Communicating with Key Constituencies

For the last decade and more, the Gwinnett County School Board has worked closely with community members to establish ways to communicate with the many constituencies that we serve in the largest school system in Georgia as follows:

Constituent Services and Communications.

Constituent services and communications provide a vital means of building support for public education.  Parents, teachers, principals, staff members, business and civic leaders—all have insights into how public education is faring in our community and on ways public education could be improved.  Our work begins at the local school level through communications with all stakeholders in Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Communications with Superintendent and Fellow Board Members.

Building effective communications between and among Board members and the Superintendent is an essential piece of successful school reform and governance.  Over the 15 years that I have served as a member of the Gwinnett County Board of Education, this method of governance has provided a pathway for strengthening the academic, fiscal, athletic, and physical plant operations in the 14th largest school system in the nation.

Networking with the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and Other Thought Leaders.

Another essential component of the Gwinnett County Public School system comes from the leadership and involvement of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and other thought leaders in our community.  Through “Partnership Gwinnett,” the Chamber has provided visioning to communicate best practices in economic development in the following areas: water, transportation, public-private partnerships, and education.  Study trips have included visits to Fairfax, Virginia; Plano, Texas; Raleigh-Durham; Denver, Chicago, and San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.

Communication with Faculty, Parents, Staff, and Other Stakeholders.

A key component of building support for public education lies with the parents and other family members of our 163,000 students as well as with our 24,000 employees who fuel the engine of Gwinnett County Public Schools.

School Councils in local schools provide an essential communications link, including parents, business partners, teachers, and the school principal. The Teacher Advisory Council (TAC) also provides a significant network for communications among the Board of Education and individual teacher representatives in each school.  PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association), Parent Centers, and other organizations also provide a vital network in each school with parents and other family members who collaborate in support of public education in Gwinnett County. 

Gwinnett County Commission, General Assembly Delegation, U.S. Congress, and Mayors and Other Municipal Associations.

Networking with elected municipal, city, county, State, and federal officials has provided an important source of leadership in building support for public education in Gwinnett County.

Formal and informal networking with members of these delegations has provided important input, additional points of view, added support, and expanded reach in developing community consensus and support for public education in Gwinnett County.  Included have been reapportionment initiatives, funding opportunities, education reform programs, and growth and expansion initiatives.

Georgia School Board Association, Reform Governance in Action, and Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.  

As District 3 Board member, I serve on the Board of the Georgia School Boards Association and as a member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Regional Education Committee.  From 2006 to 2010, our Board-Superintendent team participated in the Reform Governance in Action program funded by the Broad Foundation   We continue as a Board-Superintendent team to study on a quarterly and annual basis to learn best practices related to school reform and governance as well as representation of our school system in local, regional, and national networks.