's work with grants "has been a huge benefit for the town," the first selectman said. Alison Karam, president of the Killingworth Library Association Board of Directors and Haddam Selectman Peter Arsenault have been taking leadership roles in the process.

"We contacted all the civic groups, PTAs, and will be doing a lot more of that. There's a lot of enthusiasm for the idea. I think there are a lot of people interested in thinking about these issues about education. It's what we spend most of our money on but hard to get a moment to really think about what it's all about to even give us a common ground to evaluate," she said. 

If you are interested in attending, please email First Selectman Cathy Iino at ciino@townofkillingworth.com

For additional information on Community Conversations, please click here.