List of core values headed to school stakeholders
WS/FCS Director of Communications Alexandria Hoskins discusses the impor-tance of core values during a meeting on Tuesday, May 10. The Board of Education plans to include input from teachers, students and parents when making a list of values for the district.
Photo by Tevin Stinson
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
Equity. Happiness. Optimistic. Pride. Encourage. Care. Hope.
Those are just a few of the words that were mentioned last week when the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education sat down to discuss what the “core values” will be for the district moving forward.
During an open meeting on Tuesday, May 10, board members were split into groups and asked to make a list of words they think should be associated with the overall mission of the district. Director of Communications Alexandra Hoskins encouraged board members to select words that everyone could relate to.
As an example, Hoskins told the board members in attendance to consider a bus driver who is fully passionate and committed to driving their bus.
“They should be able to look at a list of our values and be able to draw a direct line between them and the success of the students.”
“The core values offer us something that all our stakeholders know, the things that we hold dear as a district,” she said. “We want the core values to permeate all aspects of what we do.”
For more than an hour, board members discussed what terms they thought should represent the districts. What began as a list of more than 50 words was down to five by the end of the meeting.
After a few rounds of voting, the board decided on passionate, accountability, student centered, and inclusive. Advocate for the term “inclusive,” board member David Singletary said, “Inclusive defines a different mindset.
“Our core values should represent not just an effort but action,” he continued. “We have to bring everybody to the table.”
The five words selected by the Board of Education will be submitted to parents, teachers and students during a summit at Walkertown High School on June 15. According to Hoskins, each school in the district will send two representatives to participate. Parents are expected to participate as well.
During the summit, stakeholders will make their own list of terms. The list of terms, along with the Board of Education’s five words, will be used to determine the core values for the 2016/2017 school year.
“In order to shape culture, we must build on the work done previously by goals and priorities.” she said.
“This process of selecting our core values gives us an opportunity to include all stakeholders.”
